Abbe Jean-Antoine Dubois (Author, 1765–1848) was a surprisingly broad-minded (especially considering his vocation and era) French Catholic missionary in Pondicherry, Madras (Chennai), Mysore, & Mangalore in India. He adopted Indian dress, diet, habit and languages. He accorded respect to all he met regardless of religion or caste and was esteemed in turn (unlike most Europeans who were considered, due to their 'unclean' habits, to be low untouchables). While the times and India have changed greatly in the intervening years, much has not changed, I would still recommend this book to all who plan on visiting India or who have Indian friends. I can't help wishing I had found this book before we went to India. No doubt I committed some unintentional faux pas while there due to my ignorance which I would have avoided if I had read this book first.

The only reason I didn't give this book 5* is that a 21st century update/footnoted edition is due and would be most helpful... Still a very informative, insightful, interesting and very readable history book as is.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Antoine_Dubois

Public domain e-book: http://www.hinduwebsite.com/hinduism/texts/hmc/hmc.txt ( )