February 2020
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 [...]
January 2020
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 [...]
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 [...]
December 2019
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 [...]
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 [...]
History Against Sectarianism, The Telegraph
In December 1947, the annual Indian History Congress was held in Bombay. The President-elect that year was Professor Mohammad Habib of the Aligarh Muslim University, a historian of early medieval India, known especially for his [...]