top biography books in india

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10 Must-Read Biographies of Indians Who Transformed The Nation

Here’s a list of 10 biographies of pioneering Indians -- from Dr Ambedkar and Satyajit Ray to APJ Abdul Kalam and Kapil Dev -- that will leave you inspired.

1. Dilip Kumar: The Definitive Biography by Bunny Reuban

2. Satyajit Ray: The Inner Eye by Andrew Robinson

3. The Man Who Knew Infinity (Srinivasa Ramanujan) by Robert Kanigel

4. Sir C V Raman by Uma Parameswaran

5. Beyond the Last Blue Mountain (JRD Tata) by R M Lala

6. Gandhi Before India (M K Gandhi) by Ramachandra Guha

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8 Library Cafes Across India to Bookmark For Your Travels

What’s better than freshly brewed coffee? A great book to go with it! Choose from a wide selection of literary works at these library cafes across the country.

7. Waiting for a Visa – BR Ambedkar

8. Wings of Fire – An Autobiography by APJ Abdul Kalam and Arun Tiwari

Biographies of Indians - Dr APJ Abdul Kalam

9. Straight from the Heart: An Autobiography – Kapil Dev

10. The Race of My Life by Milkha Singh

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Non-fiction, Geopolitics, History, Social issues, Biographies, Autobiographies, Indian subcontinent

Best Biography Books / Biography / Biography Books / Biography Books India

Best Biography Books That Every Indian Should Read

by Yash Sharma · Published July 8, 2021 · Updated August 24, 2022

The following best biography books deserves to be read by every Indian irrespective of his or her caste, creed, religion, color, and ethnicity. It includes books on Mahatma Gandhi, Bhagat Singh, Sardar Patel The Iron Man Of India, Rani Laxmibai, JRD Tata, PV Narasimha Rao, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Syama Prasad Mookerjee, Saheb Kanshiram, Feroze Gandhi, Dara Sikhoh, Guru Nanak, and Baba Saheb Ambedkar.

14 Best Biography Books For Indian Readers

1. The life of Mahatma Gandhi by Louis Fischer

2. Without Fear, The life and trial of Bhagat Singh by Kuldeep Nayar

3. The Man who unified India by Balraj Krishna

4. Rani Laxmibai the warrior queen of Jhansi by Pratibha Ranade

5. Beyond the last blue Mountain, A life of J.R.D. Tata by R.M. Lala

6. Half Lion how PV Narasimha Rao transformed India by Vinay Sitapati

7. Love and Revolution the authorised biography of Faiz Ahmed Faiz by Ali Madeeh Hashmi

8. Jawaharlal Nehru A biography by Frank Moraes

9. Syama Prasad Mookerjee life and times by TathaGata Roy

10. Kanshiram, leader of the Dalits by Badri Narayan

11. Feroze the forgotten Gandhi by Bertil Falk

12. The Emperor who never was, Dara Sikhoh in mughal India by Supriya Gandhi

13. Guru Nanak: The First Sikh Guru by Harish Dhillon

14. Ambedkar towards an enlightened India by Gail Omvedt

The life of Mahatma Gandhi by Louis Fischer

The more you read Gandhi, the more you realise his ingenuity and the love and admiration for his people. The life of Mahatma Gandhi by Louis Fischer is a necessary book to read. The way he interpreted Mohandas Gandhi is laudable.

Biography book on Mahatma Gandhi.

For the detailed article you can read from here – Mahatma Gandhi

Order your copy from here – The Life of Mahatma Gandhi by Louis Fischer

Without Fear, The life and trial of Bhagat Singh by Kuldeep Nayar –

Without Fear by Kuldip Nayar is a brilliant book. Within a few hundred pages the author has unravelled the life and times of legendary Sardar Bhagat Singh.

Without Fear by Kuldeep Nayar

For the detailed article you can read from here – Bhagat Singh

Order your copy from here – Without Fear, The Life and Trial Of Bhagat Singh by Kuldeep Nayar

The Man who unified India by Balraj Krishna

Miniscule of people in Indian history can match the stature of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. The more you read about Sardar the more you realise that how great he was. The iron man of India single handedly assimilated more than 560 Princely States into the Indian union. A feat in itself.

The Man Who Unified India, Sardar Patel

For the detailed article you can read from here – Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel

Order your copy from here – The man who unified India by Balraj Krishna

Rani Laxmibai the warrior queen of Jhansi by Pratibha Ranade

Rani Laxmibai, The Warrior Queen Of Jhansi is a concisely written book about the Queen-cum-diplomat-cum-warrior of Hindustan who died on the battlefield like a brave soldier while fighting the forces of the British East India Company.

Biography of Rani Laxmibai

For the detailed article you can read from here – Rani Laxmibai

Order your copy from here – Rani Laxmibai, The Warrior Queen Of Jhansi

Beyond the last blue Mountain, A life of J.R.D. Tata by R.M. Lala

Beyond the last blue mountain, A life of J. R. D. Tata is a nicely written biography of the former Chairman of Tata Sons and the only Indian industrialist till date who was bestowed with the prestigious, Bharat Ratna award.

J.R.D Tata, The Father of the Indian Aviation

For the detailed article you can read from here – J. R. D. Tata

Order your copy from here – Beyond the last blue mountain by R.M. Lala

Half Lion how PV Narasimha Rao transformed India by Vinay Sitapati

Half lion, how PV Narasimha Rao transformed india, is brilliantly researched biography of the man who not only dismantled the so called ”Licence-permit-quota” Raj and opened up the Indian economy, but he also applied in letter and spirit the ancient Vedic principle of Vasudhaiva kutumbakam, which means ‘The world is one big family’.

Narasimha Rao, The Father of the Indian economic reforms

For the detailed article you can read from here – P. V. Narasimha Rao

Order your copy from here – Half Lion how P.V. Narasimha Rao Transformed India by Vinay Sitapati

Love and Revolution the authorised biography of Faiz Ahmed Faiz by Ali Madeeh Hashmi

ये दाग़ दाग़ उजाला, ये शब-गज़ीदा सहर वो इन्तज़ार था जिस का, ये वो सहर तो नहीं

(This stained light, this night-bitten dawn;

This is not that long awaited day break)

Subh-e azadi (Dawn of independence) was written way back in August 1947 by the revolutionary Urdu Poet, Faiz Ahmed Faiz.

Faiz Saheb was a poet of few words. In fact, each and every word of his represents the sentiment of a common man. That’s why he’s still revered throughout the Indian subcontinent.

Love and Revolution, Faiz Ahmed Faiz is the authorised biography of the legendary Urdu Poet, Faiz.

The main USP of this book is that within few hundred pages the author (Grandson of Faiz) has unravelled the life and times of Faiz Saheb.

Biography of Faiz Ahmed Faiz

For the detailed article you can read from here – Faiz Ahmed Faiz

Order your copy from here – Love and Revolution, Faiz Ahmed Faiz

Jawaharlal Nehru A biography by Frank Moraes

Jawaharlal Nehru, A biography, is a well analysed and written in a very crafty manner by Frank Moraes. Although, before I write on this topic, I wanna tell you people one thing for sure that this book is not everyone’s cup of tea. But if you have already read about history of the Indian freedom movement and especially the contribution of Pandit Nehru in the Indian freedom struggle, then, you can surely go for this book.

The First Prime Minister of Independent India, Pandit Nehru.

For the detailed article about Jawaharlal Nehru you can read from here – Jawaharlal Nehru

Order your copy from here – Jawaharlal Nehru by Frank Moraes

Syama Prasad Mookerjee life and times by TathaGata Roy

Syama Prasad Mookerjee, Life and times, is thoroughly researched and a well written book. In fact this is the only complete biography we have at present on Dr Mookerjee, The founder of the Bhartiya Jana Sangh.

Syama Prasad Mookerjee, The Founder of the Jana Sangh

For the detailed article you can read from here – Syama Prasad Mookerjee

Order your copy from here – Syama Prasad Mookerjee Life and Times by TathaGata Roy

Kanshiram, leader of the Dalits by Badri Narayan

Kanshiram, leader of the Dalits is a concisely written biography of Kanshiram Of BSP

Manyavar Kanshiram was the founder of the Bahujan samaj party (BSP), and after Baba Saheb Ambedkar he is one of the most important icons for the Dalits of Hindustan.

Kanshiram, The leader of the Dalits.

For the detailed article you can read from here – Manyavar Kanshiram

Order your copy from here – Kanshiram leader of the Dalits by Badri Narayan

Feroze the forgotten Gandhi by Bertil Falk

Feroze the forgotten gandhi, is the story of the man who not only forgotten by the Nehru-Gandhi family but also by the people of India. A good book indeed.

The Forgotten Gandhi by Bertil Falk.

For the detailed article you can read from here – Feroze Gandhi

Order your copy from here – Feroze the forgotten Gandhi by Bertil Falk

The Emperor who never was, Dara Sikhoh in mughal India by Supriya Gandhi

The Emperor Who Never Was, Dara Shikoh in Mughal India is a meticulously researched and narratively written biography of the Mughal Prince, Dara Shikoh.

Although, it’s a book about the life and times of Dara Shikoh but it also tells us lots of things about the Mughals, especially the role of the Mughal women in administration and other necessary chores.

Biography of Dara Shikoh

For the detailed article you can read from here – Dara Shikoh

Order your copy from here – The Emperor who never was, Dara Shikoh in Mughal India

Guru Nanak: The First Sikh Guru by Harish Dhillon

The world needs Baba Guru Nanak and his philosophy now than ever before.

Guru Nanak, The First Sikh Guru is a readable and a concisely written biography of the founder of the world’s youngest religion, The Sikhism.

Biography of Guru Nanak

For the detailed article you can read from here – Guru Nanak

Order your copy from here – Guru Nanak, The First Sikh Guru

Ambedkar towards an enlightened India by Gail Omvedt

It’s a concisely written biography about the Chief architect of the Indian Constitution and one of the foremost intellectuals of the twentieth century.

Dr BR Ambedkar, The Father of the Indian Constitution

Order your copy from here – Ambedkar towards an enlightened India by Gail Omvedt

These are some of the best biography books which I’ve read and strongly recommend to Indian readers. As, reading, writing and gaining knowledge is a continuous process so I’ll add more best biography books in the near future too.

I hope you like these recommendations about the best biography books. Thanks for reading, Jai Hind.

Tags: Best Biography Books Biography Books Biography Books India

Yash Sharma

Namaste reader, My name is Yash, and books for me are like a medicine, which removes my ignorance and also helps me in behaving more like a human.Though I live in the world’s largest democracy, India, but when I look around, I realized that this democratic nation of mine has turned into a kind of feudal oligarchy or kleptocracy, where people from a particular community or I would say particular surname has hijacked this democracy, and the political parties in India has turned itself into a kind of family enterprises where the family members are the only shareholders. And I want to change this, and books are a weapon which is helping me, so that I can help others and my nation.Shukriya for reading this Thought of mine.

The Last Nizam Of Hyderabad

July 11, 2020

by Yash Sharma · Published July 11, 2020 · Last modified July 30, 2021

Without Fear : The Life and Trial Of Bhagat Singh

July 1, 2020

by Yash Sharma · Published July 1, 2020 · Last modified January 6, 2022

10 Must-Read Biographies On Inspirational People From India

M.F. Husain was a prolific painter on whom the biography Husain: Portrait Of An Artist is based

Biographies always end up becoming a source of inspiration and many authors have compiled accounts on impactful Indians whose lives are worth sharing. We’ve shortlisted the 10 best biographies you should read.

Outlaw: india’s bandit queen and me by roy moxham.

Roy Moxham’s biography of spine-chilling events that occurred in Phoolan Mallah’s life was a result of his journey and friendship with her in the later years of her life. Known as ‘bandit queen’ in India, Phoolan hailed from a poor rural family in Uttar Pradesh. She was gang-raped and abused many times before she became a gang leader and then a Member of the Parliament in India. Roy’s biography is a gripping story of the incredible woman who was gunned down in 2001.

Phoolan Mallah’s life was anything but ordinary

Akhada: The Authorized Biography of Mahavir Singh Phogat by Saurabh Duggal

Saurabh Duggal tells the story of Mahavir Singh Phogat in his biography. The amateur wrestler rebelled against the appalling practice of female foeticide in Harayana and trained his own daughters in the sport. His eldest daughter, Geeta Phogat, became the first ever freestyle wrestler to win a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in 2010 and the first female wrestler from India to qualify for the Olympics.

Mahavir Singh Phogat broke cultural norms and trained his daughters in wrestling

Sir C V Raman by A. Krishna Bhatt

This biography by A. Krishna Bhatt gives an intimate account of Nobel Prize winner C. V. Raman’s life . Bhatt’s research reveals how Raman was a jovial person, always curious and a great teacher. The book makes C. V. Raman more human, going beyond the image of a worshipped physicist. Raman’s humble beginnings and great achievements are a source of inspiration.

The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of The Genius Ramanujan by Robert Kanigel

Robert Kanigel paints a picture of Srinivasa Ramanujan’s life since childhood in Tamil Nadu, India. His family couldn’t send him to school after a point but that didn’t stop Ramanujan from studying pure mathematics and working under the British mathematician G. H. Hardy. In his biography , Robert delves into Ramanujan’s struggle to be taken seriously and eventually being recognised for his contributions in mathematics.

Srinivasa Ramanujan was a brilliant mathematician from India

Beyond the Last Blue Mountain by R. M. Lala

Beyond The Last Blue Mountain is one of the best biographies written about an Indian. The book is divided into four parts, taking the readers through the details of Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata’s childhood and milestones. J.R.D Tata’s interest in aviation that led to the beginning of the aviation industry in India and his contributions as an industrialist, are discussed comprehensively. The last part of the book talks about his friendships, personal life and how he kept it away from the public eye.

Beyond The Last Blue Mountain is one of the best Indian biographies ever written

Spy Princess: The Life of Noor Inayat Khan by Shrabani Basu

Shrabani Basu’s detailed chronicle of Noor Inayat Khan makes the biography a riveting read. Noor was an Indian-origin Briton from an affluent family. As a shy, sensitive girl, she chose the most unlikely work for herself, in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force during the Second World War. She lived a life of danger and adventure before being killed in a concentration camp in Dachau. Basu’s book is heartwarming and inspirational.

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Noor Inayat Khan was an Indian-origin British who died in a concentration camp in Dachau

Husain: Portrait of an Artist by Ila Pal

The late Maqbool Fida Husain, better known as M.F. Husain , was a peculiar but charming figure of the 20th-century. No one knows much about the man, except that he was an internationally acclaimed modern painter who always walked barefoot with a paintbrush in his hand. The image almost became his brand statement. Ila Pal goes deep into M.F. Husain’s life and reveals his wit and thought process. Ila met the painter in 1961 and made him her case study for 50 years and the biography is a beautiful culmination of that association.

Ila Pal’s book reveals who M.F. Husain really was

Gandhi Before India by Ramachandra Guha

Gandhi Before India is a deviation from what is usually written about M.K. Gandhi who is revered as ‘father of the nation’ for his mammoth contributions to India’s independence movement. Ramachandra Guha’s detailed research spans across four continents. He writes about Gandhi’s formative years in South Africa and personal details of his life as a father and husband. Ramachandra’s beautifully written biography paints Gandhi in a different light and tells us why M. K. Gandhi was an inspirational figure.

Gandhi Before India describes Gandhi’s formative years

Helen: The Life and Times of an H-Bomb by Jerry Pinto

Jerry Pinto is probably one of the best Indian authors of the 21st-century and his biography on Helen tells everything we ever wanted to know about the French-Burmese actress. An icon in Bollywood , Helen came to the country as a refugee from Burma. To support her widowed mother and two brothers she worked as a chorus dancer in Hindi films. At her career’s peak she was called the ‘H-Bomb’.

Jerry Pinto’s biography on Helen is riveting

Lilavati’s Daughters by Indian Academy of Sciences

The collection of biographical essays on women scientists of the 19th and 20th-century is nothing but inspirational. The book tells us about botanist E. K. Janaki Ammal, chemist Asmita Chatterjee, physician Anandibai Joshi, anthropologist Iravati Karve, biochemist Kamala Sohonie, medical researcher Kamal Ranadive and a few others who pioneered women’s education in India at a time when women were hardly allowed to finish high school.

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10 Best Biographies of Indian Personalities You Should Read

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Famous person biographies are always a source of inspiration. The biographies will inform you about the controversies and dark sides of a person you may not be familiar with. Some people write biographies to dispel myths about themselves, while others seek to provoke criticism. Here is a list of the best biographies of Indian personalities that you should definitely sit down and read.

Also read: 15 Best Biographies and Autobiography Books for your TBR List

1. The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of The Genius Ramanujan – Robert Kanigel

Source: Wikipedia

A Life of the Genius: The Man Who Knew Infinity – Robert Kanigel wrote Ramanujan, a biography of Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan, in 1991. The book details his upbringing in India, as well as his mathematical accomplishments and collaboration with mathematician G. H. Hardy.

2. Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India – Joseph Lelyveld

In this biography of the many biographies of Mahatma Gandhi, Lelyveld has attempted to present a very unbiased and rooted Gandhi in flesh and bones. Gandhi appears in this biography more as a human and less as a God. It was interpreted as a way of presenting Gandhi in a “ perverse ” manner which in fact was a misinterpretation of an honest writeup.

3. Spy Princess: The Life of Noor Inayat Khan – Shrabani Basu

“Spy Princess,” tells the story of Noor’s life from birth to death, using information from her family, friends, witnesses, and official documents, including recently released personal files of SOE operatives. It’s the story of a young woman who lived with grace, beauty, courage, and determination, and who bravely gave up her life in the service of her ideals. “Liberte” was her final word.

4. The Polyester Prince: The Rise of Dhirubhai Ambani – Hamish McDonald

The Australian author wrote this biography of Dhirubhai Ambani, his struggles, and his journey towards success. Apparently, this book hurt the sentiments of the Ambani family and could never be published in India. It is still considered one of the most interesting biographies written about an Indian personality.

5. Beyond the Last Blue Mountain – R. M. Lala

An in-depth and unforgettable portrait of India’s most illustrious and revered industrialist. This superb biography, written with J.R.D. Tata’s cooperation, tells J.R.D.’s story from birth to 1993, the year he died in Switzerland. This biography is a must-read thus making its way on to our list of best biographies of Indian personalities.

6. Vivekananda: A Biography – Swami Nikhilananda

Swami Vivekananda’s (1863 – 1902) vast knowledge of Eastern and Western culture, deep spiritual insight, brilliant conversation, broad human sympathy, and colourful personality are presented in this engrossing biography. Swami Vivekananda, India’s first spiritual and cultural ambassador to the West, preached Vedanta’s universal message: the Godhead’s non-duality, the soul’s divinity, the oneness of existence, and religious harmony. Swami Vivekananda’s life is chronicled in this 256-page book, which includes 28 photographs and an appendix with Swami’s most important teachings.

7. Nani A. Palkhivala: A life – M V Kamath

Nanabhoy Palkhivala’s life is chronicled in this biography. He was a staunch supporter of civil liberties, a foresighted economist, and a renowned lawyer. M.V. Kamath depicts all facets of this charismatic personality in this detailed book. Interviews, letters, and archival material from a variety of reliable sources are used to compile this comprehensive book. Before writing this book, Kamath conducted extensive research into Nani’s life, as evidenced by the large amount of information intertwined with the biography. While the book provides details about specific events in Nani’s life, it also highlights Indian history that was relevant to those events, providing context.

8. Karmayogi: A Biography of E. Sreedharan – M.S. Ashokan

Source: Wikibio

Sreedharan’s years with the Railways, the construction of the Kolkata Metro and the Konkan Railway, followed by the Delhi Metro, and the many metro projects he is currently involved with are all chronicled in this fascinating book. This is the uplifting story of a very private person who has become an icon of modern India because of his uncompromising work ethic, adapted from a bestselling Malayalam biography.

9. Indra Nooyi – A Biography – Annapoorna

The life of Indra Nooyi is chronicled in Indra Nooyi: A Biography. Her life is chronicled in the book, from her early years in Chennai to her struggles to make a name for herself in the corporate world. It chronicles her journey from the time she moved to the United States, married, and rose steadily to her current position as CEO of the world’s second-largest food and beverage company. Rajpal published Indra Nooyi: A Biography as a paperback in 2013.

10. Kalpana Chawla: A Life – Anil Padmanabhan

Kalpana Chawla, who was born into a conservative family in a Haryana provincial town, aspired to be a star. She became the first PBI – Indian woman to travel to space, and even more remarkably, to travel twice, through sheer hard work, indomitable intelligence, and immense faith in herself. Journalist Anil Padmanabhan interviews people who knew her family and friends at Karnal, as well as NASA colleagues, to create a moving portrait of a woman whose life was a shining affirmation that if you have a dream, you can achieve it no matter how difficult it is.

These were some of the best biographies of Indian personalities that one should read in order to gain a better understanding of famous people, history, and various unjust social practises.

I am a writer and an athlete. I spend my mornings drinking a hot cup of coffee and working out. Being a perfectionist, I also indulge in immense self-criticism.

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100 Best Books and Novels by Indian Authors

In a country as large and diverse as India, there is always a story waiting to be told. Which is why, we’ve saved you the trouble and put together some of the timeless gems that are available in Indian English writing today. Here are our top 100 picks, written by critically-acclaimed Indian authors, or authors of Indian origin.

In this brilliant retelling of the Ramayana, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni places Sita at the centre of the novel: this is Sita’s version. The Forest of Enchantments is also a very human story of some of the other women in the epic, often misunderstood and relegated to the margins: Kaikeyi, Surpanakha, Mandodari. A powerful comment on duty, betrayal, infidelity, and honour, it is also about women’s struggle to retain autonomy in a world that privileges men, as Chitra transforms an ancient story into a gripping, contemporary battle of wills.

Get your copy here!

The Far Field by Madhuri Vijay

Latitudes of Longing by Shubhangi Swarup

An astounding exploration of intense longings, Shubhangi Swarup’s novel begins in the depths of the Andaman Sea, and follows geological and emotional faultlines through the Irrawaddy delta and the tourist-trap of Thamel, to end amidst the highest glaciers and passes of the Karakorams. The story sweeps through worlds and times that are inhabited by: a scientist who studies trees and a clairvoyant who talks to them; Lord Goodenough who travels around the furthest reaches of the Raj, giving names to nameless places; a geologist working towards ending futile wars over a glacier; octogenarian lovers; a superstitious dictator and a mother struggling to get her revolutionary son released; a yeti who seeks human companionship; a turtle who turns first into a boat and then a woman; and the ghost of an evaporated ocean as restless as the continents.

Paper Moon by Rehana Munir

When her estranged father passes away, Fiza, fresh out of college, discovers that he has left her a tidy sum in the hope that she will open a bookshop… Overnight, Fiza’s placid life is thrown into a whirl of decor decisions and book-buying sprees, unconventional staff and colourful patrons, small pleasures and little heartbreaks, as the store — Paper Moon — begins to take shape in a charming, old Bandra mansion. To top it all, she is being wooed by Iqbal, a mysterious customer who frequents the shop, and Dhruv, her ex-boyfriend, her feelings for whom are still confused.

The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters by Balli Kaur Jaswal

The Shergill sisters never needed each other–until they did. Rajni, Jezmeen, and Shirina Shergill have never been close but when their mother dies, she has only one request: that they take a pilgrimage across India to carry out her final rites. While an extended family holiday is the last thing they want, each sister has her own reasons to run away from her life. Rajni is the archetypal know-it-all eldest but her son dropped a bombshell before she left and, for the first time, she doesn’t know what the future holds. Middle sister Jezmeen, always a loudmouth, has translated her need for attention into life as a struggling actress. But her career is on the skids after an incident went viral and now she’s desperate to find her voice again. Shirina, the golden child, has confounded expectations by having an arranged marriage and moving to the other side of the world. But her perfect life isn’t what it seems and time is running out to make the right choice. As the miles rack up on their jaunt across India, the secrets of the past and present are sure to spill out.

Adulting by Neharika Gupta

Social media manager and popular blogger Aisha is flirty and flamboyant … even as she battles personal demons that tell her she must stop eating if she wants to stay pretty.

Ruhi couldn’t be more different from her friend Aisha. Working at Literacy Publishing, she feels grossly underappreciated by the editor-in-chief, who happens to be her mother. What keeps her going are her own ambitions – and her handsome author Tejas.

Bestselling novelist Tejas has a bad case of writer’s block. He leans on Ruhi for emotional support before getting enamored by Aisha as he struggles to live up to everyone’s expectations, including his own.

The Swap by Shuma Raha

There is nothing really wrong with Priya Bakshi and Akash Srivastav’s six-year-old marriage … except that Priya is having an affair. And Akash, too, seems to be on the lookout for sexual adventure. When Tarun, their richer, older, and manipulative friend, tells them about Delhi’s couple-swapping parties, Akash wants to jump right in. With some reluctance, Priya agrees to give him company. Soon, Priya and Akash find themselves in a world of swinging couples and sexual abandon, joined by friends who are equally keen to test the waters. But as the clothes come off and the secrets begin to tumble out, it seems that none of them will emerge unscathed.Witty and racy, The Swap is a sparkling social novel about sex, marriage, and morality.

Bhaunri by Anukrti Upadhyay

Can too much love be a dangerous thing? Bhaunri is married, as is the custom in her tribe of nomadic blacksmiths when she is still a child. When she is finally sent away to her husband’s home as a young woman, she finds herself drawn deeply and powerfully towards the gruff and handsome Bheema. Bheema, however, is far from the ideal husband, and when he strays one time too many, Bhaunri’s love for him begins to fester and grow into something dark and fearsome.

The Twentieth Wife by Indu Sundaresan

Mehrunnisa – the Sun of Women – one of India’s most legendary and controversial empresses … a woman who overcame insurmountable obstacles through sheer brilliance and determination … whose love shaped the course of the Mughal Empire. She is the twentieth wife. The daughter of refugees from Persia, growing up on the fringes of Emperor Akbar’s opulent palace grounds, Mehrunnisa first encounters Prince Salim on his wedding day. Eight years old at the time, she decides that she too will one day become Salim’s wife – unaware of the great price she and her family will pay for this dream.

Those Pricey Thakur Girls by Anuja Chauhan

From the bestselling author of The Zoya Factor and Battle for Bittora …

Spot-on funny and toe-curlingly sexy, Those Pricey Thakur Girls is rom-com specialist Anuja Chauhan writing at her sparkling best.

Baaz by Anuja Chauhan

The USSR-backed India-Mukti Bahini alliance is on the brink of war against the America-aided Pakistani forces. As the Cold War threatens to turn red hot, handsome, laughing Ishaan Faujdaar, a farm boy from Chakkahera, Haryana, is elated to be in the IAF, flying the Gnat, a tiny fighter plane nicknamed ‘Sabre Slayer’ for the devastation it has wreaked in the ranks of Pakistan’s F-86 Sabre Squadrons. Flanked by his buddies Raks, a MiG-21 Fighter, Maddy, a transport pilot who flies a Caribou, and fellow Gnatties Jana, Gana, and Mana, Shaanu has nothing on his mind but glory and adventure – until he encounters Tehmina Dadyseth, famed bathing beauty and sister of a dead fauji, who makes him question the very concept of nationalism and whose eyes fill with disillusioned scorn whenever people wax eloquent about patriotism and war…Pulsating with love, laughter, and courage, Baaz is Anuja Chauhan’s tribute to our men in uniform.

The Radiance of a Thousand Sons by Manreet Sodhi Someshwar

Niki’s determination to complete her dead father’s unfinished book, his life’s work, takes her from India to New York City where her pursuit of a mysterious immigrant woman turns into an obsession that begins to imperil her daughter, her marriage, and, eventually, Niki herself. When a blizzard blankets NYC, Niki finds herself on a path where the present and past collide violently. Propulsive and poetic, this elegant literary thriller melds the fervour of Punjab with the frenzy of New York. Spanning the cataclysms of Partition and 9/11, via the brutality of Emergency and the pogrom of 1984, the novel explores the impossible choices women are forced to make in the face of violence, the ties that connect them across ages, and the secrets they store.

Jorasanko by Aruna Chakravarti

A sensitive portrayal of the hopes and fears, triumphs and defeats experienced by the women of the Tagore household. in a sprawling novel that spans a unique phase in the history of Bengal and India, Aruna Chakravarti provides a fascinating account of how the Tagore women influenced and were in turn influenced by their illustrious male counterparts, the times they lived in and the family they belonged to. Jorasanko mirrors the hopes and fears, triumphs and defeats that the women of the Tagore household experienced in their intricate interpersonal relationships, as well as the adjustments they were continually called upon to make as daughters and daughters-in-law of one of the most eminent families of the land.

The Mountain of Light by Indu Sundaresan

The much-awaited novel from the author of the bestselling Taj trilogy! Told in her inimitable trademark style, Indu Sundaresan’s The Mountain of Light is a wondrous and historically rich tale, as clear and as dazzling as a diamond itself.

Koi Good News? by Zarreen Khan

When Mona Mathur of Dehradun had married her college sweetheart Ramit Deol of Amritsar, there were two things she wasn’t prepared for:1. The size of the Deol family – it put any Sooraj Barjatiya movie to shame2. The fertility of the Deol family – they reproduce faster than any other species are known to mankind for four years now, Mona and Ramit have done the unthinkable and remained childless. Of course, that also means that they’ve battled that one question day in and day out: ‘Koi Good News?’ It doesn’t matter that they have been happy to be child-free – they are married; they are expected to make babies. After all, there are grandparents, great-grandparents, uncles, aunts, and even colony aunties in waiting.

The Gypsy Goddess by Meena Kandasamy

Village landlords force peasants to break their backs in the paddy fields or suffer beatings as punishment. So it is little wonder that the communist party begins to gain traction, a small spark of defiance spreading from villager to villager. As communities across the region begin to take a stand against the landlords, the landlords vow to break them: party organizers suffer grisly deaths and the flow of marketplace food dries up. But intimidation only serves to make the villagers’ resistance burn more fiercely. Finally, the landlords descend on one village to set an example to the others.

Nobody Killed Her by Sabyn Javeri

The nation sinks deep into mourning as news of former Prime Minister Rani Shah’s assassination arrives. Intelligence agencies, opposition leaders, the army top brass, her closest relatives – all seem to be shifting in their chairs even as special investigative teams gear up to file a report. Conspiracy theories abound for there were many who stood to gain if she pulled out of the imminent elections. The needle of suspicion points most immediately to Madam Shah’s close confidante Nazneen Khan, who was seen sitting right beside her in the convoy and, oddly, escaped the bomb blast unscathed. Sabyn Javeri’s tale of intense friendship between two ambitious women unfolds in a country steeped in fanaticism and patriarchy. Set against a backdrop of intrigue and political machinations, this is a novel about love, loyalty, obsession, and deception.

Daura by Anukrti Upadhyay

A journey into the dark heart of the desert. A young District Collector is posted to one of the furthest outposts of rural Rajasthan and finds himself drawn deeper and deeper into the lives and troubles of the common people there. Then one day, with the help of a mysterious musician, the Sarangiya, he has an encounter with beauty in its purest, most absolute form – an encounter that precipitates a dangerous descent. The pages from the journal he keeps are combined with the narratives of various people around him to create a compelling account of his slide away from reality.

Ghachar Ghochar by Vivek Shanbhag , Srinath Perur

Cuckold by Kiran Nagarkar

The time is the early 16th century. The Rajput kingdom of Mewar is at the height of its power. It is locked in a war with the Sultanates of Delhi, Gujarat, and Malwa. But there is another deadly battle being waged within Mewar itself. who will inherit the throne after the death of the Maharana? The course of history, not just of Mewar but of the whole of India, is about to be changed forever

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

Winner of the 2008 Booker Prize, now a major Netflix film starring Priyanka Chopra and Rajkumar RaoMeet Balram Halwai, the ‘white tiger’: servant, philosopher, entrepreneur, murderer…

The White Tiger is a tale of two Indias. Balram’s journey from the darkness of village life to the light of entrepreneurial success is utterly amoral, brilliantly irreverent, deeply endearing, and altogether unforgettable.

Selection Day by Aravind Adiga

Serious Men by Manu Joseph

The Illicit Happiness Of Other People by Manu Joseph

Rumi: A New Translation by Farrukh Dhondy

Marked by the lyrical beauty and spiritual insight, a deep understanding of human suffering that coexists with rapturous abandon, the poems of Jalaluddin Rumi continue to be relevant almost eight centuries after they were composed, with contemporary audiences finding new meanings in them. Rumi’s poems bring together the divine and the human, the mystical and the corporeal to create a vivid kaleidoscope of poetic images.

India’s Most Haunted by K. Hari Kumar

There are places where the past lingers, making shapes in the moonlight and blowing in the curtains even as the air goes suddenly still. K. Hari Kumar, the bestselling author of spine-chilling horror fiction, brings you the terrifying tales of some of India’s most haunted places – including Bhangarh Fort, Malabar Hill’s Tower of Silence, and Jammu and Kashmir’s notorious Khooni Nala. Whether you read them at night or in daylight, these stories will remain with you long after you’ve turned the last page.

Best Indian Short Stories by Khushwant Singh

Dopehri by Pankaj Kapur

The Belated Bachelor Party by Ravinder Singh

Parliamental by Meghnad S.

Raghav Marathe, cynical millennial turned reluctant policy analyst, arrives in Delhi with his boss, Prabhu Srikar of the RJM party, and a first-time MP with a tendency to throw up. As they navigate their way around Parliament, handling backroom deals, nepotistic party heads, and laws that seem to be tailor-made to benefit the ruling party, they learn that politics and idealism don’t always go together. While Srikar tries to adapt to his new avatar and lie low, Raghav uses his Twitter alter ego, @Arnavinator, to vent his frustration and spread chaos.But when a new bill that threatens freedom of expression is bulldozed through with impunity, Srikar and Raghav must make a choice – to compromise on their values or to stand up for what is right. But at what cost? And can they and their unlikely allies – a jaded lawyer, an ambitious journalist and a rising YouTube star – really make a difference?

Best Indian Short Stories: Volume 2 by Khushwant Singh

India’s Wars by Arjun Subramaniam

The Japanese Wife by Basu Kunal

An Indian man writes to a Japanese woman. She writes back. The pen-friends fall in love and exchange their vows over letters, then live as man and wife without ever setting eyes on each other – their intimacy of words tested finally by life’s miraculous upheavals.The twelve stories in this collection are about the unexpected. An American professor visits India with the purpose of committing suicide, and goes on a desert journey with the daughter of a snake-charmer. A honeymooning Indian couple is caught up in the Tiananmen Square unrest. A Russian prostitute discovers her roots in the company of Calcutta revolutionaries. A holocaust victim stands tall among strangers in a landscape of hate. These are chronicles of memory and dreams born at the crossroads of civilizations. They parade a cast of angels and demons rubbing shoulders with those whose lives are never quite as ordinary as they seem.

14: Stories That Inspired Satyajit Ray by Bhaskar Chattopadhyay

Narasimha by Kevin Missal

Narasimha, once a brave soldier, has left the war and lies low as a physician in a village. But a familiar face from his past seeks his help to stop the tyranny of the blind usurper Andhaka. If Narasimha refuses, the world might just end. What will he do? And why did he leave the war in the first place? Prahlad, the interim king of Kashyapuri, is torn between the ideals of his unrighteous father and his love for Lord Vishnu. Whom will he choose? Hiranyakashyap, the ruler of the Asura Empire, wants to avenge the death of his wife. To do that, he must go through the Trials and get the ultimate weapon – the Brahmastra. But the Trials have sent so many others to their death. Can Hiranyakashyap survive?

Pather Panchali by Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay

Pather Panchali is a vivid, moving and authentic portrayal of the life of a Brahmin household seen through the eyes of the two young children of the family, Opu and his elder sister Durga. Few authors in any literature can rival Bandhopadhyaya’s understanding of the child mind.

Ivory Throne by Manu S. Pillai

In 1498, when Vasco da Gama set foot in Kerala looking for Christians and spices, he unleashed a wave of political fury that would topple local powers like a house of cards. The cosmopolitan fabric of a vibrant trading society – with its Jewish and Arab merchants, Chinese pirate heroes and masterful Hindu Zamorins – was ripped apart, heralding an age of violence and bloodshed. One prince, however, emerged triumphant from this descent into chaos. Shrewdly marrying Western arms to Eastern strategy, Martanda Varma consecrated the dominion of Travancore, destined to become one of the most dutiful pillars of the British Raj. What followed was two centuries of internecine conflict in one of India’s premier princely states, culminating in a dynastic feud between two sisters battling to steer the fortunes of their house on the eve of Independence.

The Twice-born by Aatish Taseer

When Aatish Taseer first came to Benares, he was eighteen, the Westernized child of an Indian journalist and a Pakistani politician, raised among the intellectual and cultural elite of New Delhi. Nearly two decades later, Taseer leaves his life in Manhattan to go in search of the Brahmins, wanting to understand his own estrangement from India through their ties to tradition. Known as the twice-born – first into the flesh, and again when initiated into their vocation – the Brahmins are a caste devoted to sacred learning. But what Taseer finds in Benares, the holy city of death, is a window on an India as internally fractured as his own continent-bridging identity. At every turn, the seductive, homogenizing force of modernity collides with the insistent presence of the past. From the narrow streets of the temple town to a Modi rally in Delhi, among the blossoming cotton trees and the bathers and burning corpses of the Ganges, Taseer struggles to reconcile magic with reason, faith in tradition with hope for the future and the brutalities of the caste system, all the while challenging his own myths about himself, his past, and his countries old and new.

Solo by Rana Dasgupta

Before the man lost his sight, he read this story in a magazine. A group of explorers came upon a community of parrots speaking the language of a society that had been wiped out in a recent catastrophe. Astonished by this discovery, they put the parrots in cages and sent them home so that linguists might record what remained of the lost language. But the parrots, already traumatised by the devastation they had recently witnessed, died on the way. Wondering if, unlike these hapless parrots, he has any wisdom to leave to the world, one-hundred-year-old Ulrich embarks on an epic armchair journey through the twists and turns of his country’s turbulent century – and through his own century of lost love and failed chemistry – and finds his way to an astonishing epiphany of redemption and enlightenment.

Sex, Scotch & Scholarship by Khushwant Singh

In this anthology, which comprises some of Khushwant Singh’s best writing, you can look forward to some talk of sex, a little of scotch and much scholarship. The collection attempts to mirror the author’s concerns and passions-his love of nature, his anguish over the situation in Punjab, his interest in religions of the world, and his scholarly research on the one into which he was born, Sikhism.

Darkness by Ratnakar Matkari

A boy who can predict the exact date a person will die… An elderly woman who knows that death is close, but learns how to cheat it… A child with a dangerous friend who happens to be invisible… A ghost who can’t stop reliving his suicide over and over again…People you’ll wish you never have to meet, and stories you’ll never forget.

Accidental Magic by Keshava Guha

Dozakhnama by Rabisankar Bal

Who tells the greatest story God or Manto? Dozakhnama: Conversations in Hell is an extraordinary novel, a biography of Manto and Ghalib and a history of Indian culture rolled into one. Exhumed from dust, Manto’s unpublished novel surfaces in Lucknow. Is it real or is it a fake? In this dastan, Manto and Ghalib converse, entwining their lives in shared dreams. The result is an intellectual journey that takes us into the people and events that shape us as a culture. As one writer describes it, I discovered Rabisankar Bal like a torch in the darkness of the history of this subcontinent. This is the real story of two centuries of our own country.

Shivaji: The Great Maratha by Ranjit Desai

Young Shivaji reaches Pune, a dying fort city, with his mother Jijabai and lights the first lamp within its ruins. While his father Shahaji Bhosle is away on deputation by the Adil Shah sultanate after having failed in a revolt against it, Shivaji learns how an empire is built from the ground up. Thus begins the life of the Great Maratha. What awaits Shivaji is nothing short of the vast scroll of history, and it takes him from Surat to Thanjavur and all the way to Aurangzeb’s durbar in Agra. He dreams of freeing his land from the clutches of Mughal rule, and though he suffers many defeats and personal losses along the way he never gives up his vision of Hindavi Swaraj. Amidst political intrigue and a chain of skirmishes, Shivaji becomes a leader, a warrior and a tactician par excellence, driven by immense pride and love for his motherland.

Inheritance by Balli Kaur Jaswal

Fifteen-year-old Amrit disappears from her house in the middle of the night and returns a different person. Over the next two decades, her actions affect three generations of her Sikh family in Singapore. When Narain, her brother, leaves his new life in America to take care of her, he must find his place again in a country and a community that will not accept him for who he is. Gurdev, the eldest, raises his three daughters with fear and caution over what they might become. And Harbeer, whose wife has left him, is the unyielding patriarch who must reconcile his pride and learn to cope with his own demons.

Sugar bread by Balli Kaur Jaswal

Ten-year-old Pin knows she must not become like her mother Jini but doesn’t know why. She tries to figure out her mother’s moods through her cooking, even as she fights other battles-being a bursary student in an elite Christian school, facing hateful racial taunts from Bus Uncle and classmates like Abigail Goh.

When her meddlesome Nani ji Kulwant moves in, installing portraits of Sikh gurus whose features seem the change according to the atmosphere in the house, she brings with her a new set of rules. And old secrets begin to tumble out.

Strangers to Ourselves by Shashi Deshpande

Set in Mumbai, Shashi Deshpande’s novel tells the story of an unlikely love between two unusual people. Tender and tempestuous by turns, it draws you into the conflicts, languid pleasures and sharp sorrows of falling in love with a stranger who can never entirely be yours.

Ravan and Eddie by Kiran Nagarkar

An extremely funny novel about two larger-than-life heroes and their bawdy, Rabelaisian adventures in post-colonial urban India. Ravan and Eddie remain one of the finest books written with Mumbai as a backdrop. It’s uproariously funny, outrageously irreverent … [and] reveals the city as a character, an actor, a living being.

The Extras by Kiran Nagarkar

Ravan and Eddie are back! They’ve been mortal enemies since birth because of a bizarre family feud. But now Ravan and Eddie’s lives converge as they share an obsession: having grown up in Bombay, the city of dancing movie stars and glitzy glamour, both dream of strutting down the road to superstardom. Can Ravan (a lowly taxi driver) and Eddie (a bouncer-cum-bartender at a speakeasy) rise from their dusty CWD chawls to the glittering heights of international fame?

Home Boy by H.M. Naqvi

Rollicking, bittersweet and sharply observed, Home Boy is at once an immigrant’s tale, a mystery, a story of love and loss as well as a unique meditation on Americana and notions of collective identity. It announces the debut of an original, electrifying voice in contemporary fiction.

Girl in White Cotton by Avni Doshi

Antara has never understood her mother Tara’s decisions – walking out on her marriage to follow a guru, living on the streets like a beggar, shacking up with an unknown artist, rebelling against society’s expectations … But when Tara starts losing her memory, Antara searches for a way to make peace with their shared past, a past that haunts them both.

As she relives her childhood in Pune in the eighties, the time she spent at a Catholic boarding school in the hills of Maharashtra, and her years as a young artist in Bombay, Antara comes up against her own fears and neuroses, realizing she might not be so different from Tara after all.

The Last Queen by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

The latest from the bestselling author of The Forest of Enchantments …

While we have all heard tales of Rani Lakshmi Bai and Padmavati, not many of us are familiar with another Indian queen.

Daughter of the royal kennel keeper, the beautiful Jindan Kaur went on to become Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s youngest and last queen; his favorite. She became regent when her son Dalip, barely six years old, unexpectedly inherited the throne. Sharp-eyed, stubborn, passionate, and dedicated to protecting her son’s heritage, Jindan distrusted the British and fought hard to keep them from annexing Punjab. Defying tradition, she stepped out of the zenana, cast aside the veil, and conducted state business in public. Addressing her Khalsa troops herself, she inspired her men in two wars against the ‘firangs’. Her power and influence were so formidable that the British, fearing an uprising, robbed the rebel queen of everything she had, including her son. She was imprisoned and exiled. But that did not crush her indomitable will.

The Householder by Amitabha Bagchi

With uncommon acuity, Amitabha Bagchi writes of a world where favours are currency, where access to power sometimes feels like a prerequisite for survival, where power can be both total and ephemeral. The Householder is a view from within this world, an examination of the moral condition of our times.

Above Average by Amitabh Bagchi

Lyrical, spare, and charmingly self-deprecatory Amitabha Bagchi’s debut novel is a deeply funny account of growing up intelligent, sensitive, ambitious, and confused.

What Maya Saw: A Tale of Shadows, Secrets, Clues by Shabnam Minwalla

Almost from the moment, Maya steps into St Paul’s College, she is afraid. Everywhere she goes, she encounters questions and secrets. Not to mention the Shadows – a bunch of drop-dead gorgeous students who she realizes will do anything to keep their youth and beauty. Even kill. Maya wants no part in this sinister adventure. She would much rather be shopping for shoes, munching brownies and shedding her geeky image. But the teenager soon finds that she doesn’t have a choice. Only Maya can see the Shadows for what they really are. Only she can unravel the trail of clues laid long ago by a dead priest. This is why both the forces of good and evil need her so badly. Unsure about whom she can trust and believe, Maya launches into a clue hunt across Mumbai – and in the process, learns about love, friendship and growing up.

The Mountain of Light by Indu Sundaresan

Battle For Bittora by Anuja Chauhan

Twenty-five-year-old Jinni lives in Mumbai, works in a hip animation studio and is perfectly happy with her carefree life. Until her bossy grandmother shows up and announces that it is Jinni’s ‘duty’ to drop everything and come and contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections from their sleepy hometown, Bittora. Jinni swears she won’t but she soon ends up swathed in cotton saris and frumpy blouses, battling prickly heat, corruption and accusations of nymphomania as candidate Sarojini Pande, a daughter of the illustrious Pande dynasty of Pavit Pradesh. And if life isn’t fun enough already, her main opposition turns out to be Bittora ex-royal, Zain Altaf Khan – an irritatingly idealistic though undeniably lustworthy individual with whom Jinni shares a complicated history.

A Feast Of Roses by Indu Sundaresan

In this lush and romantic sequel to The Twentieth Wife , Mehrunnisa, the first woman Jahangir marries for love, is now Empress Nur Jahan. As a mark of his love, he transfers his powers of sovereignty to her. This is the story of the strength of character and cunning one woman has to demonstrate to get what she wants, sometimes at great personal cost, even almost losing her daughter’s love. But she never loses the love of the man who bestows this power upon her: Emperor Jahangir.

Shadow Princess by Indu Sundaresan

The Mughal Empire is crumbling. With the death of his beloved queen Mumtaz, Emperor Shah Jahan slowly loses interest in everything, while his sons conspire and scheme to gain control of the empire. Princess Jahanara is only seventeen when the weight of the imperial zenana is thrust upon her. Shah Jahan’s favorite daughter is the most important woman in the harem and is forced to remain at the Mughal court all her life, caught up in the intrigues and power politics of her siblings, sacrificing her own desires for the sake of her father.

Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal

Reese Witherspoon’s Book Club Pick! Balli Kaur Jaswal’s sexy, lively book is a thought-provoking East-meets-West story about community, friendship, and women’s lives at all ages—a spicy and alluring mix of Together Tea and Calendar Girls.

The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh

The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh

From the author of The Glass Palace and Jungle Nama , the widely-acclaimed bestseller. The Hungry Tide is a rich, exotic saga set in Calcutta and in the vast archipelago of islands in the Bay of Bengal.

Cut Like Wound by Anita Nair

Chain of Custody by Anita Nair

Alphabet Soup for Lovers by Anita Nair

Idris: Keeper of the Light by Anita Nair

The year is 1659. Idris, a Somalian trader, is in Kerala to attend the Mamangam festivities. By a strange twist of fate, he meets his nine-year-old son whose existence he had been unaware of. In an attempt to keep his son close to him, Idris embarks with him on a voyage that ends in the diamond mines of Golconda. Packed with passion, adventure, and fascinating aspects of life in the seventeenth century in southern India, Idris is a page-turner that will intrigue and excite readers everywhere.

The Liberation of Sita by Volga

Valmiki’s Ramayana is the story of Rama’s exile and returns to Ayodhya, of a triumphant king who will always do right by his subjects. In Volga’s retelling, it is Sita who, after being abandoned by Purushottam Rama, embarks on an arduous journey towards self-realization. Along the way, she meets extraordinary women who have broken free from all that held them back: husbands, sons, and their notions of desire, beauty, and chastity. The minor women characters of the epic as we know it — Surpanakha, Renuka, Urmila, and Ahalya — steer Sita towards an unexpected resolution. Meanwhile, Rama too must reconsider and weigh his roles as the king of Ayodhya and as a man deeply in love with his wife.

Red Maize by Danesh Rana

The Golden Pigeon by Shahid Siddiqui

The Sibius Knot by Amrita Tripathi

The Second Coming by Shubha Menon

Mad Girl’s Love Song by Rukumini Bhaya Nair

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

A couple exchange unprecedented confessions during nightly blackouts in their Boston apartment as they struggle to cope with a heartbreaking loss; a student arrives in new lodgings in a mystifying new land and, while he awaits the arrival of his arranged marriage wife from Bengal, he finds his first bearings with the aid of the curious evening rituals that his centenarian landlady orchestrates; a schoolboy looks on while his childminder finds that the smallest dislocation can unbalance her new American life all too easily and send her spiraling into nostalgia for her homeland…

Anita and Me by Meera Syal

It’s 1972. Meena is nine years old and lives in the village of Tollington, ‘the jewel of the Black Country’. She is the daughter of Indian parents who have come to England to give her a better life. As one of the few Punjabi inhabitants of her village, her daily struggle for independence is different from most. She wants fishfingers and chips, not chapati and dhal; she wants an English Christmas, not the usual interminable Punjabi festivities – but more than anything, she wants to roam the backyards of working-class Tollington with feisty Anita Rutter and her gang.

Blonde, cool, aloof, outrageous and sassy, Anita is everything Meena thinks she wants to be. Meena wheedles her way into Anita’s life, but the arrival of a baby brother, teenage hormones, impending entrance exams for the posh grammar school and a motorcycling rebel without a future, threaten to turn Anita’s salad days sour.

The Wounds of the Dead by Vikram Paralkar

A surgeon working in a dilapidated clinic in the hinterland is visited in the dead of night by a family – a man, his pregnant wife and their eight-year-old son. Victims of a senseless attack, they reveal to the surgeon wounds that they could not possibly have survived. In a narrative that blends medicine and metaphysics, the surgeon is then issued a preposterous task: to mend the wounds of the dead before sunrise so that the family can return to life. But this is not the only challenge laid before him, and it is only as the night unfolds and morning dawns that the surgeon realizes just how intricately his future is tied to that of the dead.

Moustache by S. Hareesh

No Presents Please: Mumbai Stories by Jayant Kaikini

One Point Two Billion by Mahesh Rao

Ice Boys In Bell Bottoms by Krishna Shastri Devulapalli

A Southern Music by T.M. Krishna

Farthest Field by Raghu Karnad

The photographs of three young men had stood in his grandmother’s house for as long as he could remember, beheld but never fully noticed. They had all fought in the Second World War, a fact that surprised him. Indians had never figured in his idea of the war, nor the war in his idea of India. One of them, Bobby, even looked a bit like him, but Raghu Karnad had not noticed until he was the same age as they were in their photo frames. Then he learned about the Parsi boy from the sleepy south Indian coast, so eager to follow his brothers-in-law into the colonial forces and onto the front line. Manek, dashing and confident, was a pilot with India’s fledgling air force; gentle Ganny became an army doctor in the arid North-West Frontier. Bobby’s pursuit would carry him as far as the deserts of Iraq and the green hell of the Burma battlefront.

The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi

Think Like a Monk by Jay Shetty

In this inspiring, empowering book, Shetty draws on his time as a monk in the Vedic tradition to show us how we can clear the roadblocks to our potential and power. Drawing on ancient wisdom and his own rich experiences in the ashram, “ Think Like a Monk ” reveals how to overcome negative thoughts and habits, and access the calm and purpose that lie within all of us.

The lessons monks learn are profound but often abstract. Shetty transforms them into advice and exercises we can all apply to reduce stress, improve focus, improve relationships, identify our hidden abilities, increase self-discipline and give the gifts we find in ourselves to the world. Shetty proves that everyone can – and should – think like a monk.

Things No One Else Can Teach Us by Humble the Poet

Hit Refresh: A Memoir by Microsoft’s CEO by Satya Nadella

Unlearn: 101 Simple Truths for a Better Life by Humble the Poet

Inferior by Angela Saini

From intelligence to emotion, for centuries science has told us that men and women are fundamentally different. But this is not the whole story.

Shedding light on controversial research and investigating the ferocious gender wars in biology, psychology and anthropology, Angela Saini takes readers on an eye-opening journey to uncover how women are being rediscovered. She explores what these revelations mean for us as individuals and as a society, revealing an alternative view of science in which women are included, rather than excluded.

Quantum Marketing by Raja Rajamannar

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World » Asia » India

The best books on india, recommended by lord meghnad desai.

Labour peer and professor emeritus at the London School of Economics, Meghnad Desai, marvels at the Indian people’s incredible tenacity for democracy and self-advancement since independence in 1947. He picks the best books on India.

India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy by Ramachandra Guha

Nehru's Hero Dilip Kumar by Meghnad Desai

Darlingji by Kishwar Desai

The Idea of India by Sunil Khilnani

Untouchables by Narendra Jadhav

1 India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy by Ramachandra Guha

2 nehru's hero dilip kumar by meghnad desai, 3 darlingji by kishwar desai, 4 the idea of india by sunil khilnani, 5 untouchables by narendra jadhav.

T ell me about your first book, Ram Guha’s India After Gandhi .

Jawaharlal Nehru was of course India’s first and long-serving prime minister, in power all the way from 1947 though to 1964, and an advocate for socialism and the public sector as the means by which economic development can be achieved by poorer countries.

And everybody was always saying: “Oh, India’s going to break up. It’s too diverse, there’s too much poverty, you’re going to have dictators.” But again and again India continues as a democracy. This is a book about how it happened in a country as large as Europe with diverse languages and religions. How can a place like this hold on to democracy?

How can it?

Well, the Western model says you need a middle class, you need literacy, you can’t do it with so much inequality, but India sets the example of the fact that it is possible. It is still a democracy with 700 million voters, 400 million of whom actually voted. The numbers are just mind-boggling. Even when Indira Gandhi imposed emergency rule, for 21 months from 1975-1977, the good sense of the Indian public got it all back, all their rights, and they don’t give up. Since independence the traditions of agitation and peaceful demonstration have upheld democracy.

Would you agree that the author has brought India very much to life in this book?

So your next choice is your own book about the Indian film star, Dilip Kumar?

Yes. Nehru’s Hero is about how you relate politics and cinema, how a non-didactic, non-academic medium reflects a political era. It’s about how film roles change, how the social aspect of life is always changing people’s idea of what India was and the ideal of manhood, what your hero should be like.

The “idea of Indian manhood” sounds very Soviet in a way. Like those posters of chisel-jawed youths holding sickles.

In a sense that’s right. I mean, Indian heroes often come from the Punjab or from Peshawar where people are tall and fair because everybody likes that look and he embodies that. But it’s not a macho ideal of manhood. He always has a soft side, a feminine side and he’s crying and being sorry.

And how did his roles reflect a changing India?

Well, his early films are tragic, he’s losing the woman and crying and groaning and singing. It’s all about forces beyond his control shaping his destiny. But later he is a do-something hero, facing challenges and getting the girl. He is fighting the world and succeeding. In the mid-50s India became more hopeful, I think. People felt they could do something about their situation. The question of “is there justice?”

Well, it’s hopeful, yes. Kumar was close to Nehru and his ideals. His heroes are positive Nehruvian men.

And you note that he never plays a Muslim?

Your next book, Darlingji , deals with the period of partition between India and Pakistan and is a love story.

Yes. It is by my wife and Darlingji is what they called each other, these people – Nargis and Sunil Dutt. Their love story has its roots in the partition. I met my wife when I was writing my book about Dilip Kumar, and Nargis, a very famous actress, was a contemporary of Kumar’s. My wife did a lot of research for this, looking at the personal diaries and letters and interviewing everyone about how they kept the romance a secret and what happened. Nargis was a fantastic actress.

The book starts before Nargis is born though?

Yes, it’s the story of three generations of singers. The grandmother was a child widow who eloped with a sarangi player and then their daughter Jaddanbai who moves to Bombay and becomes an actress. Her daughter is Nargis and the book is about the obstacles she overcame before she was famous. It is very much from a woman’s perspective.

Your wife helped you with your book; did you help her with hers?

She showed it to me, but I said: I don’t want to co-operate on this – it is your book, and it is from that angle of being a woman. I would have intellectualised it. Although this woman was iconic she was treated like shit by her family and that’s a woman’s condition in India.

Still now?

The idea of improvement and optimism seems to run through your book choices.

Yes. So my next book, Khilnani’s The Idea of India , is a very intellectual book, written to mark the 50th anniversary of independence. It’s a Nehruvian book, with the idea of the synthesis of Hindu and Muslim, the urban cities and the countryside and whether the idea is sustainable. Nehru was a socialist, really Fabian society, Labour party, with a kind of keeping-it-all-together secularism.

And is the idea of India as modern, technocratic, egalitarian and secular sustainable?

I think India has proved that it is. The traditions of agitation and peaceful process are all still strong. I mean, this is a summary of the intellectual process of development. It is shorter, not the whole history, a selective book. You can read it in a day.

different from India After Gandhi ? Is it not as colourful?

Your last book is about the untouchables, a group fighting for their own identity.

Yes, Untouchables . This is really an amazing book. Amazing. Jadhav is an economist, he has an American PhD, and his family are from an untouchable caste. His widowed mother got on a train, with no ticket, and travelled illegally to Bombay because being untouchable was not as bad in a city and nobody knows you’re untouchable after a while. She got a job as a maidservant and so her children had access to urban India. Her son picks up reading and learns English. He ends up in Bombay broadcasting and gets a government flat so all his children go to the local schools and both the boys and girls have all travelled abroad – they have all reached the top. It is an amazing story of mobility, an optimistic real life story of people with no legal help taking opportunities and, with education, education, education, raising their status like iconic ballad heroes.

Have there been famous untouchables in India’s history?

Yes, Ambedkar, you know, was an untouchable. He was born in 1891 and was one of the first Dalits or untouchables to obtain a university education in India. He was the architect of India’s constitution and his slogan “Education, Agitation and Organisation” has shaped India. I put the Jadhav book in my list because it is amazingly inspiring.

October 20, 2009

Five Books aims to keep its book recommendations and interviews up to date. If you are the interviewee and would like to update your choice of books (or even just what you say about them) please email us at [email protected]

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Lord Meghnad Desai

Lord Meghnad Desai is a British economist and a Labour politician. He was born in Baroda, India and made a life peer as Baron Desai of St Clement Danes in the City of Westminster in April 1991. He is a professor emeritus at the London School of Economics, and the author of Marx’s Revenge: The Resurgence of Capitalism and the Death of Statist Socialism , a book that predicts that globalization will lead to the revival of socialism. In choosing five books on India, he marvels at the Indian people’s incredible tenacity for democracy and self-advancement since gaining independence from the British in 1947.

We ask experts to recommend the five best books in their subject and explain their selection in an interview.

This site has an archive of more than one thousand seven hundred interviews, or eight thousand book recommendations. We publish at least two new interviews per week.

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Best Biographies & Memoirs Book Publishing Companies in India

Showing 17 publishers that match your search.

Mehta Publishing House

Genres: Self-Help, Math & Science, Health & Wellbeing, Biographies & Memoirs, and Nonfiction

Location: Mumbai, IN

Website: https://www.mehtapublishinghouse.com/

Accepts unagented submissions

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A Quiver Full of Arrows

Leena Sohoni

Shivputra Rajaram

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S. L. Bhyrappa

Genres: Romance, Thriller & Suspense, Fantasy, Horror, Women's Fiction, Literary Fiction, Self-Help, Religion & Spirituality, Business, Travel, Health & Wellbeing, History, Biographies & Memoirs, Politics, Fiction, Poetry, and Nonfiction

Location: New Delhi, IN

Website: https://rupapublications.co.in/

Tomb of God

Victor Ghoshe

Hermann Hesse

The Nest of the Recluse

Suchita Malik

Penguin Random House India

Genres: Literary Fiction, Young Adult, Middle Grade, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Romance, Education & Reference, Biographies & Memoirs, Horror, Action & Adventure, Self-Help, Historical Fiction, Sports & Outdoors, Mystery & Crime, History, Business, Travel, Women's Fiction, Thriller & Suspense, Architecture, Art, Cookbook, Humor, Fiction, Nonfiction, Children's, Poetry, and Short Story

Website: https://penguin.co.in/

Arundhati Roy

In an Antique Land

Amitav Ghosh

Sach Kahun Toh

Neena Gupta

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Embassy Publishing House

Genres: Biographies & Memoirs, Business, Self-Help, Health & Wellbeing, Travel, and Nonfiction

Website: https://embassybooks.in/

Yes Manuscript entries - View guidelines →

Digital Bank

Chris Skinner

See You at the Top

8 To Be Great

Richard St John

Genres: Mystery & Crime, Thriller & Suspense, Historical Fiction, Biographies & Memoirs, History, Self-Help, Politics, Fiction, and Nonfiction

Website: https://www.vitastapublishing.com/

Yes Book proposals & manuscript entries - View guidelines →

India's Strategies for Information War & Cyber Deterrence

Ashok Pathak

Backfire in Nepal

Sanjay Upadhya

A Naxal Story

Diptendra Raychauduri

Leadstart India

Genres: Business, Politics, History, Self-Help, Health & Wellbeing, Religion & Spirituality, Biographies & Memoirs, Travel, Sports & Outdoors, Literary Fiction, Mystery & Crime, Thriller & Suspense, Fiction, Nonfiction, Children's, and Poetry

Website: https://www.leadstartcorp.com/

A Bend in the River of Life

Marianne Furtado de Nazareth

A Street Puppy's Guide to Indian Religious Wisdom

Indus source books.

Genres: Religion & Spirituality, Business, History, Politics, Biographies & Memoirs, Health & Wellbeing, and Nonfiction

Website: https://www.indussource.com/

Mindful Conception and Gratifying Parenthood

Arundhati Hoskeri

Rani Laxmibai

Pratibha Ranade

Leader: 50 Insights from Mythology

Devdutt Pattanaik

Genres: Architecture, Art, Biographies & Memoirs, Business, Comics & Graphic Novels, History, Humor, Literary Fiction, Mystery & Crime, Religion & Spirituality, Romance, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Self-Help, Nonfiction, and Fiction

Location: Bangalore, IN

Website: https://pothi.com

How to Make Money With Breakout Trading

Indrazith Shantharaj

You Can Have A Jumbo Memory

Amrut Jadhav

Intelligent Fanatics of India

Rohith Potti & Pooja Bhula

Orient Paperbacks

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Website: https://www.orientpaperbacks.com/

Astrology for You

Shakuntala Devi

Divine Music

Suruchi Mohan

Khushwant Singh's Joke Book 2

Khushwant Singh

Genres: Architecture, Art, Photography, Romance, Thriller & Suspense, Fantasy, Horror, Women's Fiction, Literary Fiction, Self-Help, Religion & Spirituality, Business, History, Biographies & Memoirs, Politics, Fiction, and Nonfiction

Website: http://rolibooks.com/

Yes Manuscript entries & book proposals - View guidelines →

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What do book publishers do?

Sure, a book publisher prints and sells your book. But what they do behind the scenes encompasses much more than that. Publishers handle the entire publishing process for books, including:

Editing the book, i.e. developmental editing, copy editing, and proofreading;
Designing the book, i.e. book cover design and any necessary interior book design;
Promotion and marketing, i.e. writing the book’s blurb, email marketing , setting up media interviews, etc.; and
Production and distribution, i.e. formatting and distributing hardback, paperback, and ebook versions of the book to stores, both online and brick-and-mortar.

Note that the structure of publishing companies may differ, depending on their size. Bigger book publishers may be made up of publishing houses which may, in turn, be made up of imprints — each of which will have its own brand identity in terms of the type of books it publishes.

However, regardless of a publisher’s size, the scope of their work shouldn’t change. Once you sign with a publisher, they will do everything that it takes to bring your book to market.

What are the most prominent book publishing companies?

If we define success by sheer sales volume, then we might point towards the "Big 5" presses and educational publishers (who rake in a LOT of money). Over the past few decades, these giant publishing companies have merged with and acquired most of the mid-sized publishers in the industry. However, a few still remain. Here are today's biggest book publishing companies:

Penguin Random House (Big 5)
Hachette Book Group (Big 5)
HarperCollins (Big 5)
Macmillan Publishers (Big 5)
Simon & Schuster (Big 5)
Scholastic Corporation
Pearson Education
McGraw-Hill Education
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Cengage Learning

Together, these largest publishers dominate the publishing landscape. Countless beloved books come from their imprints, many of which you’ll find in our directory.

The rest of the publishing landscape is largely made up of small publishers, or independent publishers. Most big publishers don’t directly accept unsolicited submissions without a literary agent — but smaller publishers do, making them a realistic and worthwhile route to publication.

I have a long list of publishers. What next?

Congratulations! Now take a moment to thoroughly vet every publisher on your longlist. Scams are a dime a dozen in the publishing industry, and you want to make 100% sure that you’re dealing with a legitimate publishing company. Again, we strongly recommend reading this post and Writer Beware to know what red flags to watch out for.

When you’re confident in all of the publishers on your longlist, it’s time for the most nerve-wracking step: submitting your manuscript to them.

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75 Best Indian Authors and their Books in English: The Must-Read List (2020 Update)

[Updated on 26-April-2020]

I’ve been trying to compile this list of Best Indian Authors in the English Language for a long time now. Every time I start, I get stuck up at zeroing in on the names.

There are so many great writers and novelists from India and of Indian origin, in the English language, that it is difficult to keep the list short.

Though I’m not a great fan of literary fictions and tend to incline towards mysteries and thrillers, I have tried my best to be unbiased and impartial.

While creating such lists, it is unavoidable to incline towards one’s preferences and tastes. If you are a fan of romance, you’d prefer Durjoy Dutta over Amish Tripathi; if you are a fan of humour, you’d prefer Sidin Vadukut over Ravinder Singh, and vice versa.

So, I decided to break down the list into different genres.

Also Read : 121 Best English Books by Indian Authors: The Definitive List (2024)

THE ALL-TIME GREATS OF INDIAN ENGLISH WRITING

TOP INDIAN LITERARY FICTION WRITERS

BEST HISTORIANS AND WRITERS OF HISTORY BOOKS FROM INDIA

BEST INDIAN AUTHORS OF RELIGIOUS/MYTHOLOGY BOOKS

BEST INDIAN AUTHORS OF HISTORICAL FICTION BOOKS

BEST MYTHOlOGICAL FICTION WRITERS IN INDIA

THE BEST WRITERS OF ROMANCE NOVELS IN INDIA

BEST MYSTERY AND THRILLER AUTHORS IN INDIA

TOP-MOST WRITERS OF SCI-FI/FANTASY NOVELS IN INDIA

BEST CHICK-LIT AUTHORS IN INDIA

BEST AUTHORS OF SELF-HELP AUTHORS IN INDIA

Also Read : 121 Best English Books by Indian Authors: The Definitive List (2018)

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About the Author

Father to Ahaana. Husband to Mayuri. Co-founder at bookGeeks. Engineer at BMM.

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Spiritual novels: 7 best spiritual fiction books, swami vivekananda books | a list of 28 best books, sudha murty books | a list of 32 books by sudha murty (genre wise), related articles, latest indian novels 2024: discover india’s latest literary treasures.

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10 Must-Read Inspiring Indian Biographies & Autobiographies

Needless to say, this carefully chosen list of Best biography & autobiography books of great personalities from India, will help seekers of all ages. Especially young generation students. Young students can learn a few things to lay the foundation for their future. Also, it is said that this kind of motivational and inspiring book also passes on a fraction of the positive energy of these great people to the readers.

How these biographies could help us?

Let’s have a look at the case of M.K. Gandhi.

We might know many things about Mahatma Gandhi, but do you know how this man became a noble soul, his journey in his own words seems to be the words of God himself. Once you read the book – ‘ My Experiment with Truth by M.K. Gandhi’, you will realize that this is altogether a new world, new learning, a new horizon, witnessing the unthinkable. He frankly admits and reveals that while his father was extremely ill and dying on the bed, he was so lustful that even then he was thinking about sexual intimacy. How this lustful MK Gandhi transformed into the person who retaliated against the British cruelty in South Africa for a cause and how he became a powerful source of energy for 32 crores Indian Population.

We only know his extraordinary ethics, values, and principles, we think of a man who must’ve been perfect, without any flaws!

You would see in this book that he had his own flaws and how his determination, discipline, routine, and improvement on small things overcame his flaws.

Similarly, most of the below-mentioned books show that “winners are not born, they are made!”

Why read Biographies and autobiographies?

autobiographies of famous indian personalities

Each and every biography book will help you become more flexible, determined, visionary, inspirational, and above all a great human being.

The beauty of reading is that you can imagine the story in your own way of fascination. Reading also helps us to become better human beings and smart people .

Best Biography & Autobiography books of Great Personalities of India

If you’re from India and an avid reader of autobiographies, you’ll probably recognize the best and most overwhelming Indian biographies & autobiographies books listed here.

The below mentioned list is the result of my reading habit and a little bit of research, so don’t waste your time verifying the details about these books:

# 1. My experiment with truth by M. K. Gandhi

best Indian biographies and autobiographies - my experiment with truth by Mahatma Gandhi

Irrespective of many controversies we have heard about M. K. Gandhi, “My Experiment with Truth” by Mahatma Gandhi himself is a must-read. In his autobiography, at times, he is brutally honest in describing his experiments and incidents.

Without any doubt, I can say that this book is among the best biography and autobiography books in India.

Also, it provides an invaluable insight into one of the 20th century’s most iconic characters whom Albert Einstein once said “Generations to come will scarce believe that such a person as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth. (said for Mahatma Gandhi)”.

If such are the words of the greatest scientist in the world, then what more do you need to get excited to read this wonderful book?

Amazon India

Amazon.com ( for US/Global)

# 2. Vivekananda: A Biography – by Swami Nikhilananda

best Indian biographies and autobiographies swami vivekananda a biography

I recommend this ultimate book to energize and rejuvenate yourself, as I think this book carries the part of himself – Swami’s power. Many have already been energized by just reading him. Remember his famous quote:” Arise, awake and stop not, till the goal is reached”.

Many publications have released the biographies & autobiographies of Swami Vivekananda, one of the greatest modern-day yogi of India. Be careful in selecting the books on his life.

Since you have reached here, it means you have come here with a purpose. This one of the best biography books is worthy enough for your all due diligence in searching for such great books. Surely you will get inspired after reading this. This biography book from India is about a man with a clear vision and mind, a brilliant speaker, who has clearly inspired our lives for over a century. His superhuman accomplishments in the 1890’s America with unbelievable odds worked against him. Yet what he did in 1893 in Chicago will be heard for centuries.

Apart from your own read, this is one of the finest biographies to gift your near and dear ones of all age groups and this will surely help students .

Also, check this one:

We Indians have one of the greatest role models from modern Indian saints India has ever produced, Swami Vivekananda. Swami made Indians believe that “strength is life weakness is death” and one should be strong enough (from both perspectives – physically and mentally) to fight any battle. How can we forget his message to goal-seekers “Arise, awake and stop not, till the goal is reached”? But reading Vivekananda is not only any single topic but this is more related to enlightening ourselves, personality development, and knowing the spiritual aspect of life.

Parents or elders wish to make their children – strong and brave enough to fight against any odd situation in life, sensitive enough to feel the pain of deprived classes, intelligent enough to understand and respond brilliantly to any situation or talk, and knowledgeable enough to accept and learn from the world but at the same time never forget the greatness of our own great culture. In order to help your young kids get a part of the energy, Swami Vivekanand’s persona emits, do one thing. G ive them the option to read this set of complete works by Swami Vivekananda, which was written largely by himself.

Apart from Swami Vivekananda’s biography, one should read the complete works of Swami Vivekananda. This set of 9 books was largely written in his own words. This could also be gifted to children in your family, which could also change their lives in a positive manner.

The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda (set of 9 volumes):

Also check this collection in Indian languages – Hindi , Kannada .

# 3. Wings of Fire: An Autobiography of Abdul Kalam

best Indian biographies and autobiographies - wings of fire by APJ AbdulKalam

If you are expecting a story about his life, then this is not that. This is more than an autobiography. With very few resources and only dreams, hopes, and aspirations, the man of excellent character changed the defense scenario of India. He later achieved the highest honor in the country and reached the highest position in the country.

APJ Kalaam always wanted to fuel every Indian with the same pride, which he carries. ‘Wings of Fire’ is one of the best-selling biography books of India.

#4. The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan by Robert Kanigel

best Indian biographies and autobiographies - the man who knew infinity :Ramanujan

Born poor in India in 1887, this rigorously orthodox Hindu, exemplary mathematician rose to the heights before he died at the very young age of 32 years. This is a well-researched book and a fascinating account of the short but outstanding life of the enigmatic and extraordinary mathematician Ramanujan.

Ramanujan could be easily compared with the greatest of any subject or he could be described as the mathematical equivalent of a Mozart.

Everyone would surely find Ramanujan fascinating, even if you have no interest in mathematics.

#5. Nani A. Palkhiwala: A life M V Kamath

Mr. Nani Palkhiwala was one of the most admired lawyers in India. A must-read biography book for all young brains, who aspire to become legal professionals or lawyers in India. There are two books on the life of Nani Palkhiwala, truly a legal legend of India, and both books are among the best Indian biographies/autobiographies list. Believe me, you won’t resist reading both. I rate this book on top.

Mr. Nani A. Palkhivala is regarded as one of the best lawyers, India has ever produced. His life is a teacher in itself for all legal professionals. Mr. M. V. Kamath, through this book, made Nani alive by telling the story of his life in an impressive manner. His courage, intellect, brilliance, and knowledge were unmatchable.

Also, I would like to recommend the second book on his life – Nani Palkhivala: The Courtroom Genius by Soli J. Sorabjee and Arvind P. Datar.

#6. The Z Factor: My Journey as the Wrong Man at the Right Time

best Indian biographies and autobiographies - the z factor by Subhash Chandra

This is for sure that you won’t regret spending every single penny. Entrepreneurs would love to read this.

An inspiring story of a 17-year-old boy who decided to turn around the family business, who defeated bankruptcy to become one of the richest people in the country with an estimated wealth of around USD 70 Billion. Entered into the media business at the best-ever favorable time to enter. The book shows the risk-taking, courageous character of Subhash Chandra.

You will surely learn a lot. With easy language, this is a must-read!

#7. I Too Had a Dream by Verghese Kurien (Author)

best Indian biographies and autobiographies - I too had a dream by Verghese Kurien

This is one of the best biography/autobiography books of India. While writing the autobiography, Verghese Kurien would have easily mentioned interesting stories about his sacrificed personal life and hobbies. Rather he was very much focused on showing us how he made Amul a brilliant success story.

This book shows us his legendary role in making the AMUL. It is more important to realize how he drove the success of the cooperative movement and the white revolution.

There are many similarities with another Gujarati Sardar Patel, he was really an Iron Man, whose strength was indispensable when the great work of nation-building was underway.

Indeed, this book deserves to be read by every Indian. One of the best Indian Memoirs!

#8. Karmayogi: A Biography of E. Sreedharan by M.S. Ashokan

best autobiographies - Karmayogi by e sreedharan

India needs more such examples of bureaucrats & engineers who have spent their lives in the service of fellow human beings. This is truly remarkable that projects of E. Sreedharan have been carried out with the highest degree of efficiency.

The book may influence to Stay humble even though you are such a highly accomplished person like Sreedharan.

#9. Beyond the Last Blue Mountain by R. M. Lala

best Indian biographies and autobiographies - beyond the last blue mountain by R.M. Lala

J R D Tata: “What is good for India is good for Tatas”

A book written with utmost detail and the personal side of JRD is explained well.

It’s a very inspiring read about JRD to understand the passion and desire that has gone behind setting up and establishing the airline industry and TATA empire in India.

#10. Not Just an Accountant by Vinod Rai (Author)

best Indian biographies and autobiographies - Vinod Rai-Not Justan Accountant

The book gives insights into the official communication between entities of the governments. How various warning bells have been neglected during the series of scams by UPA Govt. and Congress leadership. The way he addresses the criticism is impeccable.

The best part of the books is the clear and straightforward presentation of facts without any unnecessary storytelling.

He is surely just not an accountant, but more as a leader how he performed the duty with the power of audit is phenomenal.

#11. The Journey Home by Radhanath Swami

best autobiographies - the journey home by Radhanath Swami

An outstanding story of a young American man, Radhanath Swami who travels to India seeking God and truth. Especially this book is an incredible adventure described in touching detail, which truly mesmerizes.

‘The Journey Home’ gives much deeper insights into the mysterious lives of true Sadhus. In particular, reading this book makes swami, Sadhu’s life quite understandable as well as the devotion path. His life takes him on a journey path from the United States to Europe, the Middle East, and finally to India.

I recommend this magnificent book to everyone.

This inspiring book spreads a positive attitude and shows a new way to look at life.

Some other notable & Best Indian Biographies and autobiographies from India

Sachin Tendulkar – Playing It My Way
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Patel a Life
Indra Nooyi – A Biography
Unbreakable by Mary Kom
Born Again on the Mountain: A Story of Losing Everything and Finding It Back
Kalpana Chawla: A Life
Bhabha and His Magnificient Obsessions

As well said by Walt Disney “There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island.”

If you want to read about the Best Indian Biography and autobiography books in Hindi language , click here .

So enjoy this great treasure!

Your opinion really matters, we want you to register your voice about your favorite Biography/ Autobiographies of India, and let others benefit from your opinion on these books : (Pls note, this poll is closed now)

Details of this poll are as follows:

Poll Question: Do let us know which are your favorite Biographies.

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The 18 most-anticipated Indian books of 2024

By Saachi Gupta

The most important document on my phone is a list of all the books I have read in the last three years, segregated by month and then year, with each book rated out of five stars. As 2024 dawns bright and clear (hazy and smog -filled for Indians), it’s time to reset the list: fortunately, there are plenty of new releases to look forward to in 2024. From Salman Rushdie’s much-awaited memoir about his 2022 stabbing and Ruskin Bond’s new book celebrating his 90th birthday to Kanan Gill ’s debut novel Acts of God and the explicit and educational diary of a sex therapist, 2024 brings with it a diverse range of books. Below, Vogue rounds up the best Indian books of 2024—for me (and you) to add to your list.

Maria, Just Maria by Sandhya Mary

Sandhya Mary's Maria, Just Maria published by HarperCollins India and translated from Malayalam by Jayasree Kalathil is the story of a woman trying to find her place in the world

Following the death of her grandmother, Maria has stopped speaking—not because she can’t, but because she doesn’t want to. Now in a psychiatric hospital, she recalls her journey of being ‘just Maria’: a girl born into a Syrian Christian family in Kerala whose companions were a grandfather who she wandered around the village’s toddy shops with, a great-aunt with dementia who challenged Maria’s position as the youngest in the family, a dog with a penchant for philosophy and several long-dead family members. Masterfully translated by Jayasree Kalathil, Sandhya Mary’s Maria, Just Maria published by HarperCollins India is a sharp and humorous take on the ideas that define contemporary society, told through the story of a woman trying to find her place in the world.

Knife: Meditations after an Attempted Murder by Salman Rushdie

Salman Rushdie's Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder answers violence with art, documenting his 2022 stabbing

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Salman Rushdie has been living under threat of assassination since 1989. In August 2022, the Booker Prize winning author was stabbed ten times as he was about to give a public lecture in New York, even as several people attempted to hold the assailant back. Despite losing the use of one hand in sight in one eye, Rushdie stated in an interview with The New Yorker that his overwhelming feeling was gratitude at having survived. In this much-awaited memoir about his near-death experience, Rushdie answers violence with art, reminding us of the power of words as he comes to terms with the unthinkable. Gripping and intimate, this Penguin Random House India publication is a meditation on life, loss , love, art—and finding the strength to stand up again.

Ma is Scared by Anjali Kajal

Ma is Scared marks Anjali Kajal's much awaited English debut, and is a collection of short stories that delve into the ordinary lives of women in Northern India from Dalit points of view

Marking Anjali Kajal's long-overdue debut in English, Ma is Scared is a collection of short stories published by Penguin Random House India, drawing us into the ordinary lives of women in Northern India from Dalit points of view. Hard-hitting because it reflects the realities and daily lives of marginalised communities in India, the book is an exploration of gender, caste and most importantly, resistance. In the title story ‘Ma is Scared’, a mother anxiously awaits her daughter's return from work while deflecting comments from judgmental neighbours. ‘Pathways’ follows two boys, Vipul and Sanjay in their journey to get an engineering degree, uncovering the privilege of social capital as the two hail from vastly different backgrounds. In another story, titled ‘History’, a girl—nameless, her sole identity being ‘Scheduled Caste’—struggles with casteism in college. Whether combating caste-based disdain in the workplace or enduring the new blows that the pandemic landed upon the Dalit community, Kajal's characters find a resilience and a dignity that we can all learn from.

Stories by Manto: A Graphic Narrative edited by Pinaki De and Debkumar Mitra

Indian books of 2024 18 mostanticipated titles of the year

Indo-Pakistani writer Saadat Hasan Manto was known for his inciting socio-political writing that reflected the realities of society. Published by Simon and Schuster and edited by Pinaki De and Debkumar Mitra, this book brings the prolific author's fiction to visual life, drawing from old and new illustrations of his prose.

Wonderland of Words by Shashi Tharoor

Shashi Tharoor's Wonderland of Words published by Aleph Book Company is a journey of discovery through a treasure house of astounding words

No one has a vocabulary like Shashi Tharoor —and his latest book is all set to reinforce his mastery of the English language. In Shashi Tharoor's Wonderland of Words published by Aleph Book Company, India's greatest wordsmith Shashi Tharoor takes readers on a journey of discovery through a treasure house of astounding words.

Late Blooming Cherries edited by Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih and Rimi Nath

Published by HarperCollins India, Late Blooming Cherries is India’s first-ever anthology of haikus. Edited by Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih and Rimi Nath, the collection arrives in the aftermath of the long isolation of the pandemic , documenting experiences so nostalgic that one is reminded of what it feels like to be human. From young love to the despair of loneliness, from a child’s bed to a grandmother’s lap, this anthology has a bit of everything from both new and accomplished haiku artists. Late Blooming Cherries is meant to be savoured as slowly as the late-bloomer cherries of Shillong, which is where its name comes from.

Unashamed: Notes from the Diary of a Sex Therapist by Neha Bhat

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In her 15 years working as a sex therapist, Neha Bhat has seen it all. A father who collapses into shame every time he tries to tell his son he is gay ; a much-in-love married couple who are at their wits end about why they have no desire for each other; a 25-year-old whose childhood trauma has taken physical manifestation every time she has sex. Bhat’s work has taken her through the length and breadth of Indian cities and towns, often showing her that sex and shame are different sides of the same coin. With Unashamed published by HarperCollins India, Bhat hopes to break this pattern: part psychoeducation and part self-help, this first-of-its-kind book presents the reader with simple challenges and questions to reframe their perspective on sex, sexual myths, relationships, kinks and fantasies and desire, helping them understand sexual maturity and sexual wellness. This is a BTS of sexual desire and sex in India.

The Architecture of Modern Empire: Conversations with David Barsamian by Arundhati Roy

Indian booker prizewinning author and antiglobalisation activist Arundhati Roy poses for photographers on September 8...

Combining a lifetime of experience in solidarity and resistance with her skills as a writer, Arundhati Roy illuminates the hidden structures of modern empire like no one else, revealing their workings so we can resist. “I try to create links, to join the dots, to tell politics like a story, to make it real,” the bestselling author states. Addressing subjects like war, nationalism and rising fascism combined with values like truth, justice, freedom and resistance, Roy encourages us to envision a different future and fight for it.

The Hill of Enchantment: The Story of My Life as a Writer by Ruskin Bond

Ruskin Bond celebrates his ninetieth birthday in May 2024 with the release of his memoir The Hill of Enchantment: The Story of My Life

In May 2024, India’s most loved writer Ruskin Bond will turn ninety. To celebrate this milestone, the prolific author—with a career spanning over 70 years and hundreds of books to his name—has written a new memoir, published by Aleph Book Company. The Hill of Enchantment: The Story of My Life contains stories Bond has never told before about his life, his sources of inspiration , the people he has loved, the people he has lost, and a myriad other absorbing details about his long and successful life as a writer.

The Many Lives of Syeda X: The Story of an Unknown Indian by Neha Dixit

Neha Dixit's The Many Lives of Syeda X , published by Juggernaut Books, shows us what it means to be a poor Muslim woman in today’s India

In this non-fiction title, acclaimed journalist Neha Dixit traces the life of one woman and her family over the course of thirty years in harrowing detail. Spanning from the early 1990s to the present day, the Juggernaut Books publication shows us what it means to be a poor Muslim woman in today’s India.

The Authorised Biography of Shabana Azmi by Satyarth Nayak

Shabana Azmi's biography, published by Penguin Random House India, is a peek into her evolution as an actor and human being

2024 marks the fiftieth year of Shabana Azmi 's glorious cinematic journey. In this official biography, Nayak captures the luminary's legendary acting career: from her process of inhabiting the iconic characters she plays to her evolution as an actor, in addition behind-the-scenes memories and anecdotes. Alongside documenting her artistic inclinations and activism, the book will also delve into Shabana Azmi, the person. From her growing up in a commune to her life in Janaki Kutir, from the influences of Kaifi Azmi's poetry and communism to the feminism and theatre of Shaukat Azmi shaping her worldview—this Penguin Random House India biography paints a complete portrait of the iconic actor, capturing her true essence.

Baal-o-Paar: Collected Poems by Gulzar

Baal-o-Paar , published by HarperCollins India, is a definitive collection of Gulzar’s poetry, comprising six volumes of poems

There are few Indians who aren’t familiar with a verse or two of Gulzar’s. HarperCollins India’s Baal-o-Paar is a definitive collection of Gulzar’s poetry , comprising six volumes of poems. The first volume, Chand Pukhraaj Ka , was written four decades ago; the last, Triveni , in 2004. Collected together for the first time and newly translated into English by Rakshanda Jalil (with the original poem appearing on the opposite page in Devanagari script), the many hundreds of poems bear witness to a remarkable poetic journey.

Like Being Alive Twice by Dharini Bhaskar

Dharini Bhaskar's Like Being Alive Twice is a speculative fiction novel with a split narrative

Published by Penguin Random House India, this speculative fiction novel plays out in an unnamed city in an unnamed country where Priyamvada (or Poppy) and Tariq are in love. In a few hours, Tariq is meant to propose to her. Things take an unexpected turn when the narrative splits in two. One segment follows all that does happen including Poppy’s impulsive dalliance with Yuvraj and her continued association with Tariq, now wedded to her oldest friend, Yana. The other approaches what-could-have-been—Poppy’s decision to ignore Yuvraj and fix things with Tariq and her eventual marriage to Tariq. All of this transpires against the backdrop of a city transforming: every citizen’s life is now governed by a scorecard, with the degree of access to housing and work dictated by how they fared. The scores, in turn, are governed by parentage and religion; by the social acceptability of a marriage; and by whether a woman can give birth. The laws are unforgiving—and no matter the narrative thread that is followed, Tariq and Poppy cannot remain untouched.

The Idolators by Manu Pillai

In his newest novel, prolific author Manu Pillai brings to light a forgotten slice of colonial history, writing about the startling colonial connections that have shaped independent India’s narrative. The Idolators examines the influence of the West on Indian beliefs, chronicling the lives of remarkable men and women who were instrumental in shaping India's self-image today. Travelling through the eighteenth century to the present, the novel explores everything from caste , religion and gender, extrapolating the manner in which the dynamics of the colonial age continue to affect India even today.

Riverside Stories: Writings from Assam edited by Banamallika Chaudhry

Published by Zubaan Books and edited by Banamallika Chaudhry, Riverside Stories is the sixth in an acclaimed series featuring Northeastern writers and stories, covering Nagaland, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and Mizoram.

Acts of God by Kanan Gill

Kanan Gill's debut novel Acts of God , published by HarperCollins India is a delightful alchemy of humour, imaginativeness and philosophical provocations

In comedian Kanan Gill’s wildly entertaining and inventive debut novel published by HarperCollins India, a celebrated scientist has been relegated to spending his days supervising a trifling project, but is secretly obsessively creating and destroying universes. The bumbling private detective P Manjunath and his long-suffering assistant Heng have embarked on a trans-continental adventure to investigate a series of seemingly unrelated disasters. A Danish policeman accidentally becomes a clothing-optional leader of a worldwide group of Science Haters, a sentient piece of wall struggles with the limits of its artistic expression and a lapel pin’s habit of always giving truthful advice results in utter chaos. A delightful alchemy of humour, imaginativeness and philosophical provocations, Acts of God marks the evolution of one of India’s finest comedic voices and is one of the most awaited Indian books of 2024.

An Uncommon Love: The Early Life of Sudha and Narayan Murthy by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

An Uncommon Love traces the early lives of Sudha Murty and Narayan Murthy, telling a story of love, compromise and endurance

In this Juggernaut Books publication set to release later this month, author Sudha Murty and Infosys founder Narayan Murthy let readers into their lives like never before. Penned by prolific author Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni , the memoir follows the love story of the two public figures, telling a tale of determination, compromise and endurance. At its heart, Banerjee believes, An Uncommon Love is the story of two ordinary people falling in love, refusing to compromise on their value systems and as a result, inspiring a nation to follow their dreams.

Ananda: A Journey into India’s Ancient Complex Relationship with Cannabis by Karan Madhok

Ganja or Cannabis indica or Cannabis sativa has been used in a variety of ways in the subcontinent for centuries. In this non-fiction publication published by Aleph Book Company known as the first major biography of ganja, Karan Madhok travels to every corner of the country, delving into the medical and scientific uses of cannabis as well as the central place it occupies in the counter-culture of the subcontinent.

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Jaun Elia: Ek Ajab Ghazab Shayar - Hindi

Samajsevi Sudha Murty Ki Prerak Jeevani (Hindi Edition)

Chanakya Neeti

The Story of My Experiments With Truth: Mahatma Gandhi, An Autobiography (Hindi) [Paperback] Mahatma Gandhi

Tejaswi Man | Nurturing A Generation Driven by Knowledge, Innovation, and Integrity | Self-help book in Hindi

Autobiography of A Yogi (Hindi) [Paperback] Paramahansa Yogananda

Professor Ki Diary

सुकरात (Hindi Edition)

Bharat Ke Warren Buffett Rakesh Jhunjhunwala (Hindi Edition)

Rashmirathi : Jnanpith Award Winner, 1972 by Ramdhari Singh Dinkar | New Edition | रश्मिरथी: ज्ञानपीठ पुरस्कार विजेता, 1972 - रामधारी सिंह दिनकर | नया संस्करण |

Inner Engineering (HINDI)

Wings of Fire: An Autobiography of Abdul Kalam (Hindi)/Agni Ki Udaan by A.P.J. Abdul Kalam: Soaring High in the Skies of Dreams and Determination - The ... of India's Missile Man (Hindi Edition)

Meri Jeevan Yatra | The Extraordinary Life Journey of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam | Inspirational Biography | Leadership | Indian President | Determination | Leadership | Memoir of Success | Book in Hindi

Vivekanand Ki Atmakatha "विवेकानंद की आत्मकथा" | A Biography Reflecting Swami Vivekanand Spiritual Journey and Impact on Indian Society | Inspirational Story by Shankar | Enlightening Insights into the Life and Teachings of a Visionary Leader | Book in Hindi

Jail Diary Of Bhagat Singh (Hindi)

1857 Ka Swatantraya Samar

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10 Must Read Books For Every Indian Entrepreneur

It is a truth universally acknowledged that an entrepreneur in possession of a startupmust be in want of a good book. Alright, so maybe those werent Jane Austens exact words. But the point still stands! Among all the various different ways in which you can keep yourself motivated , a reading habit has consistently been ranked as one of the top most productive habits. While there are heaps of curated list of inspiring books for Indian entrepreneurs, we have got you the ones penned down by and about Indian entrepreneurs.So without further ado, here are the best entrepreneur books for every Indian startup founder:

1. Dream With Your Eyes Open by Ronnie Screwvala

2. Bhaag by Ganesh V.

3. Connect The Dots by Rashmi Bansal

4. Dhirubhai Ambani: Against All Odds by A G Krishnamurthy

5. Steel King: Lakshmi Mittal by Prateeksha M Tiwary

How to start a startup in India – idea to execution
9 part-time business ideas to feed your entrepreneurial soul in 2020

6. Take Me Home by Rashmi Bansal

7. Stay Hungry Stay Foolish by Rashmi Bansal

[optin-cat id=5314]

8. Bhujia Barons: The Untold Story of How Haldiram Built a 5000 Crore Empire by Pavitra Kumar.

9. The Z Factor: My Journey as the Wrong Man at the Right Time by Subhash Chandra and Pranjal Sharma

10. You Can Win by Shiv Khera

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20 Best Indian Biography Books of All Time
The 20 best indian biography books recommended by Steve Jobs, Nitin Pai, Nle Choppa, Saba Naqvi, Kunal Kamra, Tarun Vijay and others. Categories Experts Newsletter icon-search
10 Must-Read Biographies of Indians Who Transformed The Nation
1. Dilip Kumar: The Definitive Biography by Bunny Reuban. "This is the story of Dilip Kumar, an introverted and inhibited youth who metamorphosed into a thespian par excellence by the sheer dint of his determination, perseverance and capability.". Dilip became the face of Indian cinema and produced several notable films.
Biographies of Indians (107 books)
No comments have been added yet. post a comment ». 107 books based on 21 votes: Ambedkar by Gail Omvedt, Playing It My Way: My Autobiography by Sachin Tendulkar, Wings of Fire: An Autobiography by A.P.J. ...
Best Biography Books That Every Indian Should Read
14 Best Biography Books For Indian Readers. 1. The life of Mahatma Gandhi by Louis Fischer. 2. Without Fear, The life and trial of Bhagat Singh by Kuldeep Nayar. 3. The Man who unified India by Balraj Krishna. 4. Rani Laxmibai the warrior queen of Jhansi by Pratibha Ranade.
A Collection of the Best Biography Books
July 20, 2022. 1 Min Read. Sangita, an Indian-Canadian author and filmmaker, through her investigations, uncovers the story and lives of temple elephants. While talking about Asian elephants in general, Sangita details how elephants are harassed even beyond temples. But the primary focus of the book is temple elephants.
10 Best Biography Books and Memoirs to Read
We have something for everyone from biographies & autobiographies of Indians, autobiography books in Hindi, and international memoir books and true stories. Biographies & Autobiography Books of Famous Indians. These biography books illuminate the essence of India's diverse culture, spirituality, and enduring legacy on the global stage.
Read Top 30 Biographies, Autobiographies, and Memoirs in 2021
Auroville by Anuradha Majumdar. Auroville was born to realize human unity through change of consciousness - a concept that still holds value in today's world. Told by someone who has lived the adventure for thirty-six years, this book explores how far the city has grown to resonate with its founding vision.
10 Must-Read Biographies On Inspirational People From India
Outlaw: India's Bandit Queen and Me by Roy Moxham. Roy Moxham's biography of spine-chilling events that occurred in Phoolan Mallah's life was a result of his journey and friendship with her in the later years of her life. Known as 'bandit queen' in India, Phoolan hailed from a poor rural family in Uttar Pradesh.
Bestsellers in Biographies & Autobiographies
Bestsellers in Biographies & Autobiographies. #1. Ratan Tata A Complete Biography. A.K. Gandhi. 378. Kindle Edition. 1 offer from ₹106.20. #2. Tuesdays With Morrie: An old man, a young man, and life's greatest lesson [Paperback] Albom, Mitch.
Bestsellers in Biographies & Autobiographies
Top 100 Paid Top 100 Free #1. Ratan Tata A Complete Biography. ... /Agni Ki Udaan by A.P.J. Abdul Kalam: Soaring High in the Skies of Dreams and Determination - The ... of India's Missile Man (Hindi Edition) A P J ABDUL KALAM. ... (Biographies of Physicists Book 2) Hourly History.
10 Best Biographies of Indian Personalities You Should Read
This superb biography, written with J.R.D. Tata's cooperation, tells J.R.D.'s story from birth to 1993, the year he died in Switzerland. This biography is a must-read thus making its way on to our list of best biographies of Indian personalities. 6. Vivekananda: A Biography - Swami Nikhilananda.
Biographies & Autobiography Books
Online shopping for Biographies & Autobiographies from a great selection at Books Store. ... The Method, The Legac: The Years That Changed India 4.5 out of 5 stars 271. Quick look ... Ahilyabai Holkar Biography Books in Marathi Autobiography Motivational पुस्तक Book मराठी पुस्तके बुक्स बुक ...
List of autobiographies by Indians
The Bandit Queen of India: 2006: L. K. Advani: My Country My Life: 2008: V. R. Krishna Iyer: Wandering in Many Worlds: 2009: Abhinav Bindra: A Shot at History: 2011: I K Gujral: Matters of Discretion: 2011: Arjun Singh: A Grain of Sand in the Hourglass of Time: 2012: Hay House Verghese Kurien: The Man Who Made The Elephant Dance: 2012 ...
The Best Books on Gandhi
The best books on Gandhi, as recommended by Ramachandra Guha, author of India after Gandhi as well as a two-part biography of Gandhi. ... 2002), which was chosen by The Guardian as one of the ten best books on cricket ever written. India after Gandhi (Macmillan/Ecco Press, 2007; revised edition, ... Ramachandra Guha's most recent book is a ...
Read Top 100 Best Books and Novels by Indian Authors Of All Time
Here are our top 100 picks, written by critically-acclaimed Indian authors, or authors of Indian origin. The Forest of Enchantments by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. In this brilliant retelling of the Ramayana, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni places Sita at the centre of the novel: this is Sita's version. The Forest of Enchantments is also a very ...
The Best Books on India
He picks the best books on India. 1 India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy by Ramachandra Guha. 2 Nehru's Hero Dilip Kumar by Meghnad Desai. 3 Darlingji by Kishwar Desai. 4 The Idea of India by Sunil Khilnani.
17 Top Biographies & Memoirs Book Publishers in India in 2024
Publishers handle the entire publishing process for books, including: Editing the book, i.e. developmental editing, copy editing, and proofreading; Designing the book, i.e. book cover design and any necessary interior book design; Promotion and marketing, i.e. writing the book's blurb, email marketing, setting up media interviews, etc.; and
75 Best Indian Authors and their Books in English (2020 Update)
India's literary pop star, Amish Tripathi is one of the most sold authors in India today. His books have collectively sold more than 4 million copies, with gross sales of Rs. 120 crores. Forbes India has ranked Amish among the top 100 celebrities in India. NOTABLE WORKS: The Immortals of Meluha The Secret of the Nagas The Oath of the Vayuputras
10 Must-Read Inspiring Indian Biographies & Autobiographies
Amazon India. Amazon.com ( for US/Global) #5. Nani A. Palkhiwala: A life M V Kamath. Share. Share on Pinterest Share on Facebook Share on Twitter. Mr. Nani Palkhiwala was one of the most admired lawyers in India. A must-read biography book for all young brains, who aspire to become legal professionals or lawyers in India.
Best Indian Fiction Books (896 books)
Clear rating. 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars. 3. The White Tiger. by. Aravind Adiga. 3.76 avg rating — 192,527 ratings. score: 31,671 , and 322 people voted. Want to Read.
The 18 most-anticipated Indian books of 2024
Mint/Getty Images. In May 2024, India's most loved writer Ruskin Bond will turn ninety. To celebrate this milestone, the prolific author—with a career spanning over 70 years and hundreds of books to his name—has written a new memoir, published by Aleph Book Company. The Hill of Enchantment: The Story of My Life contains stories Bond has ...
Amazon.in: Hindi
Books Advanced Search New Releases & Pre-orders Best Sellers Browse Genres Children's & Young Adult Textbooks Exam Central All Indian Languages 1-16 of over 5,000 results ... Books; Biographies, Diaries & True Accounts; Biographies & Autobiographies ... English India. AbeBooks Books, art & collectibles: Amazon Web Services Scalable Cloud
10 Must Read Books For Every Indian Entrepreneur
1. Dream With Your Eyes Open by Ronnie Screwvala. Written by an entrepreneur, for entrepreneurs. Ronnie Screwvala offers insights into the entrepreneurial world and the journey one has to go through from over 2 decades of his experience. Recommended by Lenskart Founder Peyush Bansal, you know this is one recommendation you dont want to miss out on.