In Mulk Raj Anand's 1935 novel Untouchable, the author explores the Hindu caste system through the eyes of a man deemed an "Untouchable" by Indian society.

Kim, Rudyard Kipling's 1901 novel about an Irish boy growing up in India, describes the diversity of India through a particularly English perspective.

Gita Mehta's 1997 collection of essays, Snakes and Ladders: Glimpses of Modern India, documents the clash of modernity and ancient traditions in present-day India.

Mahabharata, the ancient epic poem of the Hindus, has been attributed to the Hindu sage Vyasa. The form and themes of this poem are drawn upon in Mehta's A River Sutra.

Salman Rushdie's controversial novel The Satanic Verses (1988) imaginatively describes the Islamic tradition in India.