mikerickson reviewed Shortest History of India by John Zubrzycki
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3 stars
Indian history has long been a blindspot for me and previous attempts to learn about it have basically said, "nothing important happened before the British arrived and nothing worth mentioning occurred after Partition." That's obviously not the case, and this high-level summary definitely shed light on the bigger picture that usually gets overlooked by more eurocentric recaps.
Besides the delve into the deep past, I particularly appreciated how recent this book was and how it discussed topics that I remember as news stories happening in just the past few years (the 2016 banknote demonetisation, the 2019 citizenship fast-track for non-muslim immigrants, the 2020 skirmishes with China over the Line of Actual Control, etc.). It even looked forward to the (now completed) 2024 Indian general election.
Yes, parts of this book read like a constant stream of names I've never heard of before all stabbing each other in the backs over …
Indian history has long been a blindspot for me and previous attempts to learn about it have basically said, "nothing important happened before the British arrived and nothing worth mentioning occurred after Partition." That's obviously not the case, and this high-level summary definitely shed light on the bigger picture that usually gets overlooked by more eurocentric recaps.
Besides the delve into the deep past, I particularly appreciated how recent this book was and how it discussed topics that I remember as news stories happening in just the past few years (the 2016 banknote demonetisation, the 2019 citizenship fast-track for non-muslim immigrants, the 2020 skirmishes with China over the Line of Actual Control, etc.). It even looked forward to the (now completed) 2024 Indian general election.
Yes, parts of this book read like a constant stream of names I've never heard of before all stabbing each other in the backs over centuries of court intrigue, but at least it's something I'd never been exposed to before. For a country that's projected to have more English speakers than the USA by the mid 2030's, this is a country that cannot be ignored, and learning about how it got back to the global stage is going to become important in the future.