April 2018
Between Rectitude And Responsibility, The Telegraph
One of my closest male friends is a senior IAS officer, now retired. He belongs to a family of scholars and public servants, and has degrees from two of the world’s great universities. He has [...]
Choosing The Ten Greatest Indians, Hindustan Times
When, in August 2017, India marked the seventieth year of its freedom from British colonial rule, the Hindustan Times did a series of long stories on seventy of this and seventy of that: the seventy [...]
October 2017
A Forgotten Precursor To The Rushdie Affair, The Telegraph
In the winter of 1988-9, there occurred what became known as the ‘Rushdie Affair’. Salman Rushdie had just published his novel The Satanic Verses, which orthodox Muslims denounced as having defamed the image of Prophet [...]
September 2017
When JRD Tata Called For a Strong Opposition, Hindustan Times
On 15th May 1961, the politician C. Rajagopalachari wrote to the industrialist J. R. D. Tata, asking him to support the newly formed Swatantra Party. A patriot of impeccable pedigree, ‘Rajaji’ had started Swatantra to [...]
Anti-Intellectualism In American And Indian Life, The Telegraph
Books set in other countries and published at other times can sometimes be strikingly relevant to India today. This is certainly the case with Richard Hofstadter’s Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, published in 1963. I first [...]
July 2017
The Struggles Of A Muslim Modernizer, The Telegraph
In different but complementary ways, the debate on triple talaq, and the debate on cow slaughter, both demonstrate the medievalist mindset of modern India. Why, when even the Islamic Republic of Pakistan has abolished the [...]