The most recommended books about South Asia

This book is probably among the first ones written by a Pakistani author on the history of the 1971 war, aka Liberation War of Bangladesh, which thrilled me as a reader. It challenges not only the statist-nationalist accounts of Pakistan but those from India and Bangladesh as well.

Anam, the author, accomplished commendable work by talking to people across the cartographies and bringing up diverse and contradictory perspectives about the pretexts and events of 1971-related politics. While after all these years, both the state and society of Pakistan and Bangladesh remained taboo to each other, such a venture appears to be the silver lining of knowledge sharing between the entities in the two territories.

Unsettling for the conformists, nationalists, and statists, this piece of work is a must-read for everyone interested in the region.

Bhog’s Sehgal saga takes you to the world of India’s mega-rich. Kabier Sehgal returns to India to take over the running of Sehgal Systems from his grandfather, Janak Sehgal. Janak is a loveable grandfather figure, who keeps a close eye on his grandchildren and is a mentor to many of their friends too. Keya Karia is one of the trio known as Janak’s Angels, the other being Sheena Sehgal and Raashi Dewan. In this enemy-to-lover romance, Kabier suspects Keya of selling company secrets, but their instant chemistry plays havoc with their lives. As Sheena’s wedding nears, they admit their feelings. Bhog’s books take you to the world of found families and the joy of lifelong friendships and to the world of crazy rich South Asians.

Dev’s book is an escape into the exuberance of migrant families from India. Ria is a reclusive Bollywood actress, who betrays Vikram, her childhood sweetheart, to protect him from the same fate as her father. Ten years later, Ria returns to Chicago for her cousin Nik’s wedding, knowing she will meet Vik again. For Ria, the loving embrace of her family and found family provides the safety and love she needs to reassess her life in Bollywood. For Vik meeting Ria again brings back all the pain he thought he had recovered from after her betrayal. In the two weeks, Ria and Vik rekindle the love they have both denied. A beautifully written story of migrants who embrace their life in America but still hold on to their Indian heritage.

Set in South India in the 1950s, this is a story of Meera, Manuel, and Shankar—three conflicted souls, each with secrets that can destroy the other. It is a beautiful novel showing how one can become a prisoner of one's secrets and live compromised lives. The descriptions are so hauntingly vivid that they will remain etched in my mind forever. I loved the narration and the poetic language, and the bittersweet ending was like icing on the cake.

As a middle-class white lady from London, I have to work extra hard to make sure I hear the voices of mothers who are not like me. Listening to stories from different cultures and hearing about diverse experiences is important for my work. This book is filled with stories from mothers from Indian and South Asian backgrounds.

It doesn’t pretend that breastfeeding is all rose petals and butterflies. These mothers have gone through some tough challenges and have not always had the support they needed. I love that it’s a book about women being strong and why breastfeeding matters to them.

Reading Guha was an eye-opening experience for me for at least two reasons. One, he was the founding figure of subaltern historiography; and two, abandoning the colonial knowledge project, he introduced a whole new horizon of South Asian studies to his readers. First by acknowledging and then by understanding the consciousness and politics of the colonial marginal, Guha explored peasant insurgency in a new light.

In his battle against colonialist and nationalist historiographies, Guha also distanced himself from his Marxist colleagues in history. 

Kenya was an exotic territory for British colonial interests in the late 19th century. For reasons almost impossible to understand today, the British decided to build a railroad from Mombasa, the seaport on the Indian Ocean, through the Kenyan savannah, to Kampala, a city of some riches in the far interior of what is now Uganda. The story of the building of the railroad at the end of the 19th century is hair-raising, thanks to Miller’s classic history, as imported Indian workers had to endure predatory lions, harsh climates, and raging rivers to forge across the frontier. That the railroad to nowhere was completed is a tribute to those Indian workers and their intrepid British overseers.

Today, one can take the train from Mombasa to Nairobi, some three hundred miles distant, either in the daylight, hoping to spy some wildlife, or in a sleeping berth at night. I… show more.

During my student days in the early 1970s, I travelled throughout North India by train and country bus, often staying in the countryside in former colonial rest houses from days of British rule in India. I tried to imagine what it was like for the British East India Company officials before 1857, and then for the British colonial officials who replaced the company officers after the Indian Sepoy Mutiny. The Siege of Krishnapur vividly recreates the 1857 mutiny from the perspective of British company officials and their families trapped by the local soldiers they had employed. 

Farrell used a diary and letters from those besieged in the real city of Lucknow to illustrate the horrors of hunger, impending rape, torture, and eventual death that many of the British faced. The scenes are graphic, and the portrayals of the relationships among those trapped have stayed with me for years. The novel… show more.

Syal’s story centres on three childhood friends who grow up in East London. Tania is under pressure to create a cutting-edge documentary on Asian marriages for her employer and is reassessing her life, as a girlfriend to Martin, and a dutiful daughter to her ailing father. While Sunita faces an age-related crisis, her dismal job, her lifeless marriage, and self-harming. The only one who has her life in order is Chila, a naïve, dutiful wife and daughter. As the story unfolds, we find that living in a migrant community and keeping to traditional values is complicated. A poignant insight into the lives of the Punjabi community in the UK and first-generation children who struggle with cross-cultural clashes while keeping their toes in their heritage in different ways.

Gender is a major axis of disparities in power and wealth.

In this pioneering book, Indian economist Bina Agarwal mapped women’s access to land in South Asia, lifting up the key role of rights to natural resources in human well-being.

Her account of the Bodhgaya movement, a struggle by peasant women against inequity and patriarchy in the 1970s and 1980s, has special resonance for me because I Iived there and saw firsthand the cruelties of semi-feudal landlord rule.