My 10 favorite books on India? Humbly submitted (but not in any order of preference):
1. The Discovery of India, by Jawaharlal Nehru (nonfiction).
2. India Unbound, by Gurcharan Das (nonfiction).
3. The Devil’s Wind, by Manohar Malgaonkar (fiction).
4. Freedom at Midnight, by Dominic Lapierre and Larry Collins (nonfiction).
5. On the Grand Trunk Road, by Steve Coll (nonfiction).
6. May You be the Mother of a Thousand Sons, by Elizabeth Bumiller (nonfiction).
7. Arrow of the Blue-Skinned God, by Jonah Blank (nonfiction).
8. Motiba’s Tatoos, by Mira Kamdar (nonfiction).
9. An Area of Darkness, by V. S. Naipaul (nonfiction).
10. India After Gandhi, by Ramachandra Guha (nonfiction).
And, 11, “Mother India India: A Political Biography of Indira Gandhi,” by Pranay Gupte (nonfiction).