Buying Indian books from India when you live abroad

Amar Chitra Katha, mythology for children, and the Indian-language titles that no bookshop abroad has ever stocked.

Yes — you can buy Indian books from Indian shops even if they do not deliver to your country. India Rabbit gives you a free delivery address in India. You order to that address as an ordinary domestic customer, we receive and hold the parcel free for 30 days, combine it with anything else you buy, and forward the lot to you.

Get my free Indian address What will it cost?

Why this is hard to buy where you are

Books are the clearest case for forwarding on the whole site, because there is genuinely no alternative route. An Indian edition is printed for the Indian market at Indian prices — often a third of what the same title costs abroad, where it costs anything at all. Most Indian-language titles are never exported in any quantity, and the ones that are sit in a handful of diaspora shops at four times the cover price. Parents raising children away from India feel this most: the stories they grew up on are cheap and everywhere in India, and almost unobtainable anywhere else.

Where to buy it

Shop	What they are good for
Amar Chitra Katha	The publisher sells its own titles and collector sets directly. This is the single most-searched Indian book family abroad and the range is far wider than the few titles that reach export.
Amazon.in	The broadest catalogue for English-language Indian publishing and the easiest place to compare editions and printings.
Flipkart	Strong on regional-language titles and school material, frequently cheaper than Amazon.in on the same book.
Bookswagon and Sapna Online	Dedicated Indian booksellers with deep regional-language ranges, including titles the marketplaces do not list.
Publisher direct	DC Books, Mathrubhumi and the other regional houses sell from their own sites. If any of these cannot deliver to your country, your Indian address makes it a domestic order.

Books are light, cheap and unbreakable, which makes them the ideal thing to add to a box you are already sending rather than to ship alone.

What to check before you order

Indian editions are the same text on thinner paper at a fraction of the price. Check the ISBN if you need one specific edition or translation — the Indian printing usually has its own.
Amar Chitra Katha sells as single titles and as collector sets. A single comic is a few grams; a boxed set of fifty is three kilos and a different shipping conversation.
For a regional-language book, confirm whether it is in the original script or transliterated into Roman. Listings are not always explicit and the two are not interchangeable.
School and competitive-exam books change edition every year. Check the year on the cover before ordering from abroad, because the wrong year is not worth returning.

Weight, customs and getting it here intact

Weight

A paperback is 200-400g, a children's hardback around 500g, a boxed comic set 2-3kg. Books are dense rather than bulky, so a dozen of them still fit in a small box.

Volume

Volumetric weight never applies to books — they are the one category where you pay for exactly what the scale says. That makes the cost genuinely predictable before you order.

Customs

Printed books are one of the very few categories many countries admit duty-free, under a long-standing international agreement on educational and cultural materials. It is why a box of books is usually the cheapest parcel anyone receives from us. Check what your destination allows.

Condition

Books arrive as the shop packed them. We add board or wrap for anything hardback or collectible so corners do not knock in transit, and we do not pack them under heavy items.

Work out the exact cost to your country

Where we send it

Pick your country for transit times and customs notes.

Questions

Is it cheaper than buying Indian books where I live?

Substantially, and often it is not a question of price at all — a great many Indian-language and regional titles are simply not sold outside India in any quantity. Where a diaspora bookshop does stock a title, the Indian edition of the same book is typically a third of the price before shipping.

Will I pay import duty on books?

Frequently not. Printed books are admitted duty-free by many countries under a long-standing international agreement covering educational and cultural material, which makes them the cheapest category we handle. It is not universal, so check the customs notes on your destination page before assuming it.

Can I get books in Malayalam, Hindi or Tamil?

Yes, and the regional publishers and dedicated Indian booksellers carry far more than the marketplaces do. Malayalam has its own page on this site with the Kerala publishers covered in more depth; this page is the wider Indian-language and English catalogue.

Are Amar Chitra Katha comics worth shipping?

They are the most-searched Indian books abroad by a wide margin, and they are light. Single titles cost almost nothing to add to a box. A full collector set is three kilos, so treat that as a real shipment and price it on the calculator first.

Can I order books along with clothes and everything else?

Yes, and it is the sensible way to buy them. Books add weight but no volume, so they fill the gaps in a box you are already sending. Everything goes to the same Indian address and leaves as one parcel.

Order it like you live in Kerala

Your free Indian address takes a minute to set up and works on your very next order. We hold parcels free for 30 days so you can combine them into one box.

Create my free account