Teaching India

Using India: 5,000 Years of History on the Subcontinent for teaching? Check out these supplementary materials (public domain or fair use) that pair well with the book!

General Resources

Map Quiz documents

Map Quiz - Premodern (pre-1500) and Modern (post-1500), w/ answers

Map Quiz

Caste System Diagram

India Resources by Chapter

*chapters 12–24 complete; chapters 1–11 in progress fall 2026


1. Indus Valley Civilization, 2600–1900 BCE

Harappa.com, especially around “Indus in 90 slides” as a primary source (part 1 and part 2)


2. Ancient Migrants and Vedic Practices

Video on Vedic memorization techniques (4 ½ minutes)

Excerpts from Rig Veda books 2-3 (Jamison and Brereton trans)


Chapters 3–11 forthcoming…


12. Seeking God or Fame, 1500–1550

Baburnama and Jahangirnama excerpts (also useful with chap. 14)

Baburnama select images:

Drunken Babur Returns to Camp at Night, Lahore

Babur visiting Ashram near Peshawar, Walters image and V and A image

Walters Museum manuscript with many image


13. Ordinary and Extraordinary Lives in Early Modern India

Tilted empire map (corresponds with India, p. 242)

Jahangir at Jharoka Window (fig. 13.1), Aga Khan Collection

Brahmin and Mughal Translators (fig. 13.2), Free Library of Philadelphia

Kusha and Lava in Persian Ramayana (fig. 13.3), Museum of Islamic Art

Saraswati Enthroned (fig. 13.4), Jaipur City Palace


14. Religious Communities and Elite Culture, 1600–1650

Baburnama and Jahangirnama excerpts (also useful with chap. 12)

Jahangir embracing Shah Abbas (fig. 14.1), Smithsonian

Jahangir visiting Jadrup: fig. 14.2 Louvre and LACMA


15. Aurangzeb’s Empire and Two Shudra Lineages

Aurangzeb visiting Muinuddih Chishti’s Shrine (fig. 15.1), Mead Art Museum

Aurangzeb at the Siege of Golconda (fig. 15.2), Brown University Library

Full translation of Shahji’s Take my Wife play


16. Regional Flourishing, 1720–1780

Muhammad Shah Rangila playing Holi: fig. 16.1 LACMA and fol. 22a Oxford

Palace of Maharaj of Indore in Benares (fig. 16.2)


17. Company Bahadur

Short video showing playing of Tipu’s Tiger


18. Sepoy Rebellion

Poetry and prose that speak to perceptions of the British and rebelling Sepoys in 1857–58


19. Knowing India and Indians, 1860–1900

Primary sources on Rukhmabai and Age of Consent Bill debates

Images of princes and 1911 durbar in Venugopal’s Historical Record


20. Indians on the Move, 1880–1920

SAADA primary source documents on the 1907 Bellingham race riot

Ramabai’s The High-Caste Hindu Woman


21. Advocating for Independence, Nationalism, and Equal Rights

Excerpts by Mohandas Gandhi on the meaning of swaraj (1909) and defining Hinduism (1921)

Ambedkar’s Annihilation of Caste, text only and Arundhati Roy edition


22. Dividing India in 1947

1947 Partition Archive with Individual Stories

Margaret Bourke-White Partition images from Life Magazine

Select Manto short stories (Open It, Cold Meat, Toba Tek Singh)

Sunderlal Report, on 1948 Indian annexation of Hyderabad (nicely typed version)


23. New Nation States, 1947–1990

ABC news footage from November 1971 covering village massacre in East Pakistan/Bangladesh

Mandal Commission Report (1980)


24. Everyday Life in Contemporary South Asia

BBC’s India: The Modi Question (2023 documentary)

Human rights reports on India: Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, USCIRF

Indexes for South Asian nations showing hunger, democratic health, freedom, freedom of the press, and academic freedom