Anonymous wrote:Indian here. Second the recommendation for William Dalrymple. I just finished his book "The Anarchy" and it was a great read - tells the story of the East India Company, the world's first (or one of the first) evil corporation. White Moghuls is another great one.

I'd also recommend Edward Luce's book "In Spite of the Gods". He was the India bureau chief for the FT for 5 years and makes some astute observations about modern India. Somewhat unnecesary preachy conclusion, but overall a good read and I think he's an excellent journalist too.

Maximum City is a great book about Mumbai, India's biggest city.

Of course no list of Indian writers can leave out Salman Rushdie - Midnight's Children is quite monumental.
Other fiction, you can't go wrong with Vikram Seth's "The Suitable Boy" though it's long. I also love Amitav Ghosh's work and highly recommend "Sea of Poppies" which isn't restricted to India, but tells the story of the opium trade around the world.
RK Narayan is another one, tells everyday stories set in a fictional town in South India, a la William Faulkner. Bapsi Sidhwa's Cracking India tells a tough story, that of Partition.
There are lots of good writers in English from India. Many more than I can type out into a single post!

Anonymous wrote:I’ve read Raj — but can’t assess it beyond it’s qualities as a novel.


https://www.amazon.com/Raj-Novel-Gita-Mehta/dp/1982144793/ref=sr_1_15?crid=21RDW4PN79QK7&keywords=Raj&qid=1668111329&s=books&sprefix=raj%2Cstripbooks%2C155&sr=1-15

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:another vote for William Dalrymple .. but take him with a grain of salt.. your younger generation of Indians find him rather insufferable but someone of my parents/grandparents generation were born and lived in the Raj and so they are used to interacting with that sort of Englishman. he's also probably more friendly to the Mughals and modern indian s think that Muslims are the first brutal colonizing power and are a foreign ethnic group .. William Dalrymple doesnt accept that BJP slant so its something to be aware of when interacting with the younger indian families at your kids school. I wonder if Thomas Friedman has written anything about modern India that might helpful. if not a book, essays. the economist has good coverage of indian matters as well. and its pretty well regarded.

This post highlights that India is not one monolithic place or culture, but a collection of 28 states and 8 union territories. The experience of British (and other) colonialism was not uniform either throughout the country or over time.

Anonymous wrote:another vote for William Dalrymple .. but take him with a grain of salt.. your younger generation of Indians find him rather insufferable but someone of my parents/grandparents generation were born and lived in the Raj and so they are used to interacting with that sort of Englishman. he's also probably more friendly to the Mughals and modern indian s think that Muslims are the first brutal colonizing power and are a foreign ethnic group .. William Dalrymple doesnt accept that BJP slant so its something to be aware of when interacting with the younger indian families at your kids school. I wonder if Thomas Friedman has written anything about modern India that might helpful. if not a book, essays. the economist has good coverage of indian matters as well. and its pretty well regarded.