"The Biographical Dictionary of Greater India brings between the covers of one book sketches of the men and women who made Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka what (for better or worse) they are today.

"The volume does not confine itself only to those who were native to South Asia; therefore, along with Gautama Buddha, Asoka, Chandragupta Maurya, Krishnadevaraya, Rammohun Roy, Rani Lakshmibai, Nehru, Tagore and Gandhi are Alexander the Great, St. Thomas, Vasco da Gama, Clive, Dupleix, Kipling and Mountbatten.

"This book is more than a biographical dictionary. It relates the panorama of a great subcontinent as mirrored in the lives of the men and women who played a part in its history. Any work, purporting to be historical, necessarily must involve subjectivity. There is no way that our choice of 157 names will please everyone. There are bound to be names whose inclusion will be questioned by some, there are undoubtedly names whose exclusion will be questioned by others, and there will be some readers who will wonder why more words were devoted to this one than to that one.

"However, this book will put the reader on the road to comprehending a region of the world which mystifies those who have never been there almost as it mystifies those who have lived there all their lives." (jacket)

[Henry Scholberg also wrote The District Gazetteers of British India, The Encyclopedias of India and A South Asia Biographical Dictionary Index.)

Return to India : Reference/Encyclopaedias Catalogue

Return to New Additions to History and Politics of India Catalogue