Politics and Current Affairs – ::Welcome to Ramachandra Guha.in::

The Perilous State of Press Freedom in India Today

The Telegraph

In 1824, the Government of Bengal (which was then in the hands of the East India Company) issued an Ordinance placing strict curbs on the freedom of the press. This gave the government the powers to cancel a newspaper’s license without any explanation. The Ordinance provoked outrage among the intelligentsia of Kolkata, active in editing and [...]

By Ramachandra Guha|2020-07-11T18:49:20+00:00June 20th, 2020|Categories: Politics and Current Affairs|Tags: Amartya Sen, Prime Minster Modi, Ram Mohan Roy, Ram Mohun Roy, authoritarianism, democracy, freedom of the press|

Why Modi has Failed India

NDTV.com

Last week, the respected US rating agency Moody’s downgraded India’s sovereign rating to Baa3, the lowest grade. It thereby joined Standard and Poor and Fitch, which had already relegated India to the bottom rung in this regard. Explaining their decision, Moody’s said: ‘While today’s action is taken in the context of the coronavirus pandemic, it was [...]

By Ramachandra Guha|2020-07-11T18:36:52+00:00June 9th, 2020|Categories: Politics and Current Affairs|Tags: BJP, Indian economy, Prime Minister Modi, Sectarian, communalism, personality of cult|

Why our Classical Music may be the Best Antidote to our Chauvinism

The Telegraph

Most evenings, I knock off from work and listen to Indian classical music for an hour or so before dinner. In the past, I would play CDs or cassettes I had collected over the years; now, I forage through the capacious repository that is YouTube. Sometimes I select an artist or a particular raga; at other [...]

By Ramachandra Guha|2020-07-11T18:37:48+00:00June 6th, 2020|Categories: Politics and Current Affairs, Culture|Tags: Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Hamsadhvani, Hindutva, Muslim, Shivarama Karanth, multi cultural democracy, pluralism, secularism|

The Folly and Vanity of The Project to Redesign New Delhi

The Wire

Six years ago, the then editor of the Hindustan Times invited me to write a fortnightly column. I agreed, on condition that there would be no censorship. While occasionally some changes to my text were made without my consent, there was no attempt to get me to rewrite my column or change its arguments. Until this [...]

By Ramachandra Guha|2020-05-05T23:34:31+00:00April 19th, 2020|Categories: Politics and Current Affairs|Tags: Alpana Kishore, Central Vista Project, Covid 19, Narendra Modi, Newslaundry, accountability, authoritarian, banana republic, democracy, pandemic response, virus|

Get The Best Minds on Board

Hindustan Times

Years ago, working in the archives in New Delhi, I came across a brief, handwritten, letter from Jawaharlal Nehru to C. Rajagopalachari. It was dated 30th July 1947, and it read: ‘My dear Rajaji, This is to remind you that you have to approach Shanmukham Chetty—this must be done soon. I have seen Ambedkar and he [...]

By Ramachandra Guha|2020-05-05T23:20:57+00:00April 5th, 2020|Categories: History, Politics and Current Affairs|Tags: B N Rau, B R Ambedkar, C H Bhabha, C Rajagopalachari, Covid 19, Jean Dréze, N Gopalaswami Ayyangar, Narendra Modi, Nehru, Reetika Khera, S P Mookerjee, Shanmukham Chetty, Sukumar Sen, Tarlok Singh, V P Menon, Virus pandemic, bipartisan|

Standing With Gandhi in Ahmedabad

Hindustan Times

On 30th January I was in Ahmedabad, a city that was central to Mahatma Gandhi’s life and work. It was here that he established the most celebrated of his ashrams, on the banks of the Sabarmati River; here that he revised and refined his moral and political philosophy; here that he conceived and planned the Rowlatt [...]

By Ramachandra Guha|2020-03-25T21:44:14+00:00February 9th, 2020|Categories: Politics and Current Affairs, Culture|Tags: secularism|

The Fourth Crisis of The Republic

Hindustan Times

As I have written before, if India had been a start-up in August 1947 not even the most venturesome of venture capitalists would have invested in it. No new nation was born in more inhospitable circumstances. The Partition of the country had been awful enough, in the scale of its violence and the mass displacement of [...]

By Ramachandra Guha|2020-03-25T21:35:48+00:00January 26th, 2020|Categories: History, Politics and Current Affairs|Tags: Anis Kidwai, Constitution, Nehru, Sardar Patel, ambedkar|

Why There is No Team Modi – Because There Can Only Be a Brand Modi

The Telegraph

In December 2018, I was having lunch with an entrepreneur-friend who works closely with the Central Government. The BJP had just lost state elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chattisgarh, putting three Chief Ministers out of office and out of work. I suggested to the entrepreneur that when the Prime Minister won re-election the following May [...]

By Ramachandra Guha|2020-03-25T21:25:35+00:00January 18th, 2020|Categories: Politics and Current Affairs|Tags: Raman Singh, Shivraj Chauhan, Vasundhara Raje|

Why Authoritarianism is Bad for Science

But Bigotry is Even Worse

There have been many protests against the Citizenship Amendment Bill (now Act), and there will be many more. This piece of legislation strikes at the heart of the Constitution, seeking to make India another country altogether. It is thus that so many people from so many different walks of life have raised their voices against it. [...]

By Ramachandra Guha|2019-12-22T18:25:55+00:00December 21st, 2019|Categories: Politics and Current Affairs|Tags: Citizens Amendment Act, Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Venki Ramakrishnan, democracy, pluralism, science|

From Indo-Pak to Chindia and Back Again to Indo-Pak

Hindustan Times

On 26th January 2006, the New York Times ran a story headlined ‘India Everywhere in the Alps’. The story began: ‘Delhi swept into Davos on Wednesday, with an extravagant public relations campaign by India intended to promote the country as the world's next economic superstar, and as a democratic alternative to China for the affections of [...]

By Ramachandra Guha|2019-12-22T18:32:07+00:00December 15th, 2019|Categories: Politics and Current Affairs|Tags: Citizens Amendment Act, democracy, pluralism, secularism|