The Best Books On India

I asked one of my colleagues, a historian, to send me a list of books I could read about India.
This was her response:

"You requested some book titles for reading up on India. Here are some of the books on India that I enjoyed reading - both good and bad i.e. books that not only extol India but expose it's warts, seamy underside and all. I want you to get a balanced picture and not stars in your eyes! I would never admit our faults to a foreigner but one expects a fellow Indian to understand and love and be proud of his country and countrymen despite their faults and shortcomings.

1. India: A Wounded Civilisation - V.S. Naipaul (Extremely dense essay by an original novelist on what makes India what it is: chaotic, without a sense of historical continuity).
2. India: A Million Mutinies Now - V.S. Naipaul
3. An Area of Darkness - V.S. Naipaul (Opinionated and brilliant as most of Naipaul's writing, surely not a balanced portrait of India in the early 1960s).
4. No Full Stops in India - Mark Tully, BBC South Asia Correspondent
5. The Heart of India - Mark Tully
6. India in Slow Motion - Mark Tully, Gillian Wright
7. India Unbound - Gurcharan Das
8. The Age of Kali: Indian Travels and Encounters - William Dalrymple
9. Holy Cow - Sara McDonald (Entertaining Journalistic Trash)
10. Karma Cola - Gita Mehta
11. Snakes and Ladders - Gita Mehta
12. In Search of the Cradle of Civilisation: India - Georg Feuerstein, David Frawley, Subash Kak
13. Of Gods, Sages and Kings - Subash Kak
14. Proof of Vedic Culture's Global Existence - Stephan Knapp
15. An Indian Affair - Archie Baron
16. India: From Midnight to Millenium - Shashi Tharoor

Enough for now. Let me know if you need more recommendations. Enjoy, knowledge is power! More power to you!"

Enjoy researching and reading.