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A free scan shows the junk files, broken settings and background clutter dragging Windows down - then fixes them in one click.Free scan · Windows 10 & 11These six nonfiction books approach India through personal identity, political conflict, diplomacy, place, military service and family history. Scroll.in published its list on December 31, 2023, under the title “Happy new year: Six recently published non-fiction books with which to usher in 2024”; its descriptions were sourced from publishers’ blurbs, so treat them as guides to each book’s subject rather than independent reviews. Read Scroll.in’s original list.
Six books, six ways into Indian lives and history
The list is not a single argument about India. It brings together memoir, political analysis, diplomatic history, urban history, military memoir and biography. Use the subject and geographic focus below to choose a starting point.
| # | Preview | Product | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
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DK Eyewitness India (Travel Guide) | $8.02 | Buy on Amazon |
| 2 |
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Living in . . . India: Ready-to-Read Level 2 | $4.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| 3 |
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India on a Plate!: Indian Food from A to Z | $9.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| 4 |
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A Passage to India | $0.49 | Buy on Amazon |
| 5 |
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India (Eyewitness Books) | $6.51 | Buy on Amazon |
| Book | Subject and focus | Best fit for readers interested in |
|---|---|---|
| Becoming Goan: A Contemporary Coming-Home Story by Michelle Mendonça Bambawale | Memoir; Siolim, North Goa, family inheritance and Goan Catholic ancestry | Belonging, migration, culture and insider/outsider identity |
| Shooting the Sun: Why Manipur Was Engulfed by Violence and the Government Remained Silent by Nandita Haksar | Political account of the 2023 Manipur violence and questions of identity, history and state response | Conflict, political responsibility and the context around Manipur |
| Anger Management: The Troubled Diplomatic Relationship between India and Pakistan by Ajay Bisaria | Diplomatic account of India–Pakistan crises, including events around Pulwama, Balakot, Article 370 and the return of Indian Air Force pilot Abhinandan Varthaman | Contemporary diplomacy and India–Pakistan relations |
| Varanasi: Reading a City by Vertul Singh | City portrait linking contemporary Varanasi with Kashi’s cultural, pilgrimage, trading and political histories | Urban and cultural history, especially stories of Banaras |
| Gurkha Brotherhood: A Memoir of Childhood and War by Kailash Limbu | Military memoir about service with the 2nd Battalion Royal Gurkha Rifles in Afghanistan and childhood in a Himalayan village in Nepal | War memoirs, military experience and childhood recollection |
| An Uncommon Love: The Early Life of Sudha and Narayana Murthy by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni | Narrative of the couple’s early relationship, marriage, parenthood and the founding years of Infosys | Biography, family life and Sudha Murthy’s engineering career |
Which book should you start with?
For questions of home and belonging
Choose Bambawale’s Becoming Goan for a personal account of moving in 2020 to an inherited house in Siolim and reckoning with ancestry, cultural labels and the experience of being both connected to and apart from a place.
For conflict and political context
Haksar’s Shooting the Sun is the selection centered on Manipur. Scroll’s publisher-blurb-based summary describes the 2023 violence as killing hundreds and displacing tens of thousands, but does not identify an original statistical source or provide an exact count. That broad description should not be treated as a verified statistic or as a current account of the conflict. Speaking Tiger’s publisher page lists a paperback edition, ISBN 9789354477010: Shooting the Sun at Speaking Tiger.
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For India–Pakistan diplomacy
Bisaria, a former Indian high commissioner, focuses on diplomatic crises, making Anger Management the most direct fit for readers seeking an account of contemporary relations between the two countries. The events named in Scroll’s summary include Pulwama, Balakot, Article 370 and Abhinandan Varthaman’s return.
For a city’s layered past
Singh’s Varanasi: Reading a City considers how the present-day city connects to Kashi’s longer roles as a pilgrimage destination and cultural, trading and political centre. Its emphasis on anecdotes and less-told stories makes it the place-focused choice in the list.
For war, childhood or family biography
Limbu’s Gurkha Brotherhood joins a soldier’s Afghanistan service to memories of growing up in Nepal. Divakaruni’s An Uncommon Love, by contrast, follows Sudha Kulkarni and Narayana Murthy through early love, marriage, parenthood and the years when Infosys was founded, while including Sudha’s work as an engineer.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What ties the recommendations together?
The shared lens is the study of being and understanding Indians through individual lives, places, history and public events. Some books are intimate memoirs; others examine diplomacy, conflict or a city’s past. Scroll’s 2023 article says the descriptions came from publishers’ blurbs, so it is best read as a discovery list rather than a set of independently assessed reviews. The “recently published” framing belongs to that December 2023 publication date, not a claim that these books are new in 2026.
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