I know many people are critical of Ramachandra Guha’s India After Gandhi: The History of the World’s Largest Democracy (e.g., my friend Reihan Salam is not a big fan), but Amazon is running a Kindle Deal on it (at least in the USA). So it’s $1.99 currently.
The original book was published in the 2000s, but this is a “revised and updated” version. So I assume it has a bit more on the last 20 years. Whatever you think about it, it is probably worth reading at some point.
Done. I had previously asked for recommendations on Indian history. I bought the ones you recommended. I also bought:
“Democracy On The Road” by Ruchir Sharma, January 28, 2019
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0670092207/geneexpressio-20
From a review at The American Interest:
“Ruchir Sharma’s Democracy on the Road: A 25-Year Journey through India provides a sense of the sights and sounds, the flavor and the texture of these remarkable national rituals. The author, a native of India who is the Chief Global Strategist at the Morgan Stanley bank in New York and is best known for his writings on economic topics, has for the past 25 years organized trips for a group of journalists to observe at firsthand election campaigns through the country. He has conducted these political tours during both the national elections that take place every five years and the numerous state elections that are held in between.”