From the tantalising traces of ancient Harappan civilisation to the emerging superpower of today,here is India's story in all its contradictions,drama and splendour.
In The Shortest History of India,John Zubrzycki distils five millennia of gods and kings,conquerors and colonisers into an epic tale teeming with personalities both legendary and largely unknown outside India. Gautama Buddha,Alexander the Great and Mahatma Gandhi share the stage with Candragupta ('India's Julius Caesar'),Nizam Saqqa,the water-carrier who became king for a day,and Raziyya,the first Muslim woman to rule in the subcontinent.
The later chapters reveal a modern India riven by contrasts: the brutal reality of partition and the fantasies of Bollywood,booming IT businesses and expanding slums. In conclusion,Zubrzycki asks whether internal challenges - from religious tensions to an increasingly undemocratic regime - might still thwart India's rise to wealth and power.
Publisher: Old Street PublishingISBN: 9781913083342Dimensions: 230 x 145 x 22 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
'A masterpiece of compression... manages to convey 5,000 years of exciting history with flair and authority.'- John Keay
'The past in India has never been a foreign country. Reflecting a bewildering,often maddening,land which does not fit a neat western straight-jacket,history has always cast a long shadow on the present... never more so than now. To convey all this complexity in a brief book seems impossible. But John Zubrzycki has pulled off this remarkable feat with an excellent,well-researched narrative which whets the appetite for more.'- Mihir Bose
'Delightful... brings to life ancient civilisations and famed dynasties,taking readers on a roller-coaster ride spanning five millennia... highly recommended to anyone trying to understand India's colossal and chaotic history'- Hindustan Times
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