Scan barcode
A review by keetabi_keeda
Indians: A Brief History of a Civilization by Namit Arora
3.0
Indians : A Brief History of a Civilization
Author : Namit Arora
Published by : Penguin Vikings
Book Cover by :
Disclaimer: I have received the Review copy of this book by the Author in exchange of an honest review. Neither the publisher , the author nor any third party pay any fee or otherwise offer compensation in exchange for this coverage , and no company was given a preview of the content or given copy approval rights concerning the same.
This review is going to be divided in a pros and cons system , after reading which , you can decide for yourselves if this book is worth your time and money , or not.
The Good:
The author , in the introduction itself , makes it clear that he has a political bias . I really do not like some historians , who claim to be unbiased but are the farthest thing from it (Some of whom , the author has referenced , but we will get to that later).
The book is very informative and the author has obviously done a tremendous amount of research. This is evident but the subject matter, some of which i may not necessarily agree with , but i have to appreciate the author for this. He has personally visited the places like Dholavira , Nagarjunakonda , (what used to be )Nalanda etc , and seem the places themselves , unlike many so called "historians" who will just "google" stuff up.
The book is well written and fairly easy to understand. Again , unlike several historians , who use Tharoorian vocabulary , to try and impress the reader. His writing style is quite good to . Reading " A stroll though Vijayapura " , you will actually feel that you are taking a stroll through the place, Vijayapura , to the readers who dont know , was an archaeological wonder , but had to be manually submerged underwater , due to unavoidable circumstances.
The chapter about of Faxian , Xuanzang ,and Yijing is brilliantly written (I just might be biased on this one , because I actually have read Journey to the West and i actually was always interested in the topic of how Buddhism spread all across China and faded away from India)
The Underwhelming aspects :
To much present day socio-political commentary. I mean I get it , you have to put something here or there . Maybe once or twice in the book , but in the book , the author has something to say at least once or twice in every chapter. This is not limited to just Mr. Arora , but in fact most of the historians. He just had the decency to call his bias beforehand. And i would have been perfectly fine if the book hadn't been called a brief "History" of a civilization .
The Author is pro Aryan migration theory. Feel free to count this as a pro if you too have similar thoughts as the author.
Some , I repeat , some of the sources in the book , in MY opinion , are not credible enough , those include the likes of Tony Joseph , Pankaj Mishra and many more.
Well , those were my two cents about the book , if the Pros outbid the cons for you , you can definitely check out the book . Even if they don't , but you think you can ignore those parts of the book , I will still recommend you read the book , if you have the chance to.
If you are too lazy to read the book , the author has summarized the book in an hour long zoom call video that is available to watch for free on YouTube on the Avid Learning channel.
Author : Namit Arora
Published by : Penguin Vikings
Book Cover by :
Disclaimer: I have received the Review copy of this book by the Author in exchange of an honest review. Neither the publisher , the author nor any third party pay any fee or otherwise offer compensation in exchange for this coverage , and no company was given a preview of the content or given copy approval rights concerning the same.
This review is going to be divided in a pros and cons system , after reading which , you can decide for yourselves if this book is worth your time and money , or not.
The Good:
The author , in the introduction itself , makes it clear that he has a political bias . I really do not like some historians , who claim to be unbiased but are the farthest thing from it (Some of whom , the author has referenced , but we will get to that later).
The book is very informative and the author has obviously done a tremendous amount of research. This is evident but the subject matter, some of which i may not necessarily agree with , but i have to appreciate the author for this. He has personally visited the places like Dholavira , Nagarjunakonda , (what used to be )Nalanda etc , and seem the places themselves , unlike many so called "historians" who will just "google" stuff up.
The book is well written and fairly easy to understand. Again , unlike several historians , who use Tharoorian vocabulary , to try and impress the reader. His writing style is quite good to . Reading " A stroll though Vijayapura " , you will actually feel that you are taking a stroll through the place, Vijayapura , to the readers who dont know , was an archaeological wonder , but had to be manually submerged underwater , due to unavoidable circumstances.
The chapter about of Faxian , Xuanzang ,and Yijing is brilliantly written (I just might be biased on this one , because I actually have read Journey to the West and i actually was always interested in the topic of how Buddhism spread all across China and faded away from India)
The Underwhelming aspects :
To much present day socio-political commentary. I mean I get it , you have to put something here or there . Maybe once or twice in the book , but in the book , the author has something to say at least once or twice in every chapter. This is not limited to just Mr. Arora , but in fact most of the historians. He just had the decency to call his bias beforehand. And i would have been perfectly fine if the book hadn't been called a brief "History" of a civilization .
The Author is pro Aryan migration theory. Feel free to count this as a pro if you too have similar thoughts as the author.
Some , I repeat , some of the sources in the book , in MY opinion , are not credible enough , those include the likes of Tony Joseph , Pankaj Mishra and many more.
Well , those were my two cents about the book , if the Pros outbid the cons for you , you can definitely check out the book . Even if they don't , but you think you can ignore those parts of the book , I will still recommend you read the book , if you have the chance to.
If you are too lazy to read the book , the author has summarized the book in an hour long zoom call video that is available to watch for free on YouTube on the Avid Learning channel.