June 2004
THE INDIAN TRADITION OF NON-RENUNCIATION, The Hindu
Few people, within or outside her Congress party, expected Mrs Sonia Gandhi not to accept the office of Prime Minister after the Indian elections results were out. Her decision to renounce the post in favour [...]
May 2004
FIVE MYTHS ABOUT JAWAHARLAL NEHRU, The Hindu
In this, the week of the fortieth death anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru, let us consider some of the myths that have gathered around his name and his legacy: Myth 1: Nehru promoted a ‘dynasty’ This [...]
A PLAGUE ON BOTH YOUR HOUSES, The Telegraph
Bangalore voted on Sunday the 20th of April, the first round of polling. Anticipating crowds in the morning, my wife and I went to the neighbourhood booth in the afternoon. Outside, the names of the [...]
A SALUTE TO SMALLER STATES, The Hindu
Kavalam Madhavan Pannikar was one of the more interesting characters of twentieth-century India. He was a well regarded novelist in his native Malayalam, and an influential historian in English. Perhaps the best known of his [...]
THE FAMILY BUSINESS, The Telegraph
The poet Dom Moraes has written of how, fresh from Oxford, he went to call on India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. Nehru liked young writers, and this one had come with good credentials; he [...]
April 2004
THE MYSORE GENERATION, The Hindu
British colonialists and Indian nationalists were agreed on one thing: the utter worthlessness of most of the Maharajas and Nawabs of princely India. These rulers were viewed as feckless and dissolute, over-fond of racing horses [...]