January 2011
BEYOND TELANGANA, The Telegraph
The United States has less than half as many citizens as the Republic of India, yet almost twice as many states. The map of that country has been drawn and re-drawn very many times in [...]
RECONCILING GANDHI WITH AMBEDKAR, The Telegraph
Books do not change lives, but books can change the way we look at the world. As a student of economics, I was a high modernist who believed in transforming rural communities through industrialization. Concern [...]
December 2010
GIVING AND GAINING, Hindustan Times
Arguably the most important crucible of Indian nationalism was the ashram run by Mahatma Gandhi in Ahmedabad from 1915 to 1930. It was here that the programmes for the major satyagrahas were designed, and the [...]
November 2010
THE AESTHETIC CASE FOR VEGETARIANISM, The Telegraph
The finest meal I have had was in the Admaru Mutt, a home for priests connected to the famous old Krishna temple in Udupi. The year was 1994; and I had come to the neighbouring [...]
REFUGEES AND THE REPUBLIC, The Telegraph
At a meeting in Chennai that I recently attended, an official of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, herself a Swiss national, remarked that ‘the Indian Government has a very humane atttitude towards refugees’. [...]
October 2010
QUESTIONS OF PROPRIETY, Hindustan Times
When, in the year 1974, Mrs Indira Gandhi and Jayaprakash Narayan (JP) became bitter political opponents, there was a peculiar poignancy to their rivalry. For JP and Jawaharlal Nehru had been close friends. So, independently, [...]