August nonfiction: These six new books celebrate the long history of India and being an Indian

The Big Book of Indian Art: An Illustrated History of Indian Art from Its Origins to the Present Day, Bina Sarkar Ellias

The Big Book of Indian Art: An Illustrated History of Indian Art from Its Origins to the Present Day traces the history of Indian art from its origins to the present day, and features the work of more than 300 Indian artists – painters, sculptors, illustrators, printmakers, multi-media artists, lithographers, and muralists. It is divided into eight sections – “The Bengal School”, “The Bombay School”, “The Calcutta Group”, “The Progressive Painters’ Association in Chennai and the Cholamandal Artists’ Village”, “The Progressive Artists Group of Bombay”, “The Baroda Group”, “Artistic Footprints: Indian Icons”, and “The Art Landscape Post Independence”. Each section deals with a landmark art movement or school of Indian art.

The Many Lives of Syeda X: The Story of an Unknown Indian, Neha Dixit

What does the life of an ordinary working-class Indian look and feel like? Journalist Neha Dixit traces the story of one such faceless Indian woman, from the early 1990s to the present day. What emerges is a picture of a life lived under constant corrosive tension. Syeda X left Banaras for Delhi with her young family in the aftermath of...

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