April 2006
THE SOCIOLOGY OF RESERVATION, The Telegraph
The announcement that reservation for OBCs is to be extended to IITs and IIMs has provoked much debate in the press. Critics say the move will undermine the functioning of these institutions by devaluing the [...]
THE GREATEST INDIANS, The Hindu
Speaking to the singer Dilip Kumar Roy in February 1924, Mahatma Gandhi said that he was very fond of music although he ‘could not boast of the power of any expert or analytic appreciation’. He [...]
AMARTYA SEN FOR PRESIDENT, The Telegraph
In a little over a year’s time, the term of the current President of India will come to an end. Good man though he is, Abdul Kalam is unlikely to get a second term, a [...]
THE POLITICS OF PERSONALITY, The Telegraph
In her early years as Congress President, Sonia Gandhi was treated as a political lightweight, by her opponents and independent commentators alike. Her public persona exuded diffidence. She spoke English inadequately. Her Hindi was worse. [...]
CALLING IT QUITS, The Telegraph
The day the Mumbai crowd booed Sachin Tendulkar after his failure in the third Test against England, another Indian legend was formally, finally, leaving his field. This was Dr Verghese Kurien, who announced that day [...]
March 2006
THE END OF THE BIOGRAPHER, The Hindu
Many years ago, while doing research on the life of the anthropologist Verrier Elwin, I found myself in the library of the great old publishing house of John Murray, on Albemarle Street in central London. [...]