*I’ve put an asterisk next to recommendations where people only gave an author’s name, picking what seems to be the

likely title in mind.

Broader history including South India

India Before Europe, Catherine Asher & Cynthia Talbot*
Courtly Culture and Political Life in Early Medieval India, Daud Ali*
‘Coastal Histories; Facets of Ecology and Society, Yogesh Sharma*
Nine Lives, William Dalrymple
The Origins of Modern Historiography in India, Rama Sundari Mantena
The Roman Empire and the Indian Ocean: The Ancient World Economy and the Kingdoms of Africa, Arabia and
India Hardcover, Raoul McLaughlin
The Art of India, C Sivaramurti*
Listening to the Loom, DR Nagaraj
Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India, Nicholas Dirks
The Spinning World, A Global History of Cotton Textiles, 1200–1850, Giorgio Riello and Prasannan Parthasarathi
The Pariah Problem: Caste, Religion, and the Social in Modern India, Rupa Viswanath
Crossing the Bay of Bengal by Sunil Amrith
Europe’s India, Sanjay Subhramanyam
Beyond Compare: St. Francis de Sales and Sri Vedanta Desika on Loving Surrender to God, Francis X. Clooney

South Indian History

The Illustrated History of South India, KA Nilakanta Sastri*
A Concise History of South India, Noboru Karashima*
Essays on South India, Burton Stein
Penumbral Visions: Making Polities in Early Modern South India, Sanjay Subrahmanyam*
South India: Political Institutions and Political Change 1880–1940, Christopher Baker
Peasant History in South India, David Ludden
The Message Bearers: The Nationalist Politics and the Entertainment Media in South India, 1880-1945, S Theodore
Baskaran
The Saint in the Banyan Tree, David Mosse
Ramayana Stories in Modern South India, Paula Richman
Caste and Gender in Colonial South India, S Anandhi
Christians and Public Life in Colonial South India, Chandra Mallampalli*
Language, Emotion, and Politics in South India: The Making of a Mother Tongue, Lisa Mitchell
Spring, Heat, Rains: A South Indian Diary, David Shulman
Dialogue and History: Constructing South India, 1795-1895, Eugene F Irschick
Religion, Tradition and Ideology: Pre-Colonial South India, R Champalakshmi
A Southern Music: The Carnatic Story, T. M. Krishna
A Book of South India by J Chartres Maloney
Early History of Vaishnavism in South India by Sakkottai Krishnaswami Aiyangar
South India and Her Muhammadan Invaders by Sakkottai Krishnaswami Aiyangar
The Beginnings of South Indian History by Sakkottai Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Textures of Time, Velcheru N Rao
Gandhi's Conscience Keeper: C. Rajagopalachari And Indian Politics, Vasanthi Srinivasan
Coromandel, Charles Allen
Modern South India: A History from the 17th Century to Our Times, Rajmohan Gandhi

Deccan
A Social History of The Deccan, Richard Eaton

Tamil Nadu
Tales of Old and New Madras, S Muthiah
South India Under the Cholas, Y Subbayarulu
Tamil: A Biography, David Shulman
Brahmin & Non-Brahmin, MSS Pandian
Vaisnava Iconography in the Tamil Country, R Champalakshmi
Towards a Non-Brahmin Millennium, V Geetha
Panthers in Parliament: Dalits, Caste, and Political Power in South India, Hugo Gorringe
In Those Days There Was No Coffee Writings in Cultural History, AR Venkatachalapthy
Nagapattinam to Suvarnadwipa: Reflections on the Chola Naval Expeditions to Southeast Asia, Hermann Kulke, K.
Kesavapany, Vijay Sakhuja
Cut-Outs, Caste and Cine Stars: The World of Tamil Politics, Vaasanthi
The Province of the Book: Scholars, Scribes, and Scribblers in Colonial Tamil Nadu, A. R. Venkatachalapathy
The View from Below: Indigenous Society, Temples, and the Early Colonial State in Tamilnadu, 1700-1835,
Kanakalatha Mukund
Tamarind City, Bishwanath Ghosh
Anna: The Life and Times of C.N. Annadurai, R Kannan
Ayya's Accounts: A Ledger of Hope in Modern India, Anand Pandian
The Trading World of the Tamil Merchant: Evolution of Merchant Capitalism in the Coromandel, Kanakalatha
Mukund
Passions of the Tongue, Sumathi Ramaswamy
Chola Temples, SR Balasubramanian
The Cholas, KA Nilakanta Sastri
Tamil Oratory and the Dravidian Aesthetic: Democratic Practice in South India, Bernard Bate
The Story of Madras, Glyn Barlow
Early Tamil Epigraphy : From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D, Iravatham Mahadevan
Nadars of Tamilnadu: The Political Culture of a Community in Change, Robert L Hardgrave
Manuscripts, Memory and History: Classical Tamil Literature in Colonial India, Rajesh
Madhura Vijayam of Gangadevi, Thiruvenkatachari
Four Score & More, History of the Music Academy, V Sriram, Malathi Rangaswami
Degree Coffee by the Yard: A Short Biography of Madras, Nirmala Lakshman
Tamil Brahmans: The Making of a Middle-Class Caste, Chris Fuller and Haripriya Narasimhan
Celluloid Deities: The Visual Culture of Cinema and Politics in South India, Preminda Jacob
Languages and Nations: The Dravidian Proof in Colonial Madras, Thomas Trautmann
History of Tamil Nadu from Temple Inscriptions by Chithra Madhavan
The Tamils 1800 Years Ago by Kanakasabhai Pillai
Merchants of Tamilakam by Kanakalatha Mukund
Being a Person the Tamil Way, E Valentine Daniel
Tamil Temple Myths, David Shulman

Kerala
The Ivory Throne: Chronicles of the House of Travancore, Manu Pillai
A Survey of Kerala History, A Sreedhara Menon
A History of Travancore from the Earliest Times, P. Shungoonny Menon
Modernity of Slavery: Struggles Against Caste Inequality In Colonial Kerala by Sanal Mohan
Andhra-Telangana
Precolonial India in Practice: Society, Region, and Identity in Medieval Andhra, Cynthia Talbot
A State in Periodic Crises: Andhra Pradesh, B. P. R. Vithal
Hyderabad: A Biography, Narendra Luther
The Untold Charminar: Writings on Hyderabad, Syeda Imam
Old History, New Geography, Jairam Ramesh.

Karnataka
The Promise of the Metropolis: Bangalore's Twentieth Century, Janaki Nair
Mysore Modern: Rethinking the Region Under Princely Rule, Janaki Nair
Confronting Colonialism: Resistance and Modernisation under Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan, Irfan Habib
The Early City, Yashaswini Sharma
Multiple City, Aditi De
Nature in the City, Harini Nagendra
Askew, TJS George