Table of Contents

Preface -- Land and the Human Fabric -- India in Prehistoric Times -- The Vedic Age, ca. 1200 BCE–600 BCE -- Birth of Two Religions -- State and Politics in Ancient India -- The Era of Consolidation -- Early Islam -- Peninsular Kingdoms -- The Great Mughals -- The Rise of the Marathas and the Sikhs -- The European Powers in India -- Reaction to British Rule -- The Indian Nationalist Movement, 1850–1919 -- The Road to Freedom Through Partition -- The March of Indian Democracy, Part I -- The March of Indian Democracy, Part II -- The Princely States and the Kashmir Question -- Toward Economic Freedom -- India’s Foreign Policy

About the Author

D. R. SarDesai is former Chairperson of South and Southeast Asian Studies and the first holder of the Doshi Chair in Indian History at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is the author of Southeast Asia: Past and Present 5th Edition (Westview Press, 2003). He is also the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Yadunandan centre for India Studies for his caring and distinguished work in South and Southeast Asian studies.

Reviews

"This comprehensive history of India does it all, covering geography, religion, politics, economics, times of Mughal rule and British colonialism, as well a chronicle of India since independence up to the present. SarDesai has created an indispensable resource for understanding the complexity of India, past, present, and future." -Christopher Key Chapple, Doshi Professor of Indic and Comparative Theology, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles "SarDesai offers a comprehensive history of India based on a lifetime of intimate and deep study ... An authoritative guide backed by SarDesai's deep and exhaustive knowledge of the sources ... the volume's great strength is its comprehensiveness, its readability, and ... it goes the extra step of explaining concepts and terms that make it a very valuable guide to those coming to this rich subject for the first time ... This book is the most sophisticated and erudite history of India penned by an Indian scholar." -Roger D. Long, Professor of History, Eastern Michigan University