IT DID NOT TAKE LONG for me to read “The Shortest History of India” written by John Zubrzycki and published in 2023. I raced through the book not because it is short (264 pages) but because it is superbly written and highly engrossing.

 The author covers many of the key features of what is known about the complicated history of what is now India. He does not simply provide the reader with a simple list of facts, but also includes interesting comments about the events he mentioned. At times, he questions some conventionally accepted views and explanations of events and concepts.

The first half of the book covers the history of India from prehistoric times until the arrival of Europeans at the end of the sixteenth century.  The period from then until the 2020s occupies the second half of the book. And much of the final 90 pages (34% of the text) deals with the period from 1857 until just afternoon the covid19 pandemic. So, I  feel that if anything  needs criticism it is that too much of the book is concerned with the last 4 centuries of India’s extremely long history. That said, the book is a first class, highly readable introduction to the amazingly complex story of the jigsaw puzzle of kingdoms, colonies, and empires that became India in 1947.