The Britannica Guide to India - A comprehensive introduction to the world's fastest-growing economy

by Encyclopædia Britannica (text), Maria Misra (Introduction)

With over a billion people, 21st-century India stands on the verge of being one of the world’s newest superpowers. In the sixty years since its independence, it has transformed into a modern nation with limitless resources—yet it is also a nation of extremes. India embodies 15 official languages, over 166 million mobile phone users, and an economy that spans from traditional village farming to the cutting edge of new technology. From the snowy mountains of the Himalayas to the tropical waters of Kerala, India is the sixth most popular tourist destination in the world!

Genres: History, India

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Mike G · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m sure the place itself is far my interesting than this tedious summary. If I find a more interesting alternative, I’ll be sure to edit this review. If you’re not looking for a short, scrambled summary of India, I suggest you keep looking too.

[Rahul · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not a fun reading, I stumbled across it in thrift shop selling books by weight.

It's like someone gave a college student assignment to collect info on certain topics and then all plastered together. Inspite of this being not so old, the narrative and bias reeked colonial bias that really old authors had, probably the material this was compiled from was collected from such sources.

[Farzaneh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of the books written about India suffer from overemphasis on the colonial period. This book doesn't. It is-as its title suggests-a 'comprehensive introduction' to the country.

[Rflutist · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have moved my original rating of this book from four stars to three stars. If you are looking for a concise review of the older and more recent histories of India, those sections of the book are the strongest, four star parts. The remainder of a large portion of text, however, reads as dry academic writing and at times can be slow, laborious, and painful to muddle through. I was determined to finish reading, however, but it took the better part of two days on two separate weekends to do so.

The section on architecture was especially dry, ended abruptly and omitted recent architectural history.

As a general introduction, the sections on religion and philosophy conveyed relevant information, but after reading I wasn't recalling the differences between the various
-isms of thought. For that, it would be useful to study other sources describing the beliefs in further detail, focusing upon one -ism at a time, rather than several at once.

The last section of the book, covering places to visit, was the better part of this tome. I enjoyed the description of the Taj Mahal in Agra and learned that one flute note played in the main dome of the Taj Mahal reverberates five times. As a flutist, I envy the lucky musician who figured that out, and also wonder what a Bach Sonata would sound like when played there!

[Annie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This definitely reads like a history book, so it requires some effort to get through. Some of the items, such as art and architecture, would be better with at least some images rather than explaining box like buildings with pillars. Overall though, very informative.

[Kathleen McRae · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a textbook read and contained a lot of good information, At times I found it difficult to process the information because of language pronunciation but overall it was a very informative and interesting book