100 books like Gujarat Files

By Rana Ayyub,

Here are 100 books that Gujarat Files fans have personally recommended if you like Gujarat Files. Shepherd is a community of 10,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of The Road to Mecca

Mohammed Javed Author Of The Broken Silence

From my list on Islam and the fight against injustice.

Why am I passionate about this?

I do not know about the origins of my passion but hardships did influence me, the values of Islam shaped my personality and infused passion required to speak up against injustices. When I write, I speak my mind and try to put my heart and soul into it and that’s how the passionate story of ‘The Broken Silence’ came into existence. It is composed over a period of 23 years; that speaks up and documents the genocidal sanctions imposed on Iraq that caused the pathetic deaths of about a million innocent children - “This book is a historic documentation of one man’s passionate efforts to do his part to speak truth to power.”

Mohammed's book list on Islam and the fight against injustice

Mohammed Javed Why did Mohammed love this book?

This book combines the exciting travels in the deserts of Arabia with his spiritual journey to uncover the meaning of the faith practiced there. I find immense meaning and wisdom in his words as he explores a faith practiced by more than a quarter of the world’s population!

In one story, an old man explains what it means to pray, and it sunk into me that it is focused on the willing surrender to God, obeying His commands, and bringing peace within us and our destiny.

I admire Asad’s interpretation of 'unhappiness' when he sees unhappy faces while traveling in a subway. On reaching home, he finds an open page from Qur’an that translates to mean, “You are distracted by mutual competition in amassing (worldly benefits), until you reach the graves.” That really struck me. 

By Muhammad Asad,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Road to Mecca as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Part travelogue, part autobiography, "The Road to Mecca" is the compelling story of a Western journalist and adventurer who converted to Islam in the early twentieth century. A spiritual and literary counterpart of Wilfred Thesiger and a contemporary of T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia), Muhammad Asad journeyed around the Middle East, Afghanistan and India. This is an account of Asad's adventures in Arabia, his inner awakening, and his relationships with nomads and royalty alike, set in the wake of the First World War. It can be read on many levels: as a eulogy to a lost world, and as…


Book cover of The Battlefields of the Prophet Muhammad

Mohammed Javed Author Of The Broken Silence

From my list on Islam and the fight against injustice.

Why am I passionate about this?

I do not know about the origins of my passion but hardships did influence me, the values of Islam shaped my personality and infused passion required to speak up against injustices. When I write, I speak my mind and try to put my heart and soul into it and that’s how the passionate story of ‘The Broken Silence’ came into existence. It is composed over a period of 23 years; that speaks up and documents the genocidal sanctions imposed on Iraq that caused the pathetic deaths of about a million innocent children - “This book is a historic documentation of one man’s passionate efforts to do his part to speak truth to power.”

Mohammed's book list on Islam and the fight against injustice

Mohammed Javed Why did Mohammed love this book?

There is an incorrect accusation that Islam is a violent religion. It is not, and this book shows that in the early days of Islam, the Prophet's battles were always defensive in nature and fought for the sake of truth. I think this book shows that Muhammad's (peace be upon him) behavior and conduct as the army commander was extraordinarily humane compared to similar commanders of this time. And it shows that he was the "Prophet of Mercy' not only in life but in war. And for that reason, I recommend this book.

Look at his conquest of Mecca. Mohammad asked his army of 10,000 to burn as many fires as possible when they halted for the night. He wanted to give the impression that his army was huge and convince them to surrender without bloodshed. And when Abu Sufyan, the chief of Meccans, fell into their hands, he…

Book cover of The Bible, The Qur'an and Science

Mohammed Javed Author Of The Broken Silence

From my list on Islam and the fight against injustice.

Why am I passionate about this?

I do not know about the origins of my passion but hardships did influence me, the values of Islam shaped my personality and infused passion required to speak up against injustices. When I write, I speak my mind and try to put my heart and soul into it and that’s how the passionate story of ‘The Broken Silence’ came into existence. It is composed over a period of 23 years; that speaks up and documents the genocidal sanctions imposed on Iraq that caused the pathetic deaths of about a million innocent children - “This book is a historic documentation of one man’s passionate efforts to do his part to speak truth to power.”

Mohammed's book list on Islam and the fight against injustice

Mohammed Javed Why did Mohammed love this book?

I am impressed with the author's substantial effort in examining the Holy Scriptures from the perspective of modern scientific knowledge. The author looks at various Quranic statements in the light of scientific discoveries and concludes that it can't be of human origin - that surely enhances that the Qur'an is a true Divine Book.

This book also has the noble purpose of promoting much-needed unity between the followers of Christianity and Islam and countering ignorant and false ideas about both religions. It was especially gratifying to learn of a Vatican document describing that Muslims profess the faith of Abraham and worship one God as Christians do – that gives me hope that we are all one.  

By Maurice Bucaille,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Bible, The Qur'an and Science as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In this book, I reveal previously unpublished fact(s) about Dr. Maurice Bucaille to include: birth and martial records, death and burial records, images of his gravestone with a link to the actual site, close family members with their various family tree(s), and much much more.
Dr. Maurice Bucaille was a prominent French physician/surgeon, amateur Egyptologist, and renowned author who became widely known for his best selling books and for his research related to science and religion particularly the religion of Islam.
After the publication of his first book "The Bible, the Quran, and Science" a movement related to this area…


Book cover of The Holy Qur’an

Mohammed Javed Author Of The Broken Silence

From my list on Islam and the fight against injustice.

Why am I passionate about this?

I do not know about the origins of my passion but hardships did influence me, the values of Islam shaped my personality and infused passion required to speak up against injustices. When I write, I speak my mind and try to put my heart and soul into it and that’s how the passionate story of ‘The Broken Silence’ came into existence. It is composed over a period of 23 years; that speaks up and documents the genocidal sanctions imposed on Iraq that caused the pathetic deaths of about a million innocent children - “This book is a historic documentation of one man’s passionate efforts to do his part to speak truth to power.”

Mohammed's book list on Islam and the fight against injustice

Mohammed Javed Why did Mohammed love this book?

There are many verses in the Qur'an that give high importance to justice and command followers to strive against injustice. Two of my favorites are "firmly uphold justice even if it is against you, your family, etc." and "you are the best people brought out to promote good and prevent wrong." I found my purpose in life in this Divine Book.

In addition to overall guidance, The Holy Qur'an guides readers toward the fight against injustice. It is an invaluable read for those who are conscious of God, believe in the unseen, bow down in prayer, and are thankful for what has been provided to them.

By Abdullah Yusuf Ali (translator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Holy Qur’an as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The Holy Qur'an: Textual content, Translation and Commentary is really an English translation in the Qur'an because of the British Indian Abdullah Yusuf Ali (1872–1953) over the British Raj. It has grown to be One of the most generally known English translations on the Qur'an, owing partially to its prodigious use of footnotes, and its distribution and subsidization by Saudi Arabian beneficiaries over the late 20th century. Ali started his translation while in the 1920s, right after he experienced retired from the Civil Company and settled in the United Kingdom.The translation was 1st released in 1934 by Shaik Muhammad Ashraf…


Book cover of Cuckold

Anand Neelakantan Author Of Asura: Tale of the Vanquished: The Story of Ravana and His People

From my list on Indian mythology.

Why am I passionate about this?

Anand Neelakantan is an Indian author, columnist, screenwriter, television personality, and motivational speaker. He has authored eight fiction books in English and one in Malayalam. His debut work Asura, The Tale of the Vanquished is based on the Indian epics of Ramayana. His next book series was Ajaya-Roll of the Dice, Ajaya – Rise of Kali based on the two books on the epic Mahabharata told from Kaurava perspective. Anand's books voice the suppressed party or the defeated party. In his fifth book Vanara, the legend of Baali, Sugreeva, and Tara also follow the same pattern of expressing the defeated side.

Anand's book list on Indian mythology

Anand Neelakantan Why did Anand love this book?

This historical fiction is on the life of a quasi-mythical figure, the bhakti era saint, Meera. Narrated by Bhoj Raj, the husband of Meera Bhai, it is the poignant tale of India itself at the cusp of a historical event. The political and social questions Nagarkar raises in the book are relevant in every era and culture. The story of Meera, the princess who fell in love with Lord Krishna and her hapless husband who is forced to compete with God for his wife’s love. The beauty of Nagarkar’s English is bewitching. The loneliness of Rajkumar, the protagonist, throbs through every line. How difficult it would have been to be married to a saint, who is revered even after five hundred years of her death and whose compositions are still sung in temples, weddings, and homes? In my opinion, this is perhaps the best Indian English novel written so far,…

By Kiran Nagarkar,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Cuckold as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Cuckold is set in the historic 16th century, in the rajput kingdom of mewar the region is ruled by rana sangha, who has been trying to establish peace with the sultans of malwa, delhi, and gujarat his eldest son is maharaj kumar bhoj raj, who is the crown prince of mewar this fictional character is based on the real life rajpur prince, thakur bhojrajmaharaj kumar is the narrator of cuckold, and he is married to meera bai, the princess of mewar meera claims that she cannot cohabitat with the prince because she is already married to the hindu god, lord…


Book cover of We Are Poor but So Many: The Story of Self-Employed Women in India

Aili Mari Tripp Author Of Changing the Rules: The Politics of Liberalization and the Urban Informal Economy in Tanzania

From my list on the economy as if people mattered.

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up in Tanzania, where I discovered the importance of learning first-hand from ordinary people about their lives by accompanying my mother, who was an anthropologist, when she carried out participant observation among coastal people. Much later in my own research, I could see how essential it was to interact with people face-to-face and learn about their aspirations, joys, fears, daily struggles, and creative ways of coping with the challenges of an economy in free fall. I learned to look beyond the “economic data” to more fully appreciate the humanity of the people involved. All of these books I selected are by people who learned about the real urban economy in this way.

Aili's book list on the economy as if people mattered

Aili Mari Tripp Why did Aili love this book?

Ela Bhatt, a former Member of the Indian parliament, chronicles the astonishing rise of the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) ,which she helped form in 1972.

The overwhelming majority of the labor force in India is self-employed and the majority of the self-employed are women. Today SEWA works in 18 Indian states and is made up of 2.1 million informal women workers — the single largest union of informal sector workers in the world.

In this first-hand account, Bhatt shows how the organization struggled against cultural norms, the state, and formal unions, and challenged the rise of Hindu nationalism as it mobilized women across religious lines and caste in the state of Gujarat, which has experienced decades of Hindu-Muslim violence.

By Ela R. Bhatt,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked We Are Poor but So Many as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This book is a first-hand account of the vision, rise, and success of SEWA, the Self-Employed Women's Association, a trade union of self-employed women in India. It takes the reader into an up-close look at these women's daily lives, at the forces that overpower them, the conditions that perpetuate their poverty, the battles they fight, the attitudes they face and the working and living conditions of both rural and urban working women. It highlights the role that
trade cooperatives play in economic development and shows the impact of the larger economy on the lives of the women.


Book cover of Sisters in the Mirror: A History of Muslim Women and the Global Politics of Feminism

Leela Fernandes Author Of Governing Water in India: Inequality, Reform, and the State

From my list on to understand inequality in a world in crisis.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have spent close to thirty years researching and teaching about questions of inequality and change. Most of my focus has been on the Global South, with a particular focus on India. I've written about intersecting class, gender, and caste inequalities. I've pursued this research agenda through extensive field research on labor politics, democratization, and the politics of economic reform in India. My interest stems from my background. I am originally from India and have lived and travelled extensively in the Middle East and Southeast Asia. I'm an author, public speaker, and consultant and have been a professor for three decades at the University of Michigan, Rutgers University, The University of Washington, and Oberlin College.

Leela's book list on to understand inequality in a world in crisis

Leela Fernandes Why did Leela love this book?

In the post-9/11 period, we were inundated with images of veiled Muslim women in Afghanistan and elsewhere. However, there is a long and rich history of Muslim women’s feminism that many people don’t know about. This book is an accessible entry point to this history. It also illustrates the interaction between Western feminists and Muslim feminists and shows the limits and possibilities of transnational feminism.

By Elora Shehabuddin,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Sisters in the Mirror as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"A must read."-Choice
A crystal-clear account of the entangled history of Western and Muslim feminisms.

Western feminists, pundits, and policymakers tend to portray the Muslim world as the last and most difficult frontier of global feminism. Challenging this view, Elora Shehabuddin presents a unique and engaging history of feminism as a story of colonial and postcolonial interactions between Western and Muslim societies. Muslim women, like other women around the world, have been engaged in their own struggles for generations: as individuals and in groups that include but also extend beyond their religious identity and religious practices. The modern and globally…


Book cover of Japan from Prehistory to Modern Times

David Flath Author Of The Japanese Economy

From my list on captivating Japanese history.

Why am I passionate about this?

I'm a retired economics professor from the US who studied Japan for most of my 46-year career and have lived in Kyoto since 2008. I first visited Kyoto in 1981, naively hoping to revel in the splendors of the Heian era, and was disappointed to find that the physical manifestations of medieval Japan as evoked in The Tale of Genji had vanished. But the persisting legacy of that ancient age is still evident to the trained observer. Japan today embodies its past. It's not enough to know that Japan today is a prosperous country. Curious people also want to know how it got that way. The roots lie deep in the past. 

David's book list on captivating Japanese history

David Flath Why did David love this book?

The best way to start one’s reading about Japanese history is to pick a short overview written by an expert who writes well. This decades-old book is a splendid example of that and still the best in my opinion. Hall was an American who grew up in prewar Japan and spent his later years as a distinguished scholar of premodern Japanese history at Yale University. The book is a joy to read and identifies the main historic events from prehistoric time up through the American occupation that ended in 1952.

By John Whitney Hall,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Japan from Prehistory to Modern Times as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?


Japan: From Prehistory to Modern Times has a heavy emphasis upon the premodern period of Japanese history. No attempt has been made to provide the usual kind of textbook completeness. Hall’s fascination with Japanese history lies within the manner in which Japan’s political and social institutions have changed and diversified over time and how this fundamentally “Eastern” culture gave rise to a modern world power. Japan is today a modern nation in the full sense of the term. Yet its history is less familiar to us than the histories of those Western powers that it has now outstripped, or of…


Book cover of Midnight's Children

S.G. Slade Author Of Touch of a Witch

From my list on spellbinding novels with threads of magic woven in their core.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a British writer with a passion for the stories of history, both real and imagined. I have always been fascinated by tales and relics of the past, old ruins, ancient buildings, mythology, and the uncanny power of the natural world. All these things connect us to the ghosts of the past. So, I write historical fantasy novels based in the England I explored growing up, but brushed with the shadow of the supernatural, magic, witchcraft, and seductive illusion. I also write straight historical fiction under the name Samantha Grosser.

S.G.'s book list on spellbinding novels with threads of magic woven in their core

S.G. Slade Why did S.G. love this book?

This book was my introduction to magical realism when I studied it as part of my English Literature Degree (more years ago than I care to admit). Salman Rushdie wasn’t so well known in those days, but I fell in love with his trademark wry, dark humour straight away and ended up writing my Honours thesis about it. 

It's a stunning take on the partition of India in 1947. The novel explores those themes that always speak to me: the wielding of power, oppression, justice, and the role of the individual caught in historical forces over which they have no control. 

By Salman Rushdie,

Why should I read it?

10 authors picked Midnight's Children as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

*WINNER OF THE BOOKER AND BEST OF THE BOOKER PRIZE*

**A BBC BETWEEN THE COVERS BIG JUBILEE READ PICK**

'A wonderful, rich and humane novel... a classic' Guardian

Born at the stroke of midnight at the exact moment of India's independence, Saleem Sinai is a special child. However, this coincidence of birth has consequences he is not prepared for: telepathic powers connect him with 1,000 other 'midnight's children' all of whom are endowed with unusual gifts. Inextricably linked to his nation, Saleem's story is a whirlwind of disasters and triumphs that mirrors the course of modern India at its most…


Book cover of Where the Gods Dwell: Thirteen Temples and Their (Hi)stories

Sylvia Vetta Author Of Sculpting the Elephant

From my list on India recovering its past.

Why am I passionate about this?

Thanks to access to a good community library, I developed an interest in history from the age of seven. My interest in India grew when I married Indian-born Atam Vetta. After teaching, I set up a business and was director of Oxford Antiques Centre. In 1998, while chair of the Thames Valley Art and Antique Dealers Association, I was invited to become the art and antiques writer for The Oxford Times. That was how my freelance writing career began but since 2016 I have concentrated on writing fiction and poetry but make occasional contributions to The Madras Courier.

Sylvia's book list on India recovering its past

Sylvia Vetta Why did Sylvia love this book?

If you already know a lot about India and are interested in an unusual insight into the role of temples in the history, culture, architecture, and myths of the subcontinent, then this is for you. It will also introduce you to thirteen writers who include journalists, academics, and authors. Each one was asked to write about one temple, recounting its origins and the mythology and history surrounding it. It’s beautifully illustrated by Mistunee Choudhury. You can enhance the experience by googling the locations. It has introduced me to some must-see places to go on my want to visit list. I visited the unforgettable temples of Khajuraho and they appear in my own book.

By Manu S. Pillai,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Where the Gods Dwell as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The great temples of the Indian subcontinent are uniquely fascinating spaces. Steeped in mythology and history, they are windows into a complex, often contrary culture. Where the Gods Dwell delves into the ‘(hi)stories’—history and mythology—of thirteen architectural marvels that have inspired awe, and not only in the hearts of the faithful.

Every essay in this book is an intriguing mix of historical detail, mythological narrative and architectural commentary, supplementing and complementing each other to tell a story that is more than the sum of its parts. From Pashupatinath in Nepal to the Nallur Kandaswamy in Sri Lanka, the Kamakhya in…


5 book lists we think you will like!

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