Ramachandra Guha's Blog, page 13

When Politicians Get Too Close to Businessmen, The Telegraph

I write this on Tuesday the 21st of July, with the Bangalore edition of The Hindu in front of me. The front page carries a large photograph of Mallikarjun Kharge, the veteran Congress leader from Karnataka who is currently the de facto leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha.

Interestingly, the photo does not accompany a statement or speech made by Mr. Kharge in Karnataka or Delhi. Rather, it is part of an advertisement placed by a certain Prudential Properties. The text accompanying the p...

Indira Gandhi and the Indian Emergency, The Hindu (published in June 2000 on the 25th Anniversary of the Emergency and uploaded on)

‘I had always believed that Mrs Gandhi had no faith in democracy, that she was by inclination and conviction a dictator. This belief has tragically turned out to be true’.
Jayaprakash Narayan, prison diary, entry of 22 July 1975

‘I have no more powers than I had before’.
Indira Gandhi, in an interview with NBC, 24 August 1975

‘Today’s papers also publish a Mrs Gandhi-Karanjia interview. Most of it is the usual stuff: self-righteousness, smugness, and the pose of being the country’s saviour’.
...

Indira Gandhi and the Indian Emergency, The Hindu (published in June 2000 on the 25th Anniversary of the Emergency)

‘I had always believed that Mrs Gandhi had no faith in democracy, that she was by inclination and conviction a dictator. This belief has tragically turned out to be true’.
Jayaprakash Narayan, prison diary, entry of 22 July 1975

‘I have no more powers than I had before’.
Indira Gandhi, in an interview with NBC, 24 August 1975

‘Today’s papers also publish a Mrs Gandhi-Karanjia interview. Most of it is the usual stuff: self-righteousness, smugness, and the pose of being the country’s saviour’.
...

Some Forgotten Heroes Of The Emergency, The Telegraph

As we mark the 40th anniversary of the promulgation of the Emergency, we shall hear many politicians speak about their sufferings and sacrifices. L. K. Advani has already spoken, and no doubt other BJP leaders will follow. Perhaps we should remind them that Sanjay Gandhi’s wife Maneka is one of their Cabinet Ministers, while his henchman Jagmohan is also a senior BJP leader. Moreover, in BJP ruled states like Chattisgarh, the bullying of the media, and the violation of the human rights of adi...

The Civil Servant Who Spoke Truth To Power, Hindustan Times

Shortly after the UPA Government was re-elected in 2009, the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, received five fascinating letters from a man living in Bhopal. The first letter shredded the Government’s plans to set up a slew of new IITs. It pointed out that ‘the new institutions will find it very difficult to find good faculty’. The Government claimed to promote ‘excellence in education’, whereas in fact its scheme would ‘downgrade all the institutions to a level of mediocrity.’

The letter-wr...

The Bose Whom Japan Still Remembers, The Telegraph

I was recently in Japan, and asked my hosts what memories remained in that country of Subhas Chandra Bose, the great Indian patriot who fought alongside the Japanese against the British and whose ashes are believed to be housed in a temple in Tokyo. They answered that Subhas Bose was familiar only to specialists in Indian history; on the other hand, another Bose, Rash Behari, was well known in Japan, and among the citizens of Tokyo in particular. This was because he had patented an ‘Indian cu...

Dreams Of Bat And Ball, The Telegraph

When I was young, many of my dreams were about cricket. I was then obsessed with the game, which I played quite seriously at both school and university. My college eleven may have been the best in India: two of my team-mates went on to play Test cricket, while several others played in the Ranji and Duleep Trophies. Batting at number ten and bowling non-turning off-breaks, I was the least talented member of the team. But being in the eleven itself meant that cricket was my life, for we played...

Homage To A Birdman, The Telegraph

The Urdu word ‘shareef’ has many meanings. An online dictionary offers ‘noble’, ‘gentlemanly’, and ‘civilized’, to which one can add: ‘refined; courteous; honourable; civil; civilized’.

Among the most shareef men I knew was the conservationist Zafar Futehally. Raised and educated in Bombay, Futehally’s early interest in birds was furthered when he married Laeeq, niece of the pioneering ornithologist Salim Ali. Futehally joined Ali in his birding expeditions to the remote corners of India; me...

Where Are The Conservative Intellectuals in India, Caravan (March 2015)

There is a paradox at the heart of Indian public life today: that while the country has a right-wing party in power, right-wing intellectuals run thinly on the ground. This makes India an exception among the world’s established democracies. The United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany all have a long lineage of first-rate intellectuals on the right, who continue to provide ballast to parties such as the Republicans in America, the Conservatives in Britain, and the Christian Democrats in...

Traveling With Tagore, Penguin Classics

Rammohan Roy was able to assimilate the ideals of Europe so completely because he was not overwhelmed by them; there was no poverty or weakness on his side. He had ground of his own on which he could take his stand and where he could secure his acquisitions. The true wealth of India was not hidden from him, for this he had already made his own. Consequently he had with him the touchstone by which he could test the wealth of others.
Rabindranath Tagore, writing in 1908.

It is easier to preach...