NL Interviews Hindol Sengupta
Hindol Sengupta talks about his new book, Being Hindu, the concept of soul and conscience, the debate on intolerance and more.… Read more
06
Nov
06
Nov
NL Interviews: Vivek Kaul on his book ‘India’s Big Government’
Vivek Kaul, author & economist, speaks to Anand Ranganathan about his new book India’s Big Government. Kaul talks about the Indian economy, employment, labour reforms and loan waivers to farmers; is it a feasible solution? Also, how much of “Government has no business to be in business” is being implemented?… Read more
06
Nov
NL Interviews Vivek Kaul
Vivek Kaul speaks to Anand Ranganathan about his book, Easy Money – and discusses the history of money, how he’s not an economist, printing of currency and more.… Read more
06
Nov
NL Interviews: Makarand Paranjape On JNU students Blocking path to his office
Makarand Paranjape is a professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University’s (JNU) Centre of English Studies (CES). On February 6, Paranjape was not allowed to enter his own office because a group of students who are members of the Jawaharlal Nehru Students Union were protesting at the School of Languages.… Read more
06
Nov
NL Interviews: TCA Srinivasa Raghavan On RBI And Its History Of Independence
Anand Ranganathan speaks to economist and columnist TCA Srinivasa Raghavan about demonetisation, economic policy and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Raghavan is currently working on a book titled Dialogue of the Deaf. It covers the history of RBI, its decisions as well as the extent of autonomy and independence.… Read more
06
Nov
Makarand Paranjape interview by Anand Ranganathan
Anand Ranganathan in Facebook live conversation with Makarand R. Paranjape Makarand R. Paranjape is an Indian poet and professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, India.n March, 2016, his lecture on Nationalism on the backdrop of JNU crisis was widely praised.… Read more
06
Nov 17
Long Road to Fiefdom
I grew up in difficult times, the seventies. My grandmother had coined the famous slogan – Garib Hatao. It pained me as a kid to have to watch garibs being hataoed from our zones, LBZ in particular.
Recently I read a scholarly article in my favourite newspaper Hindustan Times.… Read more
06
Nov 17
A Mellow Ray of Hope
JP thinks the answer to bad politics is good politics, not no politics
A few minutes into Satyajit Ray’s Jalsaghar and there comes a moment that defines JP, Jayaprakash Narayan of the Lok Satta Party. The genial bhadralok, the sole audience, is enraptured by the raag being rendered to perfection by the sitarist sitting opposite.… Read more
06
Nov 17
Et tu, Evolution?
Fifty years ago, roughly 30 babies in 1000 found it physically impossible to emerge from the birth canal. Today that figure stands at 36. We are therefore stuck in a compromise, and C-section babies are living proof of this.
Life has no purpose.… Read more
23
Oct 17
Gujarat’s health has not met ‘Vikas’
The state’s health indicators have been abysmal from Narendra Modi’s CM tenure.
Four years ago, this author had scrutinised Gujarat’s health and found it in a sorry state. At the time, its sitting Chief Minister had left no stone unturned in projecting Gujarat as a model for the rest of India to follow – a prosperous state populated by uncomplaining, hard-working people, backed by an able, hands-on administration, scaling heights the other states could only dream of.
… Read more
11
Oct 17
Diwali cracker row: Celebrating self-flagellation
Diwali turns Delhi into a gas chamber, scientific data has proved this year on year. Last year’s Diwali was the most dangerous in a decade.
Humans are particularly adept at savouring joy at the cost of others. We have rationalised this through a variety of means – race, sects, communes, cults, ideologies, religion, to name a few.… Read more
15
Sep 17
Whataboutery – From Ambedkar To Armageddon: Principles And Pitfalls
Snapshot
- Hypocrisy and selectivity are as intrinsic a human nature as lying, and when political agenda enters the equation, the results are immediate.
You are saying this now. But what about the fact that you said the exact opposite yesterday?
19
Aug 17
Brahmachari: The Forgotten Saint Of Calcutta
Snapshot- This is the story of a forgotten genius of Indian science who saved millions of lives but went unrecognised by both government and people.
The gleaners spread around, and here and there,
Spike after spike, their sparing harvest pick.
The story of Upendranath Brahmachari is the story of a forgotten man, remembered only when a street in Kolkata that bears his name shows up on Google Maps.
25
Jul 17
The next step for an HIV cure is from a cow
A veritable Animal Farm has been useful to humans in medical science, from guinea pigs to cows to camels. Thankfully, science and politics don’t mix elsewhere but only in India.
The combined efforts of the human imagination have endowed inter-galactic aliens with two eyes, two ears, one nose, four limbs, and one brain.
… Read more
29
Apr 17
Farook And The Art of Selectivity
The Left and the Right are two sides of the same coin – emotional, impulsive, hypocritical, entrenched.
You believe what you see, but unfortunately what you see is written by those who see what they believe.
A recent article by columnist Sadanand Dhume is proof if ever it was needed, that Objectivity is a metallic object that must be left behind before the writer passes through the op-ed threshold.… Read more
14
Apr 17
Ambedkar on Islam: The story that must not be told
Unlike those who appropriate him, the one thing Ambedkar was not, was an apologist.
From the Aryans to Aurangzeb, from St Xavier to Shivaji, our historians have chosen what to hide, what to invent, and what to disclose. The singular reason for this is the craving for patronage – of an ideology, a government, an ecosystem, or a clique.… Read more
23
Jan 17
Demonetisation: The Vengeance And The Veneration
The real failure of Narendra Modi’s demonetisation campaign has been its callous inability to acknowledge how it devastated vast sections of Indian society.
This is the last part of the five-part series on demonetisation.
Demonetisation, the great experiment undertaken by the Modi government, has run its course of 50 days.
… Read more
06
Jan 17
Response to Good Muslim, Bad Muslim, and the Liberal Jamaat
By definition a liberal cannot be intolerant of a liberal value or a set of values.
The person who goes by the handle @brumbyOz has written an enlightening rebuttal to my recent column, Of Mohammad Shami and the Good Bad Muslim.
… Read more
27
Dec 16
Of Mohammad Shami And The Good Bad Muslim
Along with Mohammed Shami, the overwhelming majority of Indian Muslims are bad Muslims, if the definition of a good Muslim is someone who believes in every word of the holy Quran, the order of Allah as dictated to Prophet Mohammed (Peace be upon him).
… Read more
19
Dec 16
The Demonetisation Announcement Modi Never Made
Everyone knows the November 8 announcement by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, when he announced demonetisation. Here’s an alternative reality version in which the Prime Minister shows more empathy towards the nation
This is the fourth part of the five-part series on demonetisation.
… Read more