India Resources

Are you traveling with us? Or just interested in learning more about human rights issues in India? Below is a list of books and articles that we recommend to delve deeper into this topic.

Our “top picks” recommendations are marked with a *.

Books

* Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo (Nonfiction)

In Spite of the Gods: The Rise of Modern India by Edward Luce (Nonfiction)

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (Fiction)

Articles

* New York Times Book Review on Behind the Beautiful Forevers

* The Smithsonian on the Dharavi slum tours

The Economist special report on India

The Economist on the Indian welfare system

New York Times op-ed on the anti-corruption movement

New York Times op-ed on India’s shortcomings as a rising power

New York Times blog post on gender-based discrimination in Bihar

New York Times blog post on ‘water wars’ in the Indian state of Maharashtra

New York Times on gender-based violence

New York Times on the Gujarati riots

The Hindu on Narenda Modi (possibly India’s next Prime Minister)

The Economist on Modi

The Hindu on caste

Reuters on homosexuality in India

Forbes on decriminalizing homosexuality in India

Human Rights Watch on the mining industry

The Guardian on the mining industry

AJWS Reports Magazine

* On a community’s fight for land rights against Coca-Cola (page 12 of PDF)

* On empowering girls to end violence (page 13 of PDF)

On the demolition of Mumbai’s slums (page 18 of PDF)

On the Jewish connection to supporting marginalized Indian communities (page 12 of PDF)

AJWS’s Blog, Global Voices

* On India’s food system

* On supporting sex workers’ rights

On International Women’s Day

On HIV/AIDS

History

Looking for a brief overview? Lonely Planet offers a thorough synopsis here:
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/india/history

But to get a full picture of India that includes the challenges faced by its poor and minority populations, we recommend reading a selection of the articles above.