HarperCollins India has added two major international honours to its list of achievements this year, with Sam Dalrymple’s Shattered Lands and Devesh Kapur and Arvind Subramanian’s A Sixth of Humanity being named to the Financial Times Best Books of 2025. The recognition spans two categories—History and Economics—reinforcing the publisher’s growing reputation for delivering rigorous, ambitious, and conversation-shaping non-fiction.

The Financial Times Best Books list is widely regarded as one of the most influential annual literary benchmarks, spotlighting works that bring original insight and deep scholarship to global debates. The inclusion of two HarperCollins India titles testifies to the strength of its publishing vision and the power of the ideas these books put forward.

A Sixth of Humanity — FT Best Books of 2025: Economics

Authored by Devesh Kapur and Arvind Subramanian, A Sixth of Humanity is a sweeping and incisive reappraisal of India’s post-Independence development story. The book argues that independent India attempted something no other large country dared: four simultaneous transformations—building a modern state, constructing a functioning economy, reshaping a profoundly unequal society, and forging a nation from immense diversity.

Kapur and Subramanian bring clarity, depth, and global perspective to their analysis of India’s “precocious” development model and what it means for the world at a time when India’s economic and geopolitical weight is rapidly expanding. The recognition from the FT places the book among the year’s most important works on global economics and political economy.

About the Authors
— Devesh Kapur is the Starr Foundation Professor of South Asia Studies at Johns Hopkins SAIS, known for his influential work on Indian politics, development, and diaspora.
— Arvind Subramanian is Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and a former Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India, widely regarded for his research on global trade, macroeconomics, and India’s economic trajectory.

Shattered Lands — FT Best Books of 2025: History

Selected as one of the best History books of the year, Sam Dalrymple’s Shattered Lands is a richly drawn and deeply researched journey through South Asia’s layered past. Dalrymple weaves together forgotten frontiers, entangled communities, and the tectonic shifts that have shaped the subcontinent across centuries.

From stories of migration and empire to conflict, culture, and memory, Shattered Lands reconstructs a region too often seen through narrow political frames. The FT recognition highlights the book’s narrative ambition and the author’s ability to make vast histories feel urgent, intimate, and vividly human.

About the Author
— Sam Dalrymple is a writer and historian whose work centres on South Asian histories, cultures, and migrations. His scholarship is known for combining archival depth with powerful storytelling.