The history of what is now India stretches back thousands of years, further than that of nearly any other region on earth. Yet, observes historian John Keay, most historical work on India concentrates on the period after the arrival of Europeans, with predictable biases, distortions, and misapprehensions. One, for example, is the tendency to locate the source of social conflict in India's many religions--to which Keay retorts, "Historically, it was Europe, not India, which consistently made religion grounds for war."

Taking the longest possible view, Keay surveys what is both provable and invented in the historical record. His narrative begins in 3000 B.C., with the complex, and little-understood, Harappan period, a time of state formation and the development of agriculture and trade networks. This period coincides with the arrival of Indo-European invaders, the so-called Aryans, whose name, of course, has been put to bad use at many points since. Keay traces the growth of subsequent states and kingdoms throughout antiquity and the medieval period, suggesting that the lack of unified government made the job of the European conquerors somewhat easier--but by no means inevitable. He continues to the modern day, his narrative ending with Indian-Pakistani conflicts in 1998.

Fluently told and well documented, Keay's narrative history is of much value to students and general readers with an interest in India's past and present. --Gregory McNamee


From Publishers Weekly
Sweeping from the ancient brick cities of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, built in the Indus Valley around 2000 B.C., to modern India's urban middle class armed with computers and cell phones, this erudite, panoramic history captures the flow of Indian civilization. No apologist for Britannia's rule, British historian Keay (Into India, etc.) gives the lie to comforting fantasies of the British Raj as the benevolently run "Jewel in the Crown." For most Indians, "Pax Britannica meant mainly 'Tax Britannica,'" he writes. Nor was British-ruled India peaceful, he adds, because India became a launch pad for British wars against Indonesia, Nepal and Burma, for the invasion of Afghanistan and the quashing of native revolts--often with the coerced participation of Indian troops. Finally, the Raj was "Axe Britannica," beginning the extensive deforestation of the subcontinent and the systematic suppression of its rural economy. Keay challenges much conventional scholarship in a dispassionate chronicle based largely on a fresh look at primary sources. For instance, the Mauryan emperor Ashoka, enthroned in 268 B.C., is revered because he preached tolerance and renounced armed violence, yet Keay notes that, contrary to popular opinion, Ashoka never specifically abjured warfare nor did he disband his army. Keay concludes this illustrated history by astutely surveying India's erratic progress in the half-century since independence, marked by communal violence, resurgence of regional interests and the rise of Hindu nationalism. This careful study serves up a banquet for connoisseurs and serious students of India. (Mar.) Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
India's sprawling history in one volume, with 60 maps, tables, and charts to boot. From a noted historian of Southeast Asia, this is touted as the first single-volume study in over 20 years. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
India's history is ancient and abundant. The profligacy of monuments so testifies, as does a once-lost civilization, the Harappan in the Indus valley, not to mention the annals commissioned by various conquerors, leading up to the better documented days of the British Raj and its successor states of Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh. If one has time to read but one overview of the cultures and chronology of the subcontinent, Keay's work has a strong claim to be that overview. His history exhibits the complete panoply of cultures that have arisen on, or arrived at, the plain of the Ganges River. The wonder is that in such limited length Keay concisely conveys the bedrock features of Indian civilization, such as those of Hinduism reaching back to Vedic literature and going forward in time to those of Islam. Within this mix of cultures, Keay avers, Indian historiography is afflicted with the selective interpretations of nationalist writers: he corrects the defect by example in this evenhanded, informed, and enthusiastic illumination of the vastness of Indian history. Gilbert Taylor


From Kirkus Reviews
A superb one-volume history of a land that defies reduction into simple narrative. Many overviews of Indian history offer a few cursory opening chapters that take the reader from Mohenjo-daro to the arrival of the Europeans, when, in an all too common view, the historical materials become reliable. Keay (Empires End, 1997, etc.) reverses this formula, devoting most of his space to the vast span of Indian history before the European arrival. There is no shortage of good documentation for these thousands of years, Keay suggests, but there has been a shortage of scholars who know how to use it. Opening with a clear discussion of what is known of the ancient Harappan peoples, Keay proceeds to offer a careful account of the much-misunderstood and politically misused Aryans, Indo-European clans that came to dominate the adivasi, or aboriginal, people sometime around 500 b.c., though whether by casual migration or deliberate invasion remains unclear. Keay explores the subsequent divisions in Indian societyone that embraces hundreds of religious and ethnic groupsthat made it possible for the Europeans to gain a foothold on the subcontinent and eventually to assume political control. He has small patience with European apologists who insist that India fell into Europes lap almost by accident, like an overripe fruit, insisting instead that Indian corruption was nothing compared to the power of European arms and the overarching desire for empire. And he condemns Englands sometimes lackadaisical, sometimes oppressive administration while sympathizing with the obvious logistical difficulties of ruling so distant a fiefdom. His chronicle closes in 1998 with the Indian governments first nuclear-weapons test, which gave the world such a scare. Without peer among general studies, a history that is intelligent, incisive, and eminently readable. (60 maps, tables, and charts; 32 pages b&w photos) (First printing of 25,000) -- Copyright ©2000, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Book Description
John Keay's India: A History is a probing and provocative chronicle of five thousand years of South Asian history, from the first Harrapan settlements on the banks of the Indus River to the recent nuclear-arms race. In a tour de force of narrative history, Keay blends together insights from a variety of scholarly fields and weaves them together to chart the evolution of the rich tapestry of cultures, religions, and peoples that makes up the modern nations of Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh. Authoritative and eminently readable, India: A History is a compelling epic portrait of one of the world's oldest and most richly diverse civilizations.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

John Keay's India: A History is a probing and provocative chronicle of five thousand years of South Asian history, from the first Harrapan settlements on the banks of the Indus River to the recent nuclear-arms race. In a tour de force of narrative history, Keay blends together insights from a variety of scholarly fields and weaves them together to chart the evolution of the rich tapestry of cultures, religions, and peoples that makes up the modern nations of Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh. Authoritative and eminently readable, India: A History is a compelling epic portrait of one of the world's oldest and most richly diverse civilizations.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Sweeping from the ancient brick cities of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, built in the Indus Valley around 2000 B.C., to modern India's urban middle class armed with computers and cell phones, this erudite, panoramic history captures the flow of Indian civilization. No apologist for Britannia's rule, British historian Keay (Into India, etc.) gives the lie to comforting fantasies of the British Raj as the benevolently run "Jewel in the Crown." For most Indians, "Pax Britannica meant mainly `Tax Britannica,'" he writes. Nor was British-ruled India peaceful, he adds, because India became a launch pad for British wars against Indonesia, Nepal and Burma, for the invasion of Afghanistan and the quashing of native revolts--often with the coerced participation of Indian troops. Finally, the Raj was "Axe Britannica," beginning the extensive deforestation of the subcontinent and the systematic suppression of its rural economy. Keay challenges much conventional scholarship in a dispassionate chronicle based largely on a fresh look at primary sources. For instance, the Mauryan emperor Ashoka, enthroned in 268 B.C., is revered because he preached tolerance and renounced armed violence, yet Keay notes that, contrary to popular opinion, Ashoka never specifically abjured warfare nor did he disband his army. Keay concludes this illustrated history by astutely surveying India's erratic progress in the half-century since independence, marked by communal violence, resurgence of regional interests and the rise of Hindu nationalism. This careful study serves up a banquet for connoisseurs and serious students of India. (Mar.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

India's sprawling history in one volume, with 60 maps, tables, and charts to boot. From a noted historian of Southeast Asia, this is touted as the first single-volume study in over 20 years. Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

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