India. A Brief History. From Ancient Civilization to the Present Day

From medicine to mathematics, from philosophy to astronomy, from literature to music, from Buddhism to Bollywood — for five thousand years India has played a significant role in the Asian region and the world. At the same time, India possessed the ability to assimilate and absorb foreign ideas, which Jawaharlal Nehru compared to a palimpsest — an ancient manuscript that has been rewritten many times without completely removing the previous layer. In the book of prominent South Asia specialist John Zubjic, the complex and diverse stages of Indian history are summarized concisely and effectively.

«India is the world's oldest civilization and the largest democracy. It is the center connecting Eastern and Western Asia, as well as a confident guardian of the Indian Ocean… Unlike the history of China, which can be clearly divided into periods ruled by dynasties such as Yuan, Ming, or Qing, India's past is marked by a multitude of power centers desperately battling each other. Even at the height of the empires, none of the three great Indian empires — the Mauryas, Guptas, and Mughals — controlled the entire subcontinent. And even Britain could not make such a claim until the very defeat of the Marathas in 1818. But even then, the princely states, home to a third of the population, retained some nominal independence… It is not easy to gather 5000 years of Indian history into a couple of hundred pages while trying to reflect all the nuances, but I will dare to do it». (John Zubjic)