A History of India [Paperback]

My interest in history goes back to my college days, and I now have the time to read as much as history I can take. I have usually tended to concentrate on the Ancient Near East and Europe and those dark eras (such as Western Europe in 5th - 6th centuries AD, Ancient Near East in Late Bronze Age times, and the early civilisations prior to that) where documentary evidence is either sparse, contradictory, confusing, or downright incorrect. But I have never been totally satisfied with the explanations of how the early civilisations developed, and the impact of India on these early civilisations was an unkown to me

One of the problems I have in understanding these complex civilisations is how many of the theories are based on so few facts. I have read many books where the author has built hypothesis upon hypothesis to come up with conclusions which I, along with many others, find very hard to accept. These books are often very selective in their use of the facts and tend ro focus only on those which support their theories. This calls into question their objectivity, and so I usually suspend my judgement on their findings until I have searched out more hard data. Even so, they have usually served a useful function in forcing me to widen my search "for the truth"

I accept the fact that there are historians and that there are scholars and that they have a different focus. For me a successful and respected historian (like John Keay) is best if he concentrates on a survey of what is known, what the various competing theories are, and how the available data has been interpreted to support these theories. For scholars it is different, because they are trying to discover and interpret more facts, and for that they must have some view or theory as to what happened. This is why I, as an amateur, must be ever watchful for the use of selective arguments, and the danger of theories developed on the basis of hypotheses built on other hypotheses. For me, the completeness and the correct interpretation of available data is very important.

Like most westerners, my knowledge of India is very limited. Oh yes, I had learned about the Raj from my school days, and realise how British Empire centric it was. In recent years, as I read more about the Ancient Near East, the more I kept on picking up peripheral references to contacts with early India. So a book such as "Search for the Cradle of Civilisation" by Feuerstein, Kak, Frawley would naturally catch my eye, and an interesting and well written book it is too. However, it left me with the problem that I really didn't know enough about the history of India to determine how selective the authors were being in the development of their position that the survivors of the Harrapan (Sarasvati) civilisation were the authors of the Vedas and the founders of the later great civilisations of the Ganges. I feel that they have put forward a convincing case, but my knowledge of that era is so limited that I need to know a lot more in order for me to accept their position as the only right one

So in doing a survey of general books on the history of India, and after reading the various editorials and customer reviews, John Keay's book stood out for me as the most up-to-date one to start with, being one which would help me understand the history of India a little better, knowing full well, of course, that there were many others which could probably have served that purpose just as well..

Did it meet my expectations? Yes it did, although because of my focus, I would have liked to have seen more on ancient history, and less on the modern era. But you take what you've got, and while it was a hard slog at times, I found it to be absorbing, interesting, and helpful. The charts and the maps were excellent and really helped me understand the confusing facts about the various dynasties of the last 2300 years, and in particular, the Moslem conquest, the British Raj, and the period of post independence. The extensive biography assuaged my disappointment in the coverage of the period prior to 320BCE, and I now feel positioned and well motivated to investigate many other promising books which focus on that particular era. I have at least 8 candidates for my next studies which include Shereen Ratnagar, Richard Meadow, Gyan Gupta, Gregory Possehl, Burton Stein, Jane McIntosh and Jonathan Mark Kenoyer, Romila Thapar - and that will keep me busy for a while!

Keay notes in the introduction that he has deliberately avoided focusing more on recent history than on ancient: "a history which reserves half its narrative for the 19th and 20th centuries may seem more relevant, but it can scarcely do justice to India's extraordinary antiquity." Naturally the availability of more historical sources does increase the attention paid to recent events, but still the Raj does not appear till nearly three quarters of the way through, and the 20th century and the real start of the struggle for independence is close to the end of the book. The result is a long, thoughtful and detailed telling of many of the dynasties and civilization that flourished in India -- though, as Keay also says in the introduction, only the highlights are mentioned, since "with perhaps 20 to 40 dynasties co-existing within the subcontinent at any one time, it would be [. . .] sado-masochism [to include them all]". So even at this extra level of detail there has been substantial editing. And there could have been more; the book's only fault is that Keay mentions just too many of the endless dynastic dramas. The essence of a one-volume history is selective editing, and the book could have been shorter and a little less dry in places.

However, the picture of India that emerges is deep, complex and fascinating, from the earliest Harappan archaeological relics through to the Gandhis. The Raj is of course particularly interesting: although technologically and industrially the British clearly surpassed them greatly at the time of the Raj, some of the diplomatic exchanges that Keay retails show the Indians as being more sophisticated, more civilized, and in many ways just smarter than the British. It was inevitable that the yoke would be thrown off; the only question was what India would be able to do with its independence.

Keay's prose is also a great pleasure; he has a wonderfully dry sense of humour, and he conveys exciting events with panache but also with precision and clarity.

Recommended.