Into India

By John Keay

Book Overview

India challenges the visitor like no other country. Vast, ancient, and impossibly demanding, it is never just a holiday or an assignment. Advertisements call it an experience; it changes people in unexpected ways. To comprehend and enjoy this experience, there is no better introduction to the traditions and inhibitions of the world's most complex society than Into India. The product of tireless travel rather than of academic scholarship, this book prepares the visitor for India and greatly enriches later recollection. Amidst chaos it finds logic and from frustration reaps reward. In identifying and illuminating the role of Rajputs, Brahmins, Sikhs, Marathas, Kashmiris, Tamils, and a dozen other communities, it makes penetrable and intelligible the past glories and the present problems as well as the passions and the politics of an otherwise bewildering society. Traveling from Kashmir to Kerala, from Gujarat to Assam, Keay cheerfully succumbed to the pull which draws the visitor deeper and deeper "into India"--from the cities to the villages, from the hotels to the ashrams, and from the sweeping first impressions to the ever-deepening insights. "Dust and distance become constant companions . . . punctuated by moments of such intense and arresting beauty that all else, poverty, heat and sickness, are forgotten." Written in the 1970s, Into India achieved classic status and remained in print for twenty years. John Keay has since written more specialized studies of India and elsewhere, including a major new history of the subcontinent. But this reissue of his first book, with a new introductory chapter setting it in the context of the present, will be enthusiastically greeted by all to whom India appeals. John Keay has been visiting India for thirty years. His other books on India-related subjects include two books on nineteenth-century exploration recently reissued as The Explorers of the Western Himalayas, India Discovered about scholarship under the British raj, and The Honorable Company, an acclaimed history of the English East India Company.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0472086359
• ISBN13: 9780472086351
• Release Date: January 1999
• Publisher: University of Michigan Press
• Length: 203 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.4" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

An up to date book, decades old!

Into India was written 30 years ago, and has not changed much in its reprintings. It's simply the best introduction you can find to India - the land, culture and people. Organized geographically, each chapter purports to describe an area such as 'North' or 'Central' India, but Keay skillfully combines local descriptions with a more general discourse. Thus a discussion of a local Jain community leads to a history of the sect. Religion, culture and history are presented in parallel, and combine to create a multidimensional view.

Into India a good start

For the Western reader, there is precious little that clearly explains the history, art, culture and society of India. John Keay is one of the few qualified writers filling the void about India's history and people including a piece for the Atlantic Monthly. Although one of the reviews criticizes Into India for not covering the pervasive corruption in India, I recommend that you click on the index page view of this work to get a glimpse of just how comprehensive this book is. I do like the reviewer's suggestion to read Naipaul. I would add, from the galaxy of talented writers coming out of India, Manil Suri, Arundahati Roy, Jhumpa Lahiri, Raj Kahal, Akhil Sharma, Amit Chaudhuri, Mira Kamdar, and one of my favorites from British Vancouver, Anita Rau Badami, for those who want to understand the frustrations and fulfilments of living in India. Keay's Into India is certainly an excellent place to start and worth the space on any library shelf.

Classic!!

If you are looking for an introduction to India that goes deep below the surface and yet does not fill up pages - this is the book. This book is a classic and no review will do full justice to it. The book is organized geographically and for each of those regions Keay gives us a view of the people, culture and tourist places in that order of importance.People seem to be of most importance to Keay and perhaps rightly so. All important "types" of social groups are described along with "how" and "why" they are unique. The "types" are according to region, caste, religion or sect or a combination of these. Culture is also described vividly and contrasted well and somewhere in this history is put in to give a perspective on things.It is a highly recommended reading among books on India in English language and tourists and students would benefit alike from it.