I don't have a very good understanding of Indian history, so I'm interested in picking up some good books, mostly on pre modern history. What are the must haves, something comparable to scholarship by Jonathan spence, John Fairbank or William Rowe on China? I checked out the master list, but I didn't see any books on India.
If you're looking for just a general book on Indian history check out the books "A History of India" by either Burton Stein or Hermann Kulke (they both wrote books titled a history of India). There is also the book "Early Indian: From Origins to 1300 AD" by Romila Thapar.
View the South Asia section of the book list- India is listed under there.
Books aside I do recommend you evaluate these lectures on Indian Civilization & History as well as India under British rule by Prof Vinay Lal from UCLA. All in the Uni channel in youtube, follow the link below.