Showing titles in South Asia

The extraordinary firsthand account of an American special forces unit in the jungles of southeast Asia and their guerilla operations against the Japanese during World War II!

In Why I Am a Hindu, one of India’s finest public intellectuals gives us a profound book about one of the world’s oldest and greatest religions. Starting with a close examination of his own belief in Hinduism, he ranges far and wide in his study of the faith.

In 1975, at the height of Indira Gandhi’s “Emergency”, V. S. Naipaul returned to India, the country his ancestors had left 100 years earlier. Out of that journey he produced this concise masterpiece: a vibrant, defiantly unsentimental portrait of a society traumatized by centuries of foreign conquest and immured in a mythic vision of its past.

The Anarchy tells the remarkable story of how one of the world’s most magnificent empires disintegrated and came to be replaced by a dangerously unregulated private company, based thousands of miles overseas in one small office, five windows wide, and answerable only to its distant shareholders. In his most ambitious and riveting audiobook to date, William Dalrymple tells the story of the East India Company as it has never been told before, unfolding a timely cautionary tale of the first global corporate power.

On 29 March 1849, the 10-year-old Maharajah of the Punjab was ushered into the magnificent Mirrored Hall at the centre of the great Fort in Lahore. There, in a public ceremony, the frightened but dignified child handed over to the British East India Company in a formal act of submission not only swathes of the richest land in India but also arguably the single most valuable object in the subcontinent: the celebrated Koh-i-Noor diamond. The Mountain of Light.

Her tracks now–as she carried away the girl–led into the wilderness of rocks, some acres in extent, where the going was both difficult and dangerous. The cracks and chasms in between the rocks were masked with ferns, blackberry vines, and a false step, which might easily have resulted in a broken limb, would have been fatal.

Listening to this story nurtures a strong positive feeling of protection and well-being within the Heart chakra, stimulates the energy of the sternum bone that produces the antibodies that fight infection, and is of particular benefit to mankind today, as the world struggles to cope with the many physical and psychological challenges and the increasing pressures of modern life. This is a Devi Mahatmyam for our time.

A holy man to Hindus, a hero to Muslims, and a criminal to the British, Mohandas K. Gandhi was an inspiring figure of the 20th century, a man whose quest to live in accord with God’s highest truth led him to initiate massive campaigns against racism, violence, and colonialism.

Gandhi's nonviolent struggles against racism, violence and colonialism in South Africa and India had brought him to such a level of notoriety and adulation that when asked to write an autobiography midway through his career, he took it as an opportunity to explain himself. He feared the enthusiasm for his ideas tended to exceed a deeper understanding of his quest for truth rooted in devotion to God.

The Discovery of India, written by India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, is a timeless classic that blends history, philosophy, and personal reflection into a rich narrative of India’s journey through the ages. This Hindi audiobook is a faithful translation of Nehru’s original English text, bringing his thoughts and insights to Hindi-speaking listeners in a vivid and engaging form.

Before the East India Company and before the British Empire, England was a pariah state. Seeking better fortunes, 16th and 17th century merchants, pilgrims and outcasts ventured to the kingdom of the mighty Mughals, attempting to sell coarse woollen broadcloth along the silk roads; playing courtiers in the Mughal palaces in pursuit of love; or simply touring the sub-continent in search of an elephant to ride.

Much of world history is Indian history. Home today to one in four people, the subcontinent has long been densely populated and deeply connected to Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas through migration and trade. In this magisterial history, Audrey Truschke tells the fascinating story of the region historically known as India—which includes today’s India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and parts of Afghanistan—and the people who have lived there.

A definitive, comprehensive and engrossing chronicle of one of the greatest dynasties of the world—the Mughal—from its founder Babur to Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last of the clan the magnificent Mughal legacy is an inexhaustible source of inspiration to historians, writers, moviemakers, artists and ordinary mortals alike. Here is a fascinating and riveting saga that brings alive a spectacular bygone era—authentically and convincingly.

The book covers all the major landmarks of Indian history from prehistoric times up to the 21st century—starting with the country’s geological origins a few billion years in the past and the migration of Homo sapiens from Africa into the region several millennia ago.

By the end of the nineteenth century, India was described as the jewel in the crown of the British Empire, but how did such a small island come to dominate one of the richest lands in the world? Without doubt the toughest opponents to British control was led by the Sikhs. Ranjit Singh, the brilliant "Lion of Punjab" who ruled the Sikh Empire, had revolutionized his army by employing French officers from Napoleon's Grand Army to train his artillery and infantry on the European model.

In 1943 Winston Churchill and the British Empire needed millions of Indian troops, all of India's industrial output, and tons of Indian grain to support the Allied war effort. Such massive contributions were certain to trigger famine in India. Because Churchill believed that the fate of the British Empire hung in the balance, he proceeded, sacrificing millions of Indian lives in order to preserve what he held most dear. The result: the Bengal Famine of 1943-44, in which millions of villagers starved to death.

മഹദ്‌വ്യക്തികളുടെ സംഭവഹുലമായ ജീവിതഗാഥകളാണ് ചരിത്രത്തിന്റെ താളുകളില്‍ നിറഞ്ഞുനില്‍ക്കുന്നത്. ഭരണാധിപന്മാര്‍, സാംസ്‌കാരികനായകന്മാര്‍, സാമൂഹികപരിഷ്‌കര്‍ത്താക്കള്‍ തുടങ്ങി കേരളത്തിന്റെ രാഷ്ട്രീയ സാമൂഹിക-സാംസ്‌കാരിക ചരിത്രത്തില്‍ നിര്‍ണ്ണായകമായ പങ്കുവഹിച്ച ശ്രദ്ധേയരായ വ്യക്തികളെ വിഖ്യാത ചരിത്രകാരനായ എ.

സ്വാതന്ത്ര്യാനന്തരകാലഘട്ടത്തിലെ ഇന്ത്യയുടെ വികസനത്തിന്റെ രാഷ്ട്രീയസമ്പദ്‌വ്യവസ്ഥയെ രണ്ടു നൂറ്റാണ്ടോളം നീണ്ട സാമ്രാജ്യവാഴ്ചയുടെയും ഒരു സ്വതന്ത്രഭാരത റിപ്പബ്ലിക്കിനു ജന്മംകൊടുത്ത ശക്തവും ദീര്‍ഘവുമായ സാമ്രാജ്യത്വവിരുദ്ധ ജനകീയമുന്നേറ്റത്തിന്റെയും പശ്ചാത്തലത്തില്‍ സമഗ്രമായി വിലയിരുത്തുന്ന സമകാലിക ചരിത്രഗ്രന്ഥം. സ്വാതന്ത്ര്യാനന്തരം ഇന്ത്യന്‍ ജനാധിപത്യത്തിനേറ്റ വെല്ലുവിളികളെയും രാജ്യം അതിനെ അതിജീവിച്ചതെങ്ങനെയെന്നും വിലയിരുത്തുന്നതോടൊപ്പം പ്രധാന രാഷ്ട്രീയസംഭവങ്ങള്‍ വിവിധ രാഷ്ട്രീയ നേതൃത്വങ്ങളുടെ ഭരണകാലത്തിന്റെ അടിസ്ഥാനത്തില്‍ വിലയിരുത്തുകയും ചെയ്യുന്നു.

Delhi exists in a kind of quantum state: In Delhi, all things are true at once. When the Big Apple no longer felt big enough, Dave and Jenny moved to a city of 16 million people and, seemingly, twice that many horns honking at once. Delirious Delhi depicts India's capital as the two experienced it, from office life in the rising tech hubs to the traffic jam philosophy that keeps people sane in the gridlock leading to them. With only their sense of humour as their guide, Dave and Jenny set out to explore a city in which ancient stone monuments compete with glass-clad shopping malls to define the landscape.

Huge international companies and corporations are a normal part of our everyday lives today. For most, their unimaginable wealth and power, rivaling even some of the smaller countries of the world, is something we take for granted. And we see them as the living embodiment of the capitalist system, regardless if we take it as a good or a bad omen. However, this wasn’t always the case.