Utilizing a nonwestern, indigenous approach, award-winning author D.R. SarDesai presents the history of India in its entire civilizational depth. In this compelling new text, author D.R. SarDesai presents the definitive history of India in its entire civilizational depth from tradition to modernity. India has recently been receiving considerable global attention thanks to its spectacular economic growth at more than 7 percent for a decade. Along with China, these two ancient civilizations are responsible for one-third of the human race and are poised to become the third and fourth largest economies in the world. With apprehension about China's growing military strength, democratic India is regarded by the West as a likely counterbalance to the Communist giant. SarDesai covers the process of change in India through the centuries affecting different segments of the society, including the subalterns. He deals with the sweep of traditional Indian history as well as the post-independence events, judiciously balancing narrative and analysis in the conceptual framework of postcolonial and postmodernistapproaches. This is the first major survey that deals with the entire Indian history along the lines of tradition and modernity instead of the old and largely inapplicable divisions of ancient, medieval, and modern timeframes. In adopting such a periodization, the book supports the presentation followed by most instructors in their courses on India.