Indica: A deep Natural History of the Indian Subcontinent by Pranay Lal (Allen Lane)Ī biochemist connects our rich natural past to the present, going back millions of years to find out what shaped our seas and hills. They explain why Indian children are stunted, pointing out that poor nutrition is not the only reason. Where India Goes: Abandoned Toilets, Stunted Development and the Costs of Caste by Diane Coffey and Dean Spears (HarperCollins)Ĭoffey and Spears have come out with a deeply researched and thoughtfully written book about open defecation, the role of caste, and the challenges of implementing policy interventions at this scale. Besides other things, she highlights the degrees of untouchability her family and others like hers had to endure with people being forced to live in prescribed-by-custom ghettos.

Pointing at ways to curb the menace, Vaishnav points out that of utmost importance is “clearing the morass around election campaign finances” and improving transparency and inclusion in political parties.Īnts Among Elephants: An Untouchable Family and the Making of Modern India by Sujatha Gidla (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux)Ī Dalit Christian writes a searing portrait of growing up poor, taking on the Indian state for failing to stop the inhumanity endured by the wretched of our hearth. The book crunches data from nearly 60,000 candidates spread across 35 State elections and two national elections to understand the nexus between politics and criminals and why voters readily forgive politicians, forgetting crimes they perpetuate.

When Crime Pays: Money and Muscle in Indian Politics by Milan Vaishnav (HarperCollins) To pick the 10 best books in an incredible year of non-fiction books is perhaps an impossible task, but here goes our list, subjective, and by no means the last word on it. It was also the centenary of Indira Gandhi’s birth, which saw Congress leader Jairam Ramesh writing a biography on her environmental legacy ( Indira Gandhi: A Life in Nature (Routledge India) about his last years and its impact on our polity. This being the centennial of Gandhi’s first public movement at Champaran, there were many books on the Mahatma, including a brilliant translation of Sudhir Chandra’s Gandhi: An Impossible Possibility There were spectacular biographies, long-form writing, essays, and memoirs to choose from. Political ferment, India’s relations with neighbours, state of the economy, demonetisation, the end of globalisation and liberalism, migration, gender relations, sport - the literary world was kept busy trying to make sense of 2017.

Best books to read 2017 nonfiction