India History and Culture

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With a modest beginning more than thirty years ago, this book has gone from strength to strength with ever-increasing and improved scope, content and presentation. Today it covers the entire gamut of India's history from pre-historic times to the end of the Nehruvian era (1964).

One of the strong points of this volume on Indian History and Culture is the diversity of requirements it is designed to meet. Apart from the aspirants to the civil services of the union and the state governments, it caters to the needs of the candidates taking the National Eligibility Test (NET) of the University Grants Commission among others.

DR. V.K. AGNIHOTRI, an IAS officer of 1968 batch, belongs to the Andhra Pradesh Cadre of the service. He obtained his Masters degrees in English Literature and Political Science from the University of Allahabad, Allahabad. He has obtained his Ph. D in Public Policy Analysis and Design from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. He has been a Visiting Fellow at Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford, in 1991-92.

Among several responsible positions with the State and Central Governments, Dr. Agnihotri has held posts of Collector of Visakhapatnam District, Joint Director and Professor of Public Administration in Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Additional Secretary to Government of India in the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions), and Secretary to Government of India in the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs. He has served as Member (Administrative) on the Central Administrative Tribunal. His last assignment was Secretary-General, Rajya Sabha, in the Parliament of India. He has several publications to his credit.

It is indeed a daunting task to keep a publication of this nature and size alive, in spite of various ups and downs in government policy relating to the scope and constituents of the civil services examinations in the our country. The credit for this extra-ordinary box-office performance, to a great extent, must be apportioned to the readers, who have diverse interests and dispositions. This, in turn, has enormously encouraged us to constantly Endeavour to revise and update this book on Indian History and Culture, taking into account the continuous stream of researches and nuanced interpretations.

With a modest beginning more than thirty years ago, this book (or shall we call it a tome) has gone from strength to strength with ever-increasing and improved scope, content and presentation. Today it covers the entire gamut of India's history from pre-historic times to the end of the Nehruvian era (1964).

We are all mortals and, in due course, get consigned to, as they say, the dustbin of history; but history survives and out-lives us all. Therefore, historians, who record the history of times, have an onerous, unenviable as well as highly responsible task to perform. They have to ensure that the history they record is objective, secular and apolitical. They have to be honest and are answerable to the call of their conscience. We have, over the years, made certain that we pass this litmus test always and every time. We have been putting together the material of this book without any pride or prejudice. And that is our forte, which has been appreciated by our readers. We are proud of them.

One of the strong points of this volume on Indian History and Culture is the diversity of requirements it is designed to meet. Apart from the aspirants to the civil services of the union and the state governments, it caters to the needs of the candidates taking the National Eligibility Test (NET) of the University Grants Commission among others. In order to sub serve the interests of a larger clientele, we propose to enlarge the scope of this book even further to encompass contemporary history.

Over the years, we have experienced a great sense of fulfillment while working on this book, on account of the fact that it has helped several civil services aspirants to achieve their career goals. Our commitment to quality has led us to seek the services of numerous subject experts of eminence from time to time. We are extremely grateful to them. In addition, we would also like to place on record our sincere thanks to dedicated scholars and researchers, publication and editorial staff, who have made sustained and painstaking efforts to bring this edition into existence.

Allied Publishers Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, have been our genuine supporters in this initiative since inception. This book has grown in stature on account of their commitment to quality in its publication. We would like to express our deep and everlasting gratitude to them.