- Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; New impression edition (Oct 1969)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0140207694
- ISBN-13: 978-0140207699
- Product Dimensions: 17.5 x 11.2 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,181,378 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
A History of India: v. 1 (Penguin History)
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
|
There is a newer edition of this item:
|
Product details |
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organise and find favourite items. |
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Imagine, if you will...Romila writing a History of Europe from the 15th to the 19th Centuries. The book would be a marvel of fiction, centering on a litany of the ills that the supposedly "high caste" Church imposed on its subjects. The rigid Church hierarchy imposed a strict code, the breaking of which led to being "out casted". Then, along comes a reforming hero, in the shape of Henry the Eighth and takes on the enemy in true cavalier fashion. Meanwhile, according to Thappar, the innovators of the steam engine, of the principles of Industrial Engineering, of sea navigation, of scientific discoveries would be no better than the religious masters. They too subjugate the common people, forcing them to all kind of heinous things like improving production, advancing mobility, creating wealth, etc. The people's response is to fight back! They turn to a reforming and egalitarian Religion called Communism.
On could go on...
The gist is simple: replace the Church with the Bhramins, Henry with any of the Hindu saints, the innovators and inventors with the hard working and civilised people of India, and Communism with the marauding hordes of Ghaznavi, Tughluq, and Babur. And Voila! You have Indian History a la Thappar.
In short, if you want a HEAVY dose of discredited Marxist propaganda, conveniently couched in "pseudo-secularist" babble, take this book or other from the JNU stable seriously! Else, look elsewhere. From the four and five star ratings in this section, it is clear that some misguided college teachers still consider this trash worth using in class. It will take years to undo the damage Thappar and her band have done to Scholarship.
There's plenty of good alternative stuff in the bookshop - seek them out.
On could go on...
The gist is simple: replace the Church with the Bhramins, Henry with any of the Hindu saints, the innovators and inventors with the hard working and civilised people of India, and Communism with the marauding hordes of Ghaznavi, Tughluq, and Babur. And Voila! You have Indian History a la Thappar.
In short, if you want a HEAVY dose of discredited Marxist propaganda, conveniently couched in "pseudo-secularist" babble, take this book or other from the JNU stable seriously! Else, look elsewhere. From the four and five star ratings in this section, it is clear that some misguided college teachers still consider this trash worth using in class. It will take years to undo the damage Thappar and her band have done to Scholarship.
There's plenty of good alternative stuff in the bookshop - seek them out.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
22 reviews
13 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Mixed feelings
19 Mar 2007
Format:Paperback
As can be seen from the other reviews, opinions about this book span the spectrum. I just finished reading the book, and overall, I found the book useful. The language was lucid and the structure compact. It takes the readers from ancient times to the year 1526 (the year that Babur won the first battle of Panipat and laid the foundation for the Mugal empire). Chapters in the book deal mostly with distinct periods and they begin with a coverage of the kingdoms of the period, then proceed to administration methods, arts and literature, and finally to religion and culture. South India gets mostly distinct treatment from the North, but there are constant cross-references of co-occuring events. There is a definite attempt to provide coverage of what peoples lives were like during the times, and what the social customs were. All this is good.
However, as some others have pointed out, the author does come off as having a distaste for anything that is associated with the religion of Hinduism. How palatable this is for the reader will depend on the reader's own perception. For me, there were definitely places where I accepted the acid tone and stern language of the author - especially when she talks about the caste system, and how it prevented the democratization of education, arts and literature (the latter also a product of the treatment given to the Sanskrit language). There were also places in the book where the text appeared needlessly harsh and biased. In the latter parts of the book, the author, while praising Islamic architecture, draws a comparison with the pillars in Hindu temples and comments that the latter were unnecessarily ornate! For every piece of warranted criticism, there appeared to be an unwarranted one.
In summary, if your goal is to get a reasonable and comprehensive view of Indian history, you can't go too wrong with this book. At the same time, if you have strong ideas about India already, it would be difficult to get through it.
However, as some others have pointed out, the author does come off as having a distaste for anything that is associated with the religion of Hinduism. How palatable this is for the reader will depend on the reader's own perception. For me, there were definitely places where I accepted the acid tone and stern language of the author - especially when she talks about the caste system, and how it prevented the democratization of education, arts and literature (the latter also a product of the treatment given to the Sanskrit language). There were also places in the book where the text appeared needlessly harsh and biased. In the latter parts of the book, the author, while praising Islamic architecture, draws a comparison with the pillars in Hindu temples and comments that the latter were unnecessarily ornate! For every piece of warranted criticism, there appeared to be an unwarranted one.
In summary, if your goal is to get a reasonable and comprehensive view of Indian history, you can't go too wrong with this book. At the same time, if you have strong ideas about India already, it would be difficult to get through it.
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Engagingly written but outdated
30 Dec 1998
Format:Paperback
The book was published in the 60s and that shows. So much new has been discovered about ancient India since then that the book is hopelessly outdated. I would recommend to Romila Thapar that she should revise it.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Dry, biased Read
29 Aug 2011
Format:Paperback
While historians aren't well known for their colorful writing, I found this book an exceptionally dry read with biased information at every other page. By biased I mean that it is very clear the authors opinions are the fuel for much of the commentary. Some of the information in the book is insightful, for example the process a "snake charmer" has to go through to keep the dangerous cobra. (they have to remove the fangs) They are portrayed as starving no matter how much trouble they've gone through to catch and de fang the snake. I don't know that all of them are, but this is the "unveiling" of the romanticism about the ideas many have about snake charmers. There are definitely good parts, but seeing as how I am not adept in Indian History, I don't know how to compare this with other Indian History books. However with the authors history, and with my knowledge of other cultural history books, paired with the concerned reviews,I wonder how reliable this book is, and why it was used for a beginning Indian History class. I did learn from it, but I really do believe that there are far better works on Indian History, simply from understanding that a well written unbiased book is what is needed when reading about history.
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > History > Archaeology
- Books > History > Countries & Regions > Asia > India
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
