A Concise History of India

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Summary: Recommended for academic reading lists
Review: A Concise History Of India is the collaborative work of Barbara Metcalf (Professor in the Department of History, University of California, Davis) and Thomas Metcalf (Professor of History and Sarah Kailath Professor of India Studies, University of California, Berkeley). Their work focuses on the fundamentally political theme of the imaginative and institutional structures that changed and sustained both the colonial and an independent India. A Concise History Of India documents both the social changes and the rich cultural life that arose from the political structure and evolving social categories and concepts such as "caste", "Hindu", "Muslim", and "India". Earlier chapters cover the period of the Muslim dynasties preceding colonial conquests, and concludes with the dramatic events of the 1990s including economic change, religious nationalism, and India's emergence as a nuclear power. With an informative, scholarly text enhanced with illustrations and quotations taken from historical sources, A Concise History Of India is recommended for academic reading lists and reference collections, as well as the non-specialist general reader with an interest in understanding India's contemporary political and economic relationships with the community of nations in general, and Pakistan in particular.

Rating:
Summary: There is nothing remotely "concise" about this book!
Review: I am very interested in learning about India and Indian Culture, as I am planning to marry an Indian man who was born and raised in Bombay, however my fiance is extremely Westernized and would love to live in the United Sates as well as India. In fact, he loves Hollywood Blockbuster movies, while I actually prefer foreign films. Anyway, as I may end up living in Bombay someday, I wanted familiarize myself wih the history of the country and culture of the people. While the authors of this particular book are obviously very well educated and experts on the subject, the content of the material is written in such a dry, unimaginative manner that I have pretty much given up on finishing it. It seems hard to believe that book written about a country with such a vibrant, colorful past could be so boring! For a person such as myself who really needed to start from the basics, this book was much too detailed and academic to hold my interest. However, I am sure other professors and those people who are more familiar with the subject matter may find this book of great use to them. Needless to say, I was disappointed with it, as it wasn't quite what I was looking for in reading material regarding this particular subject.

Rating:
Summary: Refreshing in its correction of bias, but indigestible
Review: Most of the concise histories of India commonly assigned to students, such as those by John Keay and by Kulke and Rothermund, have been accused of having to Eurocentric a bias. The Metcalfs, professors at the UCalifornia schools, remedy this slant in their new CONCISE HISTORY OF INDIA by stacking the deck against European colonialism. While this is welcome, it is not without cost. The greatest, perhaps, is that the Metcalfs often seem to great length to vilify some figures or parties while at pains elsewhere to vindicate others . While their biases are understandable (even ones with which I basically agree), this does not make for the most balanced or objective of histories.

More worrying is their utter dryness of tone: it would be hard to imagine anyone being introduced to India (presumably the book's target audience) finding this book anything other than a painful chore. key figures or concepts are introduced basically offhand, then circled back to discuss in greater length much later when you've forgotten who or what they were; very minor figures from the nation's history or culture are often brought forth to comment on the events, but the authors do not clarify whether these commentators are important or central or not. There are good maps, and a useful beginning glossary, but I would have to recommend John Keay's book (for all its European bias) as a much more readable introduction to India than this one.

Rating:
Summary: There is nothing remotely "concise" about this book!
Review: Read this book if you want dry fact after dry fact with zero entertainment value. Pure torture. I feel sorry for any student who is assigned this one.

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Summary: Two lovers and a naughty-bore of a child
Review: The Metcalf's have produced a book rich in factoids, post-colonial sentimentalism, and wretched prose. Clearly, the authors had good intentions in terms of contriving a history that implored us to mock the sunny empire. However, instead of focusing on their keen ehtical duty to educate against empire, they should have considered the horror that comes with mirthless prose and inevitable colonization of any passionate interest the reader ever had.

Rating:
Summary: Lovely Topic. It's A Shame It's So Poorly Written!
Review: This is perhaps the most poorly written general history I have ever read. Assigned reading in a Modern Indian history course, I cannot recommend strongly enough that instructors and students avoid this text. The largest failing of this book is to poorly integrate the scope of the topic. The book goes from focusing on one tiny event in India to another, with absolutely no flowing, overarching narrative to tie them together. There is very little context given for most of the events described, and the reader is left wondering why certain actors are behaving the way they are. There also seems to be a strident anti-British tone throughout the text, which generally is a fair assessment for Indian historians to make, however the authors fail to capture the Pro-British vs. Anti-British debate within the reform movement with any objectivity, which is essential to understanding modern Indian history. Overall, a wonderful opportunity to introduce Westerners to the rich history of India has been wasted, and educational institutions everywhere should take note.