Audrey Truschke, "India: 5,000 Years of History on the Subcontinent" (Princeton UP, 2025)

I’m Nicholas Gordon, host of the Asian Review of Books podcast, done in partnership with the New Books Network. On this show, we interview authors writing in, around, and about the Asia-Pacific region. How do you tell the story of India–not just the modern-day country, but the whole region of South Asia, home to over two billion people? Historian Audrey Truschke’s newest book, India: 5,000 Years of History on the Subcontinent (Princeton UP, 2025), starts at the very beginning: the rise of the Indus Valley Civilization, of which we still know frustratingly little. Her book covers millennia of history–the Vedas, Ashoka, the rise of Buddhism and Islam, the Mughals, the Marathas, the Company, and then newly independent India. Audrey Truschke is Professor of South Asian History at Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey. Her research focuses on the cultural, imperial, and intellectual history of medieval and early modern India as well as the politics of history in modern times. She is the author of four books. London-based business and culture journalist Prarthana Prakash joins me on the show today as a guest host. Find her on Linkedin. You can find more reviews, excerpts, interviews, and essays at The Asian Review of Books, including its review of India: 5,000 Years of History on the Subcontinent. Follow on Twitter at @BookReviewsAsia. Nicholas Gordon is an editor for a global magazine, and a reviewer for the Asian Review of Books. He can be found on Twitter at @nickrigordon.