The History of India

In 1700 the Indian subcontinent produced roughly a quarter of everything made in the world. In 1950, about four percent. The arithmetic seems to write its own conclusion - until you find the famous 24.4 percent is a population estimate multiplied by an assumed income.

Five centuries, 1526 to the present, written by an accountant rather than a historian: 353 pages, 150 charts, maps and drawings. Where sources disagree, it gives both figures and names who counted.

Inside, you'll find:

• Partition's death toll published anywhere from 200,000 to 2 million - the low end from Mountbatten, the high end from Stanley Wolpert, while Ian Talbot and Gurharpal Singh record that most scholars settle near a million.
• The famine of 1876 to 1878 counted three ways: 5 to 5.5 million deaths by Britain's own Famine Commission, 10.3 million by the journalist William Digby, near 8 million by Arup Maharatna's census reconstruction.
• Railways that were real and were also a financial instrument: 40,500 route miles at independence, on a guaranteed five percent paid from Indian revenue whether a line earned it or not, at £18,000 a mile against £8,000 in America.
• Indian income per head rebuilt by Broadberry, Custodis and Gupta: three-fifths of the English level in 1600, a third by 1750, a seventh by 1871, the fall beginning before the British governed anything.
• An electoral roll of 978 million names in 2024, in a state that produced no count of its dead in 1947.

For readers who like history and like knowing where a number came from. No background is needed, and none is assumed.

Ask what a number counts and who counted it, and the shouting turns into answerable arguments.