17 Books to Read if You Loved ‘Smoke and Ashes’

In the nineteenth century, the British East India Company operated a triangle of trade that straddled the globe, running from India to China to Britain. From India to China, they took opium. From China to Britain, they took tea. From…

Of all the horrors that blackened the uprising of 1857, none could match the atrocities committed at Kanpur.In Kanpur, 1857 - part of a new series of books on India's historic battles - historian Andrew Ward gives an unblinking account…

The city of Lucknow was the epicentre of the uprising of 1857.In Lucknow, 1857 - part of a new series of books on India's historic battles - historian Rosie Llewellyn-Jones examines the conflict in detail, from the British annexation of…

On 10 May 1857, the most serious threat to British supremacy in India appeared at Meerut. After months of increasing tension, sepoys of the 3rd Light Cavalry along with the 11th and 20th Native Infantry pointedly refused to use the…

Despite the recent rise of China to a position of dominance on the world economic stage, Chinese history remains an elusive subject. Yet it is this vast narrative of appalling loss, superhuman endeavour and incredible invention that has made China…

In ‘India: A History’ five millennia of the sub-continent’s history are interpreted by one of our finest writers on India and the Far East. This definitive work combines narrative pace and skill with social, economic and cultural analysis. India’s history…

In late eighteenth-century India, the glory of the Mughal emperors was fading, and ambitious newcomers seized power, changing the political map forever. Enter the legendary MaharajahRanjit Singh, whose Sikh Empire stretched throughout northwestern India into Afghanistan and Tibet.Priya Atwal shines…

The British Empire was once the largest and most powerful in the world. Spread as far and wide as Canada, Australia, India and Africa, it used to be said that the sun never set on it as it always had…

The years leading up to the independence and accompanying partition of India mark a tumultuous period in the history of Bengal. While for the British the priority was to save the empire from imminent collapse, for the majority of the…

Roderick Matthews re-examines British rule in India by concentrating on three central themes: its ability to defray the costs of its own maintenance; its impersonal and institutional qualities that gave it continuity and tenacity; and its commitment to a dual…

For young Englishwomen stepping off the steamer, the sights and sounds of humid colonial India were like nothing they'd ever experienced. For many, this was the ultimate destination to find a perfect civil servant husband. For still more, however, India…

Except for the odd woman captured by pirates and sold into a Mughal harem, the first European women to enter India owed their presence to the Portuguese, in the 16th century, and later to the East India Company -- in…

True to Their Salt is a radical retelling of how India came to be colonized by a handful of Europeans in the eighteenth century, how the British held sway over the country for almost two centuries, and their sudden departure…

How can we explain Britain's long rule in India beyond the cliches of 'imperial' versus 'nationalist' interpretations? In this new history, Roderick Matthews tells a more nuanced story of 'oblige and rule', the foundation of common purpose between colonisers and…

In the three centuries that followed Vasco da Gama's discovery of the sea route from Europe to India, European powers made a beeline for India's fabled riches, its spices, gold and gems. Though they ostensibly came for trade and commerce,…

India's caravan trade with central Asia was at the heart of the complex web of routes making up the Silk Roads. But what was the fate of these overland connections in the ages of sail and steam? Jagjeet Lally sets…

The Hooghly, a distributary of the Ganges flowing south to the Bay of Bengal, is now little-known outside of India. Yet for centuries it was a river of truly global significance, attracting merchants, missionaries, mercenaries, statesmen, labourers and others from…