October 2022
An Ecological Pioneer, The Telegraph
In 1922, a professor at Lucknow University named Radhakamal Mukherjee published a book called Principles of Comparative Economics. Reading the book one hundred years later, I was struck by the attention it paid to the [...]
The Fear of Free Thought, The Telegraph
At a conference last month, I met the Director of one of our prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology. Himself a fine scientist and excellent administrator, he told me that no fewer than eight IITs were [...]
September 2022
50 for 75 – An Independent India Reading List, The Telegraph
In an earlier column (The Telegraph, 13th August), I provided a brief analytical history of India’s democratic institutions since Independence. In this column, I offer a list of non-fiction books that I have myself found [...]
August 2022
The Real Game – The joys of watching cricket in whites, The Telegraph
As a member of the Karnataka State Cricket Association I have free entry to all matches played at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. However, I have never exercised that privilege in the case of the Indian Premier [...]
July 2022
Growing Old with the Telegraph, The Telegraph
Although I grew up in north India, the newspaper that came into our home was headquartered in a great city then called Calcutta. This was The Statesman, whose main edition was published in the first [...]
May 2022
In Praise of Desmond Tutu, The Telegraph
I have been thinking a great deal about South Africa these past few weeks, in part because of the Test series being played there, but mostly because of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, with whose passing the [...]