Indian History

India's Place in the History of Democracy

The idea of Athens as mother of democracy was pushed by modern scholars of ancient Greece and Rome. Ancient Greek and Roman writers on India themselves found several similarities with political…
▶14-Jun-2023
Thomas R. Trautmann
Book
Book Review

New Maths for Old

Mathematics was integral to land control, revenue extraction, and productive activities in premodern India. With the transition to colonial rule, new demands were made of those who measured and…
▶07-Jun-2023
CN Subramaniam

The Many-Faced Afterlife of 1947

Partition remains a living memory and an unfinished history; an irreparable rupture whose afterlife warrants scrutiny. If we are to continue remembering Partition we must do so as a portent or…
▶31-May-2023
Pranav Kohli

Radio Resonance

Radio broadcasting in colonial and early post colonial South Asia blurred borders of established authority and stimulated rumour, gossip, and conversation, despite technical constraints and state…
▶18-May-2023
David Lelyveld

The Political Necessity of the Licence-Permit Raj

Industrial licencing established a framework through which newly independent India could spearhead development, and was not necessarily tied to socialism. This explains why it was generally accepted…
▶09-May-2023
Rashmi Venkatesan

Cleansing the Past, Creating the Future? Do (History) Books Matter?

Deletions in the NCERT introductory textbook for history indicate that the slightest allusion to respect for social and cultural differences as an ideal is considered irrelevant.
▶03-May-2023
Kumkum Roy
Book
Book Review

History in the Service of Hindutva

For Savarkar, history was a critical tool in a war to protect the Hindu nation. A new book examines the relationship between history and politics in Savarkar's thought and braids together the…
▶27-Feb-2023
Srinath Raghavan
Book
Book Review

An Elegy for Gandhi’s Un-Gandhian India

When you retrace Gandhi’s steps to Dandi you get to understand what ‘vikas’ means and what it does not mean for Gujarat and for all of India today. A most unusual book about a most unusual journey.
▶20-Feb-2023
Sudhir Chandra

Was India the Mother of Democracy?

There are claims that the roots of democratic institutions can be found in ancient India. Studies have shown that such institutions have existed not only in India but also in other parts of the world…
▶06-Feb-2023
Sumit Guha
Book
Review

Gone Native, But Not As We Know It

A narrative history reminds us of the exceptional Westerners who, during the high noon of Empire, went against the tide to engage with India and fight for the country's freedom.
▶28-Nov-2022
Venu Madhav Govindu