5000-year Indian history & culture in nutshell

Do we Malaysians really understand Indian history and culture besides Deepavali or Diwali, Thaipusam, Ais Moru, Mee Goreng or Rebus, Roti Canai, Bollywood, MIC and Samy Vellu, IPF, PPP and Hindraf ? If we don't or we think we don't, then it is time to strenghten our knowledge of the 5,000 years of Indian history and culture which is one of the greatest civilisations in the world and the new book of Anjana Motihar Chandran has provided such a window.

Published ealier this year by Marshall Cavendish in Singapore, India Condensed - 5000 Years of History & Culture provides a very concise account of the Indian civilisation that can be dated back to the Indus Valley Civilisation in the period of 2800-1900 BC and how it evolved and finally progressed into a modern and secular republic which has also become an economic power of the 21st century like New China.

The 190-page book succinctly covers all elemental topics like history, religions, people and languages, literature, folktales and proverbs, arts and crafts, performing arts, inventions and medicines, Hindu calender, contemporary domestic politics and international relations. India Condensed - 5000 Years of History & Culture, if read positively as a contribuion to civilisational dialogue - and not negatively as a manifesto of "chauvinism" - is indeed a good and timely book to be recommended for all broad-minded people who see cultural pluralism as a social asset to be valued and cherished and not an obscurantist liability to be destroyed by bulldozers or razed to the ground by mobs.

Indians and India's cultural influence in China