Ramachandra Guha's Blog, page 23

The other side of Merchant - ESPNcricinfo.com

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ESPNcricinfo.com
[image error] The other side of Merchant
ESPNcricinfo.com
Mumbai has produced more great batsmen than any other city in the world. You could argue which one was the best bat, but there's no debate about the best man Vijay Merchant, whose birth centenary was (desultorily) observed last month, was the founder ...

MERCHANT THE MAN - Calcutta Telegraph

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Calcutta Telegraph
[image error] MERCHANT THE MAN
Calcutta Telegraph
Vijay Merchant, whose birth centenary was (desultorily) observed last month, was the founder of one of the two Great Traditions of Indian cricket, the Bombay School of Batsmanship (spin bowling being the other). A correct and orthodox player, ...

Let's streamline the State - Hindustan Times

[image error] Let's streamline the State
Hindustan Times
... appointing directors of institutes, secretaries to government, governors, ambassadors, and the like. Ramachandra Guha is the author of India After Gandhi: The History Of The World's Largest Democracy. The views expressed by the author are personal.

Rejig the steel frame - Hindustan Times

[image error] Rejig the steel frame
Hindustan Times
The Janata government of 1977-79 is now largely forgotten, remembered, if at all, for the way in which it fell, amid insults and innuendos exchanged between erstwhile Cabinet colleagues. Yet, both historian and citizen should remember it for at least ...

The question of English - Calcutta Telegraph

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Calcutta Telegraph
[image error] The question of English
Calcutta Telegraph
In 1905 and 1906, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, his wife and their children shared a home in Johannesburg with an English couple, Henry and Millie Polak. Later, writing of their life together, Gandhi recalled that "Polak and I had often very heated ...

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THE SARDAR OF SPIN - Calcutta Telegraph

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Calcutta Telegraph
[image error] THE SARDAR OF SPIN
Calcutta Telegraph
In the third week of August, I got a call from a friend in Delhi, the great slow bowler, Bishan Singh Bedi. "Everyone around me is shouting Anna Hazare! Anna Hazare!" he said, "a few months earlier the same people were shouting IPL! IPL! ...

Gandhi was a prophet, of sorts, but by no means a joyless one - Business Standard

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Business Standard
[image error] Gandhi was a prophet, of sorts, but by no means a joyless one
Business Standard
... in the cause of religious peace and religious pluralism; for his respect for other living beings and for the earth; for the transparency and honesty of his personal and public life. For these reasons, and more, Gandhi matters, still. Ramachandra Guha.

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'Gandhi was a prophet, of sorts, but by no means a joyless one' - Business Standard

[image error] 'Gandhi was a prophet, of sorts, but by no means a joyless one'
Business Standard
What remains of Gandhi today? What should remain of Gandhi today? Some of his teachings are plainly irrelevant. For example, his ideas on food (his diet consisted chiefly of nuts and fruits and boiled vegetables), medicine (he wished to treat cancer ...

THE SERVICE OF SOCIETY - Calcutta Telegraph

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Calcutta Telegraph
[image error] THE SERVICE OF SOCIETY
Calcutta Telegraph
More than a hundred years ago, while speaking to college students in Madras, Gopal Krishna Gokhale urged them to put their education to the service of the nation. As India came to terms with the modern world, he said, "there is work to be done for the ...

In an antique land - Hindustan Times

[image error] In an antique land
Hindustan Times
Surely a country with such good people deserves better luck - and less malign neighbours. Ramachandra Guha is the author of India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy. The views expressed by the author are personal.