A new history of India : From its origins to the twenty-first century / Rudrangshu Mukherjee, Shobita Punja, Toby Sinclair.

[This] book covers all the major landmarks of Indian history from prehistoric times up to the twenty-first century - starting with the country's geological origins a few billion years in the past and the migration of Homo sapiens from Africa into the region several millenia ago. It traces the evolution of Indian civilization through a multitude of epochs, personalities, and turning points, including the Harappan Culture, Vedic Society, the age of Mahavira and the Buddha, Ashoka and the Mauryas, the Gupta period, the Delhi Sultinate, major kingdoms in the east, west, and south, the Mughal empire, European incursions into the subcontinent, the British Raj, the freedom struggle led by Ghandi, Nehri, Patel, Bose, Tagore, and others, Independence and Partition, and key developments in the life of the modern republic. Deepening the overarching narrative are essays on archaeology, caste, religion, art, architecture, philosophy, language, culture, the economy, and various aspects of the nation's plural, diverse society. (page [2] of cover]