Showing titles in South Asia

In this book, we explore British Colonialism in India, a history of oppression and exploitation, whilst celebrating the contributions that the diaspora and its descendants have made to British society. We explore the origins of the British East India Company, navigating through the dark history of a struggle for independence. On the way we meet Mahatma Gandhi, and recognize his significance in the fight for independence, before we discuss the partition of India and creation of Pakistan. We conclude with Indian emigration to the UK, and the history of the modern-day British Indian.

Who are we Indians? Where did we come from? To tell us the story of our ancestry, journalist Tony Joseph goes 65,000 years into the past–when a band of Homo sapiens first made their way from Africa into the Indian subcontinent. These were the First Indians. Citing recent DNA evidence, he traces the subsequent large migrations of modern humans into India–of a people related to early farmers of Iran who mixed with the First Indians at the latest between 5400 BCE and 3700 BCE and of the ‘Arya’ between 2000 BCE and 1500 BCE, among others.

Precariously positioned between China and India, Burma's population has suffered dictatorship, natural disaster, and the dark legacies of colonial rule. But when decades of military dictatorship finally ended and internationally beloved Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi emerged from long years of house arrest, hopes soared. As historian, former diplomat, and presidential advisor, Thant Myint-U saw the cracks forming. In this insider's diagnosis of a country at a breaking point, he dissects all of the elements that came together to challenge the incipient democracy.

Can one of the most divided nations on the planet become its next superpower? James Crabtree reveals the titans of politics and industry shaping India in a period of breakneck change from controversial prime minister Narendra Modi, victor in the largest election in history, to the leading lights of the country's burgeoning billionaire class. While King of the Good Times Vijay Mallya languishes in exile in Britain, other major Bollygarchs prosper at home despite a series of scandals.

Join us on a discovery from the ancient origins to the present days of the most fascinating civilizations in Asia. Included in this amazing three-book collection are The History of China, History of India, and Japanese History. These civilizations all feature a history rich in culture, legends, characters, and mythology and remain some of the most interesting in the world. If you want to find out more about the history of China, Japan, and India, then start listening to this special three-books-in-one bundle now!

Designed for ardent history enthusiasts, India's Struggle for Independence is one of the most exhaustive and precise accounts of the struggle of Indian Independence ever written in the literary world. Written and edited by five expert authors, it presents a detailed outlook on one of the most important periods in Indian history.

Saadat Hasan Manto (1912-1955) was an established Urdu short story writer and a rising screenwriter in Bombay at the time of India's partition in 1947, and he is perhaps best known for the short stories he wrote following his migration to Lahore in newly formed Pakistan. Ayesha Jalal draws on Manto's stories, sketches, and essays, as well as a trove of his private letters, to present an intimate history of partition and its devastating toll.

A brilliantly original history of the First World War, retracing the footsteps of the Indian army's 1.5 million men who, in 1914-18, served about the globe from Europe to Africa, Asia and the Indian Ocean. After years of neglect, The Indian Empire at War raises the curtain on the Indian soldiers' personal experiences fighting for the Allies against the Central Powers and returning home to play their part in the Indian Independence movement.

The Amritsar Massacre of 1919 was a seminal moment in the history of the British Empire, yet it remains poorly understood. In this dramatic account, Kim A. Wagner details the perspectives of ordinary people and argues that General Dyer's order to open fire at Jallianwalla Bagh was an act of fear. Situating the massacre within the "deep" context of British colonial mentality and the local dynamics of Indian nationalism, Wagner provides a genuinely nuanced approach to the bloody history of the British Empire.

This is the story of how Darjeeling tea began, was key to the largest tea industry on the globe under imperial British rule, and came to produce the highest-quality tea leaves anywhere in the world. It is a story rich in history, intrigue, and empire, full of adventurers and unlikely successes in culture, mythology and religions, ecology and terroir, all set with a backdrop of the looming Himalayas and drenching monsoons.

Despite its ban more than 70 years ago, caste is thriving. Every 15 minutes, a crime is perpetrated against a Dalit person. The average age of death for Dalit women is just 39. And the wreckages of caste are replicated here in the U.S., too—erupting online with rape and death threats, showing up at work, and forcing countless Dalits to live in fear of being outed. Dalit American activist Thenmozhi Soundararajan puts forth a call to awaken and act, not just for listeners in South Asia, but all around the world.

On 26th January 1950 India became a republic, shedding its last links with its colonial past. With fundamental rights and civil liberties guaranteed by the state, the new constitution was universally acclaimed as the ‘world’s greatest experiment in liberal government’. This idealistic birth of a new republic meant a clean break with a repressive past. And yet, barely twelve months later, the very makers of the constitution were denouncing their own creation. Passed in June 1951, the First Amendment to the Constitution was a pivotal moment in Indian constitutional history.

Historian Sunil Khilnani, Professor of History and Politics at Ashoka University, takes listeners on an immersive, whirlwind journey from ancient India to the 21st century through the life stories of 50 remarkable individuals, exploring their surprising legacies and illuminating both the wonders and the urgent conflicts of India today.

The audio edition of On the Grand Trunk Road is finally available, revised and updated with new material. Focusing on Coll's journeys in conflict-ridden India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Afghanistan as a bureau chief for The Washington Post, On the Grand Trunk Road reveals a little-seen area of the world where violence, corruption, and greed have had devastating effects on South Asians from all walks of life.

In 1975, at the height of Indira Gandhi’s “Emergency”, V. S. Naipaul returned to India, the country his ancestors had left 100 years earlier. Out of that journey he produced this concise masterpiece: a vibrant, defiantly unsentimental portrait of a society traumatized by centuries of foreign conquest and immured in a mythic vision of its past.

In this audiobook, the astonishing chronicle of the Sikh Empire unfolds, revealing a story of valor, resilience, and the fierce clash of empires. This audiobook is a portal to a bygone era, where the Sikh Army, hailed as the most formidable Indian force the British ever encountered, carved a 200,000-square-mile empire in the heart of the Punjab.

Gerald of Wales, also called Giraldus Cambrensis or Gerald De Barri ( c. 1146-c. 1223), was the archdeacon of Brecknock and a historian whose accounts of late 12th century Britain and France contain vivid anecdotes about the Christian church, the universities of Paris and Oxford, and about notable clerics. His work, Topographia Hiberniae, is an arresting account of his travels in Ireland, with vivid descriptions of the island’s fauna and flora and its natural beauty.

The Indus rises in Tibet, flows west across India, and south through Pakistan. For millennia it has been worshipped as a god; for centuries used as a tool of imperial expansion. Empires of the Indus follows the river upstream and back in time, taking the listener on a voyage through two thousand miles of geography and more than five thousand years of history redolent with contemporary importance.

A big part of Hindu and Indian mythology is the lengthy Mahabharata, with stories about princes, princesses, monsters, and many mysterious creatures. Krishna is one of the prominent figures in many ancient mythology writings from this region, and his victories over evil have been applauded and believed by many.

Indian mythology stretches beyond the tales of creation. This audiobook will acquaint you with the gods and goddesses who shaped the world, as well as epic tales of hardship, struggle, and strife. Mythology attempts to explain the origins of the universe and delves deep into understanding the creation of time, matter, and life itself. Were humans born out of the light that spilled from Lord Brahma? Was the universe created out of a golden egg? Can all of the human race trace its lineage back to one man?