Suggested Reading for Your Trip to India
The literature of and on India is, of course, immense. It is as fascinating and varied as the country itself. Although we have provided you with a longer list of readings below-and we encourage you to add to it by emailing us your recommendations and comments-we have selected a few books that we think will be most helpful in introducing you to India. These books are highlighted throughout the reading list. We are fortunate to have with us on the trip several important authors, and we encourage you to read some of their work. We have collected a list of their publications in a separate section below.

There are a number of standard histories, such as John Keay's India: A History, but Nehru's Discovery of India, written while he was in prison and struggling to fully understand his country's past so that it could reclaim its future, is a delightfully thorough but deeply personal account by a man who made India his life. We recommend it highly to you. Shashi Tharoor's biography of this monumental figure, Nehru: the Invention of India, is also a delight. Shashi--F'76,77,79, the Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Informaiton of the United Nations and author of over eight books on India--will accompany us throughout our stay in India.

A comprehensive view of the competing schools of Indian history is given in an April 7, 2005, review by William Dalrymple in the New York Review of Books, entitled "India: The War Over History." In this review, he looks at the ongoing attempts by these schools to interpret Indian history and prehistory according to their own terms and at efforts by politicians of the Hindu far right to rewrite the history textbooks used in Indian schools. This review will give you a good sense of how historical writing and current political debates in India are intertwined.

On the future of India and its emergence as a global economic and political power, we recommend Thomas Friedman, The World is Flat, which tops the current bestsellers lists, and a critical review of it ("The World is Round") by John Gray in the August 11, 2005, New York Review of Books. Another must read is by Jairam Ramesh, a regional member of our international board, who is a member of the Indian Parliament and a leading intellectual in India, entitled Making Sense of Chindia, in which he argues for the reestablishment of a close relationship between China and India. He has also written Kautilya Today: Jairam Ramesh on a Globalizing India (2002).

Indian film-Bollywood-has achieved a global presence. We are fortunate that Amisha Patel, J'97, will be joining us both as a regional board member and as a speaker. Shashi Tharoor has written a book about Bollywood (Show Business) that has been turned into a movie. We would recommend that you read his book and also see Amisha Patel's most recent movie, "The Rising," a historical film about the 1857 Indian Sepoy Rebellion and its leader, Mangal Pandey. You might also want to rent a classic Indian film "Pathar Panchali" by the brilliant and inventive filmmaker Satajit Ray.

It is difficult to make recommendations about Indian literature both past and present, as it is so rich and varied, and we want you to find what you most enjoy. We recommend that to start off you read Rohinton Mistry's Such a Long Journey (for which you can also rent the video); Anita Desai's In Custody (1984), as well as Baumgartner's Bombay (1988), and Kamala Markandaya's Nectar in a Sieve (1955).

For current events and news about India from an Indian perspective, there are two Indian newspapers that are available online:

http://www.expressindia.com/ and http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/

Books and articles by Tufts in India Participants
Ayesha Jalal:
- Democracy and Authoritarianism in South Asia: a Comparative and Historical Perspective (1995)
- State of Martial Rule; the Origins of Pakistan's Political Economy of Defense (1990)
- The Sole Spokesman: Jinnah, the Muslim League, and the Demand for Pakistan (1985)
- Bose, Sugata and Ayesha Jalal. Nationalism, Democracy and Development: State and Politics in India (1997)
- Bose, Sugata and Ayesha Jalal. Modern South Asia: History, Culture and Political Economy (1998)
- For published articles and essays, visit www.tufts.edu/~ajalal101/

Jairam Ramesh:
- Kautilya Today: Jairam Ramesh on a Globalizing India (2002)
- Making Sense of Chindia, Reflections on China and India (2005)
- For published articles and essays, visit www.jairam-ramesh.com

Shashi Tharoor:
- The Great Indian Novel (1989)
- The Five Dollar Smile & Other Stories (1990)
- Show Business (1992)
- Bookless in Baghdad: And Other Writings about Reading (2005)
- India: From Midnight to the Millenium (1997)
- Reasons of State (1982)
- Nehru: The Invention of India (2003)
- Riot (2001)
- For published articles and essays, visit www.shashitharoor.com

Literature
- Collins, Larry & Dominique Lapierre. Freedom at Midnight (1975)
- Dalrymple, William. City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi (1993)
White Mughals: Love and Betrayal in Eighteen-Century India (2002)
- Desai, Anita. Baumgartner's Bombay (1988)
- In Custody (1984)
- Forster, EM. A Passage to India (1924)
- Jhabvala, Ruth. Prawer Heat and Dust (1975)
- Kipling, Rudyard. Kim (1901)
- Lahiri, Jhumpa. Interpreter of Maladies (1999)
- The Namesake (2003)
- Markandaya, Kamala. Nectar in a Sieve (1955)
- Macdonald, Sarah. Holy Cow (2002)
- Mistry, Rohinton. Such a Long Journey (1991)
- Family Matters (2002)
- A Fine Balance (1995)
- Swimming Lessons(1989)
- Roy, Arundhati. The God of Small Things (1997)
- Rushdie, Salman. Midnight's Children (1981)
- East, West (1994)
- Seth, Vikram. A Suitable Boy (1993)
- Scott, Paul. The Raj Quartet: The Jewel in the Crown, The Day of the Scorpion, The Towers of Silence, A Division of the Spoils (1965-75)

History
- Brass, Paul R. The Politics of India Since Independence (1990)
- Keay, John. India: A History (2001)
- Kishore, Prem and Anuradha Kishore Ganpati. India: An Illustrated History (2003)
- Moore, Lucy. Maharanis: The Lives and Times of Three Generations of Indian Princesses (2005)
- Nehru, Jawaharlal. The Discovery of India (1946)
- Spear, Percival. Pelican History of India (1990)

Political Analysis & Social Commentary
- Das, Gurcharan. India Unbound: The Social and Economic Revolution from Independence to the Global Information Age (2000)
- Hardgrave, Robert L. and Stanley A. Kochanek. India: Government and Politics in a Developing Nation (1986)
- Mehta, Gita. Karma Cola: Marketing the Mystic East (1979)
- Rushdie, Salman. Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism, 1981-91 (1991)
- Varshney, Ashutosh. Ethnic Conflict and Civic Life: Hindus and Muslims in India (2002)

India's Role in the World
- Cohen, Stephen P. India: Emerging Power (2001)
- Friedman, Thomas L. The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century (2005)
- Naipaul, V.S. A Million Mutinies Now (1990)
- India: A Wounded Civilization (1977)
- Silvers, Robert B. and Barbara Epstein. India: A Mosaic (2000)

Travel Guides and Writings
- Dwivedi, Sharada and Rahul Mehrotra. Bombay: The Cities Within (1995)
- Eyewitness (Travel Guide to India)
- Fodors India, 5th Edition (2005)
- Frommer's India
- Moorhouse, Geoffrey. Calcutta - A City Revealed (1971)
- Singh, Raghubir. Bombay: Gateway of India (1994)
- For general tourist information, visit http://www.tripadvisor.com/ or http://www.incredibleindia.org/

Religion & Philosophy
- Hindu holy texts, The Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita
- Eck, Diana L. Darsan: Seeing the Divine Image in India (1985)
- Embree, Ainslee, ed. Sources of Indian Tradition (1988)
- Sen, K.M. Hinduism(1976)
- Sri Chinmoy, Commentaries on the Vedas, the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita: The Three Branches of India's Life-Tree (1996)
- Tagore, Rabindranath. Poetry