Independent India is 75 years old. Old enough to have accomplished a lot, and young enough to be energized by new possibilities every day. We capture different aspects of the old and the new in listicles of 75 fun, inspiring, surprising and meaningful facts in this special Independence Day Series.

India@75: 15 (recently published) books that uniquely chronicle Indian realities

Arundhati Roy once said, “India lives in several centuries at the same time.” This is why perhaps the country remains a perennial puzzle for everyone, for it’s impossible to uncover the ‘whole truth’ about anything in India. But below is a list of recently published books that not only wrestle with India’s complexity adroitly but, along with it, also unravel a crucial understanding of its culture and politics, often employing a unique lens to tell these stories.

Whole Numbers and Half Truths: What Data Can and Cannot Tell Us About Modern India (Context, an imprint of Westland) — Rukmini S.

Data says so. This phrase is often thrown around in response to any peculiar observation. But Rukmini S.’s work proves why it’d be a gross injustice to take any data about India at face value. .

For its rich, unassuming storytelling of oft-neglected queer lives—their dynamic and everydayness—in Gujarat, Sharma’s .

Footprints of a Queer History: Life-Stories from Gujarat (Yoda Press) — Maya Sharma

Gods, Giants and the Geography of India (Hachette) — written by Nalini Ramachandran and illustrated by Sharanya Kunnath

Desperately Seeking Shah Rukh: India’s Lonely Young Women and the Search for Intimacy and Independence (HarperCollins Publishers) — Shrayana Bhattacharya

Enough has been said and written about this book, but there doesn’t seem to be an end to it, for that’s what happens when you write a book on economics, tell a tale about.

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