Abinash Dash Choudhury Cuttack first came to me as a palimpsest of stories in which the personal, the historical, and the mythological mingled without clear distinction. From my father, I learnt that it was the city where my paternal grandfather spent his final days in penury, shuttling between his workplace in the Old Secretariat and… Read More Seeing Cuttack
NB: Shashank is a former student of history at Ramjas College, the University of Delhi. He can be assured that his erstwhile teachers are very proud of him. DS The 2025 Karwaan Book Award has been awarded to Shashank Shekhar Sinha for Casting the Buddha: A Monumental History of Buddhism in India. The Jury also awarded… Read More Shashank Shekhar Sinha wins the 2025 Karwaan Book Award for ‘Casting the Buddha’
The very first essential for success is a perpetually constant & regular employment of violence: Adolf Hitler NB: This is what is happening in India. A concerted assault on simple human decency. It is not aided by the ruling establishment, it is the policy of the ruling establishment – regardless of partisan affiliation. There is… Read More “Freedom Of Worship Being Attacked”: Shashi Tharoor On Christmas Vandalism / Hindu extremists try to shut down Christmas in India
Anusha Rizvi’s The Great Shamsuddin Family is billed as a comedy. So why does it leave you unsettled? Apoorvanand Dolly Ahluwalia (Asiya) and Farida Jalal (Akko) in a still from the movie. Set within one house, and one day, the film maps how personal choices—marriage, migration, belief—are influenced by a wider climate of suspicion. If you wish… Read More Laughing carefully
NB: Those who bang on about Macaulay’s Minute on education (1835) should acquaint themselves with this early Indian patriot, whose work in education inspired a generation and who preceded Macaulay by many years. DS The men of Young Bengal emerge not as pale imitations of British liberals, but as creative political thinkers who addressed India’s… Read More ‘India’s First Radicals’ argues for a generous assessment of 19th-century Indian intellectual life
As I look back on their lives, I can now see, more clearly than when I was young, how my parents affirmed, in practice rather than in theory, the spirit of fraternity and non-discrimination Ramachandra Guha’s tribute to his parents. May their souls rest in peace This column stays away from mentioning my family, but… Read More Quiet luminescence
By Mohan Murti As Indians schooled in the Queen’s English but raised in the Republic’s reality, we’ve turned the language of Shakespeare into something gloriously, unapologetically our own. We bend it, twist it, stretch it—and occasionally, reinvent it altogether. The result is Indian English, a tongue so inventive that it confuses the Brit, bewilders the… Read More Divided by a Common Language: The Indian Edition
Composed between the 10th and 12th centuries, these moral observations from old Kannada texts show great care about how to be properly charitable. Chandan Gowda ‘A person of understanding gives in charity without wondering, “What do I stand to lose?”, without hesitation, without the weight of self-doubt, and without any dampening of enthusiasm.’ “The one… Read More The grace of giving
NB: Vishwaguru’s India: Thou shalt not think without prior clearance from the Headquarters of Truth, located in Nagpur. DS What happened to Orsini may appear, on the surface, to be an ordinary incident, but the signs it carries are deeply frightening. Yogesh Pratap Shekhar The morning after the festival of lights, Diwali, came news of… Read More Stopping Francesca Orsini From Entering India is an Insult to the Very Concept and Culture of Knowledge
First posted October 26, 2019 Soon after Rama enters the aranya, Sita delivers a lecture on Kshatriya dharma. A rare instance.. when Sita advises her husband to be cautious… Sita warns that his use of force may damage the forest and his own reputation. Of three grave evils, she notes, two – the “habit of telling specious… Read More Ashutosh Bhardwaj: On Diwali, Ramayana show us the light
After the truth-shower 