During your valuable holiday time you will want to experience the heart of India. Footprint's Dream Trip India
- The North: Forts,
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With growing economic might, new political influence, & changing social dynamics, India has emerged as a major world power in the twenty-first century. This book charts the important features of India`s development since its independence in 1947, assessing those forces that have contributed to the nation`s growth as well as those that have impeded it. Through the lens of India`s past, Dietmar Rothermund offers a new perspective on India today & a fascinating look into the nation`s future.” India: The Rise of an Asian Giant” explores the diverse roots of India`s economic robustness, from agriculture to the export boom. He looks closely at the country`s democratic system, nuclear decisions, & alliance with the U.S. against terror. In his review of social changes, Rothermund discusses the institution of caste, the rise of a new middle class, the persistence of poverty, the media & Bollywood, & the significance of the global diaspora of twenty million Indians. In sum, he offers an impressive profile of India, an Asian giant whose role in the world`s future will surely be unique & important. ...

Since the Indian economy was liberated from bureaucratic, socialist controls in 1991, it has developed rapidly. A country once renowned for the backwardness of its industries, its commerce & its financial market is now viewed as potentially one of the major world economies of the twenty-first century. But there are many questions which need to be asked about the sustainability of this rapid economic growth & its effect on the stability of the country. Have the changes had any impact on the poor & marginalised? Can India`s democracy contain the mounting resentment of those left out of the new economic order? Can a high growth rate be sustained with India`s notoriously corrupt & inefficient governance? &, can the development of its creaking infrastructure be speeded up? How is India going to feed itself unless agriculture is reformed? This timely book will answer these questions through interviews with industrialists & cricketers, God men & farmers, plutocrats & former untouchables. Full of fascinating stories of real people at a time of great change, it will be of interest to economists, business people, diplomats, politicians, as well as to those who love to travel & who take an interest in the rapid growth of one of the world`s largest countries, & what this means to us in the West. ...

During your valuable holiday time you will want to experience the heart of India. Footprint's Dream Trip India: Backwaters, Beaches, Temples will ensure you discover the very best this varied destination has to offer as well as take you to some fantastic out-of-the-way places h&-picked by the authors. From exploring quiet backwaters to contemplating the magnificence of temples, this new guide is packed full of ideas, suggestions & expert advice & will help you design your own dream trip. Packed with detailed information on where to go & what to do A h&-picked selection of the very best places to stay & to eat Full-colour trip-planning section featuring detailed itineraries & maps Off-the-beaten track suggestions from the authors Compact, pocket-sized format so you can carry it with you Written by a local expert offering you insider information Footprint's carefully tailored information ensures that you get the most out of your dream trip. ...

Francis Watson's acclaimed history of India begins in the third millennium BC with the Indus Valley civilization. The subsequent influx of pastoral nomads, first in a long series of invasions from the north-west which included the Moghuls nearly 3, 000 years later, established the Vedic religious tradition. In a gradual assimilation of popular cults, & a formalization by the Sanskrit language & the institution of caste, this tradition supplied the cohesion upon which a national consciousness, in its Western sense, is a comparatively recent grafting. The enduring distinctiveness of India, its widely recognized but often bewildering 'diversity of unity', emerges from these pages as a product of geographical simplicity & historical complexity. ...

“ India after Gandhi” is the history of the world’s largest democracy, by Ramachandra Guha. Born against a background of privation & civil war, divided along lines of caste, class, language & religion, independent India emerged, somehow, as a united & democratic country. This remarkable book tells the full story
- the pain & the struggle, the humiliations & the glories
- of the world’s largest & least likely democracy. While India is sometimes the most exasperating country in the world, it is also the most interesting. Ramachandra Guha writes compellingly of the myriad protests & conflicts that have peppered the history of free India. But he writes also of the factors & processes that have kept a country together, defying numerous prophets of doom who believed that its poverty would force India to break up or come under autocratic rule. Once, the Western world looked upon India with a mixture of pity & contempt; now, it looks upon India with fear & admiration. Moving between history & biography, the story of modern India is peopled with extraordinary characters. Guha gives fresh insights on the lives & public careers of India’s major leaders. Massively researched & elegantly written, “ India after Gandhi” is a superior account of India’s rebirth, & the work of a major scholar at the height of his powers. Guha was born in India in 1958 & after a broad-ranging academic career, he settled to become a full-time writer, based in Bangalore.

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Born against a background of privation & civil war, divided along lines of caste, class, language & religion, independent India emerged, somehow, as a united & democratic country. Ramachandra Guha`s hugely acclaimed book tells the full story
- the pain & the struggle, the humiliations & the glories
- of the world`s largest & least likely democracy. While India is sometimes the most exasperating country in the world, it is also the most interesting. Ramachandra Guha writes compellingly of the myriad protests & conflicts that have peppered the history of free India. Moving between history & biography, the story of modern India is peopled with extraordinary characters. Guha gives fresh insights into the lives & public careers of those long-serving Prime Ministers, Jawaharlal Nehru & Indira Gandhi. But the book also writes with feeling & sensitivity about lesser-known (though not necessarily less important) Indians
- peasants, tribals, women, workers & musicians. Massively researched & elegantly written, India After Gandhi is a remarkable account of India`s rebirth, & a work already hailed as a masterpiece of single volume history. This tenth anniversary edition, published to coincide with seventy years of India`s independence, is revised & expanded to bring the narrative up to the present.


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Beginning in 1947, when ` India & Pakistan were born to conflict, ` renowned India scholar Stanley Wolpert provides an authoritative, accessible primer on what is potentially the world`s most dangerous crisis. He concisely distills sixty-three years of complex history, tracing the roots of the relationship between these two antagonists, explaining the many attempts to resolve their disputes, & assessing the dominant political leaders. While the tragic Partition left many urgent problems, none has been more difficult than the problem over Kashmir, claimed by both India & Pakistan. This intensely divisive issue has triggered two conventional wars, killed some 100, 000 Kashmiris, & almost ignited two nuclear wars since 1998, when both India & Pakistan openly emerged as nuclear-weapon states. In addition to providing a comprehensive perspective on the origin & nature of this urgent conflict, Wolpert examines all the proposed solutions & concludes with a road map for a brighter future for South Asia. ...

Combining factual information with a critical approach which probes the nature of culture & identity, this concise yet authoritative account paints a graphic picture of an area stretching from the Indian Ocean to the Himalayan mountains. With coverage not only of India, but also of Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, & Sri Lanka, this book surveys nearly 5000 years, from the early settlers of prehistory to the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi & the Tamil Tiger conflicts. Particular emphasis is placed on the last 200 years, while the key theme of shifting regional identities underpins the author`s insights in to the social, economic & spiritual past of the region. In the world of globalization that we now inhabit, no world region is understood as being composed simply of enclosed national territories of politics, economy, society, & culture. South Asia is a global phenomenon, & working that idea into our understanding of South Asian history is a challenge that this new edition fully embraces. ...

A cloth-backed map of India “ Constructed with great care & research from all the latest authorities & intended more particularly to facilitate a reference to the Civil & Military Stations. Dedicated to Sir James Rivett Carnac Bart, Chairman of the Court of Directors of the Honourable The East India Company, Arranged under the direction of Captain R.M. Grindlay” & published in 1838 by James Wyld, geographer to the Queen. The map shows the individual states in different colours, with names of towns underlined to indicate stations of the Bengal, Bombay & Madras Armies, all listed in separate tables cross-referenced to the map. The table also list, where appropriate, collectorates & zillahs, as well as civil stations in the North Western & Bengal provinces. A separate table lists British territories, British allies & tributaries, & the independent states of Hindoostan. Another interesting feature is an extensive distance table, Agra to Bangalore 1324 miles! This reproduction was taken from what used to be called a “cloth-dissected” map, made when the map itself was cut into sections & each section then individually pasted onto an overall cloth backing for the whole map. In this version the whole map is backed onto cloth in one piece but the gaps between the sections have been reproduced in the printing to preserve the style & the feeling of the original. Each individual map is presented folded in a colourful case covered with a unique design marbled paper – no two cases are identical. To see the list of all the titles in this series from the Old Folding Maps please click on the series link. ...