India a short history

An insightful trip through the many histories of India

Author Andrew Robinson Publisher Thames & Hudson Price £8.99 Released Out now

India: A Short History sets out to achieve what might seem to be an almost impossible feat, to write a history of India that is comprehensive, accessible and appealing. It succeeds admirably. The history of India is vast and complex. From Chinese pilgrims seeking the birthplace of Buddha its modern flourishing economy via Alexander the Great, the Mughal empire and British colonisation, it is a country that has lived many lives. In his latest work Andrew Robinson, a scholar of the history of India, aims to retell all of these histories in order to better understand India, as well as the future it faces.

It’s a tall order. With approximately 4,000 years of stories to tell, it might seem an almost impossible feat to construct a tight, focused narrative in the space

of just 200 or so pages, but Robinson’s book does so with aplomb. Though obviously not able to cover every aspect of India’s fascinating past in great detail, India: A Short History instead distils the history of the nation into a narrative that cracks along at a fair speed yet is still able to recreate not only the lost scenes of eras past, but the people who lived in them.

India: A Short History is accessible, insightful and packed with wit and understanding.

Though this isn’t a book for scholars of

India, for anyone looking to learn more about India and better understand not only its past but its present too, this is the perfect place to start.