A SHORT HISTORY OF INDIA

Gordon Kerr

On the seventieth anniversary of independence, A Short History of India traces the fascinating path from the India of ancient empires and powerful kingdoms to the flourishing, vibrant nation that it is today.

India is a land where a multitude of diverse cultures have coexisted since ancient times, where some of humanity's earliest civilisations developed around its mighty rivers. Across the centuries many kingdoms and empires have risen and fallen; and three of the world's most major religions were founded in India. The history of India is equally concerned with the influence of outsiders, often invaders like the Timurids who would later found the Mughal Empire, or most recently the British Raj. Since then India has opened itself to the outside world, encouraging economic reform and foreign investment, and is now courted by the world's leading economic and political powers.