Decent reads on British East India Co & India?

Since the East India Co. was so intertwined with all things Empire, there are, of course, a few billion books that cover a lot of different--and often unrelated--ground. I may be looking for a few of different books--the most accessible economic history, a look at the military element, and/or a history of the EIC in India [which may be the same as the previous book as I think about it]. Looking for scholarly but not "academic monograph" dense. After 10 years and tens of thousands of pages of microspecialized texts in grad school, I've got a limited patience for the stuff these days. I'm looking for few "keep my interest but make me a bit smarter" titles here.

(Something like Jared Diamond's style would be on the light-side but acceptable--I think he runs a weeee bit fast and loose in his sweeping theories, but the well-researched but highly accessible work of the 50s' and 60s' "public historians" like, say, Richard Hofstadter and Daniel Bell seems to be a lost fucking art these days. You can get "entertaining reading" but it's often at the expense of "well researched"--or, in the case of authors like good ol' Steven Ambrose toward his end of days, delves into questionable accuracy or provenance.)

On a related note, I'm also looking for suggestions on a few decent histories of India/Southwest Asia prior to British rule. My particular microspecialization was Cold War with a heavy dose of 19th-20th century intellectual history of nationalism on the side. I've got a wall full of "American Empire" and a smaller wall full of "European Empire: If You Thought Queen Victoria and the Maxim Gun Did Spectacularly Bad Things, Be Glad It Wasn't the Belgians or Portugese" (I'm pretty sure there's a direct correlation between how inconsequential a Metropole's standing was in Europe and the abject misery and brutality in its colonies. Based on the resources and landscape alone, the Congo [whatever it's called this year] should be the richest nation in sub-Saharan Africa...). Same criteria apply: looking to fill some gaps in my knowledge, not become an expert.

Anyone have some favorites? (I'd rather ask here first versus the BGG wargame subdomain forum. BGG would likely net me a ton of responses, but those "suggest a book" threads tend quickly to spiral out of control into historiography debates. While often interesting, my "I walked away from grad school readings seminars for a reason" button gets pushed fairly early on and I shut the thread without learning much.)

Jan Morris' trilogy on the British Empire is good (Pax Brittanica, Heaven's Command and Farewell the Trumpets) . Excellent narrative not too heavy going and very detailed.

Niall Ferguson's Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power ($9.87 on Kindle) this is a largely successful attempt to rehabilitate the British Empire. Very readable.

Piers Brandon's The Decline and Fall of the British Empire is also an excellent read in a narrative style. ($15 on Kindle)

All of these are overviews and will make you smarter

Wait...I have a mobi version of Piers Brandon book. PM me the email you want to use and I will send attachment

The general one I have is Antony Wild, The East India Company, The Lyons Press, 2000.

I have quite a few excellent histories of India prior to British rule, mostly from Indian publishers. I'll try and add the list to this thread tomorrow morning.

Apologies, took longer than expected to get back here. Leaving out the military, hopefully one or two of these will be what you're looking for.

Om Prakash, The Dutch Factories in India 1617-1623, Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt Ltd, 1984 - collection of documents.

One political and two economic:-
G.P. Singh, Republics Kingdoms Towns and Cities in Ancient India, D.K. Printworld (P) Ltd, 2003 - academic.
Shyamsunder Nigam, Economic Organisation in Ancient India, Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt Ltd, 1975 - academic.
Abul Khair Muhammad Farooque, Roads and Communication in Mughal India, Idarah-I Adabiyat-I Delli, 1977 - also caravans, the postal service, and customs.

General:-
Jeannine Auboyer, Daily Life in Ancient India From 200BC to 700AD, Phoenix Press, 2002 - intro.
Romila Thapar, Early India From the Origins to AD 1300, University of California Press, 2002 - thorough!

Thanks a ton gents!

Yeah, thanks. East India Company is always something I've meant to read more on, but now I have a path to follow at least.

Never read extensively about this. It's one of those areas of history which still attracts enormous and startling political bias. I'd love to see a genuinely even-handed treatment on the subject of the British Empire, but sadly I'm not sure such a book exists.

That's why you have to read accounts from many different viewpoints in order to make your own judgements. Takes time but is worth it in the end....

Most of history is not black and white, as many teachers would have it.