Page 65 - Bhutan: Hidden Kingdom of the Himalayas

RESOURCES

Suggested Readings

India

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry (Fiction). Four strangers are forced to share an apartment in
Mumbai during a state of emergency in 1975.

Heat and Dust by Ruth Prawer-Jhabvala (Fiction). The parallel stories of a young Englishwoman
backpacking through India in the 1970s, and her great-aunt Olivia, a bored colonial wife in
the 1920s.

4Y >[T_P ZQ _SP 2ZO^% ?SP =T^P ZQ 8ZOP]Y 4YOTL by Edward Luce (Society/Economics). Uses
ZM^P]aL_TZY^ TY_P]aTPb^ LYO LY_TOZ_P^ _Z ]PaPLW OTʬP]PY_ [L__P]Y^ TY 4YOTLY ^ZNTP_d LYO
economics.

, 9Pb 3T^_Z]d ZQ 4YOTL or India by Stanley Wolpert (History). These are two great works by
a master of the subject. India is more about culture, politics, and environment, while New
History summarizes India’s 4,000 years of continental continuity and communal complexity.
Both books have been around awhile, so look for updated recent editions. But despite their
age, they are both considered key books on the subject, and are often used as textbooks.

4YOTL LQ_P] 2LYOST by Ramachandra Guha (History). This scholarly work picks up where many
Z_SP] ST^_Z]d MZZV^ WPLaP Zʬ M`_ ^_TWW ʭYO^ [WPY_d ZQ XL_P]TLW _Z bZ]V bT_S T_ T^ ZaP] "
pages long).

8Ld DZ` MP _SP 8Z_SP] ZQ L 3`YO]PO >ZY^ by Elisabeth Bumiller (Travel Narrative). Rich in detail
and empathy, Elisabeth Bumiller illuminates the lives of the many women she knew—and
the contradictions she encountered—during her three years in India as a reporter for the
Washington Post in the 1990s.

8LcTX`X .T_d% -ZXMLd 7Z^_ LYO 1Z`YO Md >`VP_` 8PS_L >ZNTP_d ,Q_P] ST^ ʭ]^_ _]T[ MLNV _Z
-ZXMLd YZb 8`XMLT TY dPL]^ _SP L`_SZ] OPaZ_P^ STX^PWQ _Z Pc[WZ]TYR OTʬP]PY_ L^[PN_^
of the modern city through the lives of people who live there. One word of warning—the book
deals frankly with some darker sides of the city.

8TOYTRS_ɪ^ .STWO]PY by Salman Rushdie (Fiction). Rushdie’s comic take on the birth of modern
India as mirrored in the story of the narrator, born exactly at the moment of his homeland’s
independence.

Nectar in a Sieve by Kamala Markandaya (Fiction). A classic novel from the 1950s about the life
ZQ L ]`]LW QL]XbTQP YLXPO =`VXLYT BSTWP ^ZXP ]PLOP]^ ʭYO _SP [ZaP]_d LYO SL]O^ST[^ _SL_
=`VXLYT QLNP^ ^LO Z] OP[]P^^TYR Z_SP]^ ^PP LY `[WTQ_TYR _LWP LMZ`_ ZaP]NZXTYR ^`ʬP]TYR

>WZbWd /ZbY _SP 2LYRP^ by Eric Newby (Travel Narrative). This is the witty account of a couple’s
1,200-mile voyage down the Ganges River in the 1960s.

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