Although there is nothing here about India, Photo Icons is one of the best single books on photography available today. Each of its 20 well-written essays decodes a single historical photograph using fresh historical research and profound insight.Read more

Author: Maurice Isserman and Stuart Weaver
Publisher: Yale University Press, 2008
Binding: Hardcover, 592 pages
An exceptionally gripping and well-written history of mountaineering in the subcontinent from the mid-19th century. Major expeditions are covered in detail, and the book is well illustrated with vintage photographs.Read more

This slim but fascinating volume by a Professor at Erasmus University in the Netherlands uses photographs, cabinet cards, postcards and other material to illustrate the lives of Indians in East Africa from the late 19th through early 20th century.Read more

Author: Mike David
Publisher: Verso, 2002
Binding: Softcover, 464 pages

An eye-opening book about how policies, technologies and weather patterns combined to bring about some of the enormous famines that became endemic to India in the second half of the 19th century.Read more

A comprehensive look into the lives and minds of the 1,000 or so strong British elite who ruled India during the Raj. The author has studied the characters involved for a long time. Lots of good anecdotes and glimpses into their successes and motivations. Light on the excesses and problems they left behind.Read more

A sumptuously illustrated, very well-researched study of the architectural styles of British India by a very well-respected scholar. The books focus is on Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata and the very unique architectural styles that developed in the Presidency capitals, the results of official policy and the vision of select architects.Read more

"This volume brings together 19 seminal essays on India's visual culture and its leading manifestations during the period 1857-2007. It traces the shifting role of the artist and art institution through cataclysmic changes in India's history. The early essays cover the age of empire,Read more

Although not about Indian photography, this is one of the finest and most thought-provoking books about colonial photography. There is much in its theoretical framework that is applicable to photography in the subcontinent as well, past and present.

The indispensable guide to Hindi English words, to the influence of Indian languages, and a most entertaining read. A book as unique and multi-leveled as India, Bangladesh and Pakistan today.Read more

This book by India's master writer and chronicler Khushwant Singh was published in 2008 by Penguin India. It is being released in the US on August 12, 2009.