Hello 2026: Six new books featuring India’s essential stories to read this new year

All information sourced from publishers.

Wild Capital: Discovering Nature in Delhi, Neha Sinha

When was the last time you ran your hands through the tumult of wild grass flowers? Or stopped to watch a firefly? In a warming, hostile world, how do we find purpose? Perhaps we can start by noticing the bird outside one’s window?

In her new book, Wild Capital, nature writer Neha Sinha takes the reader on a journey through the hidden wildernesses of the bustling metropolis of Delhi, where she finds wild creatures, ecological histories and a deep sense of meaning that bind us to the places we call our own. Exploring the city over many days and nights, Sinha traces memories and the stories of extraordinary human lives, discovering centuries-old groves of trees and neglected rivers, mammal tracks and bird calls, words forgotten and then re-found.

The result is a deeply personal yet universal book which reveals how we can find our place in the world through the exploration of natural places – and presents a manifesto of hope through the rediscovery of nature.

We, the People of India: Decoding a Nation’s Symbols, TM Krishna

India’s independence came at the cost of millions of lives and deep psychological scars. As attempts were made to urgently stitch together the states and princely provinces that would eventually comprise the Republic of India, members of the Constituent Assembly and the newly formed government also debated the symbols – the national flag, anthem, emblem, motto and Preamble – that could represent the free people of the new nation and reinforce in them a sense of their own identity as citizens.

Not all of the processes and communications around this passage from idea to symbol were clearly documented. It is this lack of ready historical material that set musician and cultural commentator TM Krishna on a journey of discovery that shaped itself into this book. Through meticulous research and persistent questioning, he found ways to explore the historical, cultural and philosophical contexts of each symbol, revealing how they evolved to become powerful metaphors for a nation’s aspirations, struggles and dreams for the future.

In tracing the origin and evolution of the tricolour with the chakra in the centre, the discussions about the significance of the lions on the Ashokan pillar capitals and the proclamations to be included in the Preamble to the Constitution of India, the debates around the adoption of the motto “Satyameva Jayate” and Tagore’s Jana Gana Mana, leading up to the present controversy around Vande Mataram, Krishna invites readers to reconsider the significance of each of these symbols in contemporary India.

We, the People of India is a meditation on constitutionalism, freedom and the importance of effective representation in a complex, vibrant democracy. It is also, ultimately, a citizenly response to a nation in crisis.

The Land and the Shadows, Perumal Murugan, translated from the Tamil by Gita Subramanian

Cinema, for Perumal Murugan, was never just flickering images on a screen. It was a field of experience, a gathering ground, a mirror held up to the land itself. In The Land and the Shadows, he returns to the theatres of his youth and to the decades when Tamil cinema became inseparable from the life of the people – the 1950s through the 1970s.

Here, he recalls his boyhood labour in a small-town cinema hall, the thrill of posters and projectors, the songs carried on village winds. From those vivid fragments, Murugan opens out a portrait of Tamil society in transition, where poverty and caste met desire and aspiration in the common darkness of the theatre. The screen was both escape and education, its heroes and heroines shaping speech, gesture and imagination across class and community.

Part memoir, part ethnography, this is a record of a world that has almost vanished – those public spaces where lives once overlapped, where cinema forged unlikely intimacies and collective dreams. Murugan’s voice, at once personal and self-effacing, turns memory into history, and history into story.

Secret and Private Papers of the Akali Movement, 1920-25, edited by Mohinder Singh

Between 1920 and 1925, tens of thousands of Sikhs across undivided Punjab – among them, religious leaders, farmers and soldiers – came together in an agitation to free Sikh shrines from corrupt and tyrannical mahants – or priests – who managed them. These mahants belonged to sects that traditional Sikhs considered heretical, and were powerful because, first, the Mughal and then the British administration had supported them. Despite repression, arrests and violence by the British Indian government and the private armies of the mahants, the protest – which came to be known as the Akali Movement and the Gurudwara Reform Movement – succeeded, and control of the shrines came to representative religious bodies of the Sikhs. This was India’s first successful non-violent mass protest, or Satyagraha, and became an inspiration for the freedom movement.

In this book, the acclaimed scholar of Sikh history, Mohinder Singh, collects rare correspondence among different departments of the British administration and between the British and the Akali leaders, which had remained classified for decades. The book sheds important light on the Akali Movement, the modern history of Punjab and Sikh politics.

The Sari Eternal, Lakshmi Murdeshwar Puri

Throughout history, the sari has been linked inextricably to the idea of Indian womanhood. It is the oldest surviving garment in the world, originating in the Indus Valley civilisation some 5,000 years ago. In The Sari Eternal, author Lakshmi Murdeshwar Puri explores how the unstitched fabric has evolved over time in the country’s cultural imagination. From the Banarasi to the Kanjivaram, the Sambalpuri to the Paithani, the sari unites the plural India that wears it.

Puri begins her book with the story of her childhood in Delhi and Kathmandu, featuring her mother Malati, who was a proud wearer of the sari. Later, as a college-goer, she, like other young women of the time, was inspired to wear the sari in the image of Indira Gandhi. She also recounts how, as an Indian diplomat abroad, she subverted Western assumptions of what made for the correct attire for formal occasions by doing what was considered unorthodox and wearing a sari instead of a business suit or gown.

She then explores the history of the sari – its significance in the sacred literature of the Vedic period; in the sculptures of Sanchi, Khajuraho, and Konark; and in the paintings of Raja Ravi Varma, Jamini Roy, and MF Husain, to name a few. The sari as a symbol of the feminine shakti is typified in the figures of goddesses like Lakshmi, Saraswati, and Parvati, as well as in Indian queens, freedom fighters, contemporary politicians, entrepreneurs, and actors, all the way through to Gen-Z influencers.

Ranging far and wide in its exploration of the garment, The Sari Eternal is an account of how the sari is a crucial part of the cultural and spiritual ethos of India.

From Dynasties to Democracy: Politics, Caste and Power Struggles in Rajasthan, Deep Mukherjee and Tabeenah Anjum

Rajasthan, India’s largest state, is often imagined as a land of sweeping deserts, majestic forts and colourful traditions. Yet, beneath this picturesque surface lies a complex reality shaped by centuries-old feudal systems, deep-seated social divisions, the lingering influence of royal families and a volatile political landscape.

In this insightful narrative, journalists Tabeenah Anjum and Deep Mukherjee offer a comprehensive look at Rajasthan’s political evolution from a feudal state ruled by kings and jagirdars to a dynamic electoral democracy. They delve beyond common perceptions to chart Rajasthan’s political journey from its formation in 1949 to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and beyond. They meticulously examine crucial historical moments – the rise of kisan sabhas and praja mandals, caste violence and Dalit agitations, Adivasi self-assertion and episodes of unrest, riots and lynchings. Extensive firsthand reporting and rigorous archival research illuminate the power struggles between the BJP and the Congress, the pervasive influence of the RSS, persistent infighting within political parties and the formidable challenges faced by prominent leaders like Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, Baldev Ram Mirdha, Ashok Gehlot, Sachin Pilot, Vasundhara Raje and others.