A. L. Basham’s The Wonder That Was India is a brilliant early history of one of the world’s oldest civilisations. When it was first published in the United Kingdom in 1954, it became an instant hit, as it would in the United States a few years later. Since then, it has consistently found an avid readership all over the world, been translated in many languages, and has educated and entertained generations of general readers and serious students of Indian history alike. The foreword, by Thomas R. Trautmann, brings alive the man and the academic behind this volume and illuminates the historical influences upon it. The Wonder That Was India is a classic that anybody with an interest in the civilisational beginnings of India must read. It is a work of uncompromising scholarship and a labour of love.

A Classic.

Ramachandra Guha’s India after Gandhi is a magisterial account of the pains, struggles, humiliations and glories of the world’s largest and least likely democracy. A riveting chronicle of the often brutal conflicts that have rocked a giant nation, and of the extraordinary individuals and institutions who held it together, it established itself as a classic when it was first published in 2007. In the last decade, India has witnessed, among other things, two general elections; the fall of the Congress and the rise of Narendra Modi; a major anti-corruption movement; more violence against women, Dalits, and religious minorities; a wave of prosperity for some but the persistence of poverty for others; comparative peace in Nagaland but greater discontent in Kashmir than ever before. This tenth anniversary edition, updated and expanded, brings the narrative up to the present. Published to coincide with seventy years of the country’s independence, this definitive history of modern India is the work of one of the world’s finest scholars at the height of his powers.

"This book reveals the many wonders of Sanskrit as a living experience and has something for all." -- p.2 of cover.