A wide-ranging and informative book. ( )

The Guardian, 16.01.2011: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jan/16/patrick-french-india-aravind-adiga

Readable, but if only plan to read one such book on India I'd go for Michael Wood's "The Story of India" ( )

India: A Portrait by Patrick French

This has sat on my shelf for a couple of years for reasons that I can't entirely explain. Having now completed it (in audiobook form from the library) it should not have sat as long as it did. I acquired the book based on French's excellent biography of Younghusband, one of those classic British Imperial explorers who filled in the dark corners of the map and risked life and limb to do so.

India: A Portrait is a deep dive into modern India. The book was published in 2011 and traces India from partition forward to the most recent elections. The political diversity of India is staggering. French does an excellent job of tracking down and interviewing Indians from wildly divergent lives and locales. For example, French interviews some of the leaders of India's Maoist party that has been fighting a guerrilla war against the Indian state for decades. Prior to reading this book I had no idea about this insurgency much less about the obscure connection to Maoism and how the Indian insurgents persist in their veneration of Mao's principals even though they have been long discarded by the Chinese.

French does an excellent job of connecting modern political thought in India with the experience of the country. Whether it the impact of partition on various refugee groups, the rise of puritan Islam in Pakistan at the expense of traditional Sufism, or the impact of caste post constitution attempts to abolish the caste system, French provides the history, the evolution and the modern expression of these influences. In doing so, he gives the reader a broad but detailed overview of present day India.

Most books that I have read about India have dealt more with historical India than modern India. I think it is useful to have a solid understanding of historical India, particularly the Raj as it had an outsized impact on modern India, and you get only glimpses of that history from this book. This is not a criticism per se - had French included that information it would have made for a massive tome that distracted from its primary goal of examining modern India. As written India: A Portrait is the best book about modern day India that I have read. Well worth the read if you have an interest in where India is today and where it is likely to go in the future.
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Read the sample on my ereader. While interesting. I didn't enjoy it enough to purchase. ( )