: Historian Ramachandra Guha Recommends 10 Must-Read Books #IndiaNEWS #Books This article contains affiliate links. If you purchase something using one of these links, The Better India will get a small

Historian Ramachandra Guha Recommends 10 Must-Read Books #IndiaNEWS #Books
This article contains affiliate links. If you purchase something using one of these links, The Better India will get a small commission.

It was the Italian writer Emilio Salgari who said, “Reading is travelling without the bother of baggage. �?

Books have a magical quality about them, they can transport you to an era gone by and make you feel like you are part of it. Every book has the power to expand your worldview.

And who better to expand your worldview than Ramachandra ‘Ram’ Guha. The Indian historian, environmentalist, writer and public intellectual’s research interests include social, political, contemporary, environmental and cricket history, and the field of economics. Having written several books on various topics, he is considered an important authority in the history of modern India.

Here is a list of 10 books recommended by the historian, collated based on various interviews:

1. Telling Times: Writing and Living 1954 to 2008 by Nadine Gordimer

Telling Times by Nadine Gordimer

Telling Times is said to be the first comprehensive collection of her nonfiction, bearing insightful witness to the forces that have shaped the last half-century. Her essays include reports from Soweto during the 1976 uprising, Zimbabwe at the dawn of independence, and Africa at the start of the AIDS pandemic, as well as illuminating portraits of Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, and many others.

In a tweet, Ramchandra describing the uniqueness of this work said, “It is her peculiar combination of being privileged and not privileged is part of what makes her work so moving and so insightful. �?

Nadine won a Nobel prize for her novels but Ramchandra said that her essays are what he was most drawn to.

Buy the book here.

2. Autobiography of an Unknown Cricketer by Sujit Mukherjee

Autobiography of an Unknown Cricketer by Sujit Mukherjee

While cricket is a religion in India, cricketers like M S Dhoni, Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar occupy a lot of space in public discourse. However, this is a book that tells the tale of a different kind of cricket. One that is played in schools, colleges and universities. This book is set in the 1950s and 60s India and is the autobiography of writer Sujit Mukherjee.

“This is a delightful book,�? said Ramachandra in a tweet.

Buy the book here.

3. The Remembered Village by M N Srinivas

The Remembered Village by M N Srinivas

First published in 1978, reviewers describe this work as both enjoyable and illuminating. In addition to the rich detail of village life and of several individual villagers, Srinivas gives the readers valuable insights into the nature of ethnographic research.