Ramachandra Guha

Why did India deny Australian radio legend Phillip Adams a visa?

Why was Phillip Adams not allowed by our Government to visit India? He is not a drug smuggler, terrorist, or tax evader; on the other hand, he is a venerated public figure in a country that is a democracy like ours, a country with which we have close ties and hope to have even closer ties.

Gandhi and the idea of an anti-chauvinist history

Gandhi recognised that it was not always possible for historians to rise above their national or cultural biases. His remarks seem extremely relevant today, when BJP governments at the Centre and in the states seem determined to wipe out all traces of Muslim and British influence on India

Save the Daryaganj book bazaar, once again

Kolkata’s College Street, Mumbai’s Flora Fountain, and Chennai’s Moore Market were also once known for their pavement book stalls. But, having used those places extensively too, I can testify that Daryaganj remains in a class of its own

My one-night stand as an Aaptard, writes Ramachandra Guha

Before these dreams, I had never remotely considered entering politics, writes Ramachandra Guha.

When life hurts or maims you, seek refuge, and hope, in music

For me, ‘perfect happiness’ is listening to the alap of an Ali Abkar Khan-Nikhil Bannerjee jugalbandhi in Manj Khamaj; for others, the voice of Bob Dylan, Lata Mangeshkar, or MS Subbulakshmi

Remembering Nehru in the time of Modi | Ramachandra Guha column

Narendra Modi was reared in a very different political tradition from Jawaharlal Nehru. This was manifest in past assembly elections in Gujarat, where he spoke darkly of the designs of ‘Mian Musharraf’ and of Indian Muslim families allegedly practising a reproductive policy of ‘hum panch, hamare pachees’. However, once he moved from Gujarat to the national stage, Modi discarded sectarian rhetoric

Advani’s bitter legacy 25 years after the demolition of the Babri Masjid

Advani’s yatra of 1990 was aimed explicitly at pitting one group of Indians against another. He has been, without question, the most divisive politician in the history of independent India.

Playing the national anthem at theatres should be voluntary patriotism, not mandatory: Ramachandra Guha

Following JRD Tata, we should make our patriotism deep and substantial, rather than cheap and jingoistic

The national flag as symbol and substance, as Gandhi saw it

The ‘nationalists’ now in power in India use the flag only as a cover to promote division and violence. Gandhi’s patriotism, on the other hand, was inclusive and constructive.

Tom Alter, a man who batted straight

In life, as distinct from cricket, one is still best served by playing straight. That Tom Alter always did. He is gone, but memories of him as an actor, speaker, writer, cricketer and friend endure.

Gauri Lankesh killing: Undermining democracy, one writer at a time

Gauri Lankesh’s death has been widely mourned by ordinary, decent, Indians. On the other hand, it has been ghoulishly celebrated by right-wingers. it is only with the rise of political Hindutva that writers face the possibility of being physically wiped out.

Still searching for peace with honour in Nagaland

That the ‘Kashmir problem’ is both serious and long-standing is true. But the ‘Naga problem’ is as intense, and even older. It began even before Independence and Partition when, in 1946, a group of educated Nagas claimed sovereignty for the areas they lived in

Gandhi made India, Mahadev Desai made Gandhi

For 25 years, Mahadev Desai was Mahatma Gandhi’s closest associate and confidant. Through this period, Desai meant more to Gandhi than Jawaharlal Nehru and Vallabhbhai Patel (a fact that Nehru and Patel knew and acknowledged)

Rescue Nehru from his descendants, writes Ramachandra Guha

Remembering a simple-minded Sardarji

A new anthology of Khushwant Singh’s writings displays his wit, wisdom, and commitment to democracy and pluralism

Why this revival of Hindi chauvinism?

Is this promotion of Hindi an act of Golwalkar-worship, or is it rather a calculated move to further polarise the citizenry, and consolidate the core vote-bank of the BJP?

The coaches behind India’s cricket champions

The contributions of coaches such as Tarak Sinha, Ramakant Achrekar and Keki Tarapore to Indian cricket are both individual and institutional. They take gifted cricketers at hand at an early age; hone their skills and mould their personalities; recognise, develop, and fulfil their potentialities

Of gau gundagiri and the closing of the Hindu mind, writes Ramachandra Guha

The most emphatic evidence of the victory of Hindu bigotry over Hindu liberalism is the enormous importance given by the ruling party to the worship of the cow

Indian Council of Social Science Research: Past, present and a troubled future

The appointment of the new ICSSR chairman shows that the Modi Government has contempt for thinkers and scholars (as distinct from loyalists and ideologues).

Religious oppression: Communists have been as brutal as fundamentalists

Religious persecution is normally seen as the handiwork of religious people themselves. But it appears that atheistic Communists carried out such persecution as comprehensively as anyone else. When it comes to the treatment of rival worldviews, Communists have been as savage and brutal as religious fundamentalists

The darkness deepens in Kashmir with the rising tide of jingoism

The Indian case in and for Kashmir was made fragile in the past by the rigging of elections. And it is made fragile in the present by the rising tide of jingoism, which insists that the government of India and the Indian Army have never made a mistake in Kashmir, indeed can never make a mistake in Kashmir

The man who brought Gandhi to Champaran

It’s been a hundred years since Gandhi’s first major political intervention on Indian soil – in the Champaran district of Bihar – where he spent several months fighting for the rights of the indigo farmers. But how did Gandhi come to Champaran?

Water: The resource that will determine our future

Perhaps the planning commission needed to be disbanded. But a new water commission along the lines recommended in the water reforms report definitely needs to be created

The state of democracy between elections

Reading the new well-researched report by Lokniti, one found that while, in a formal sense, democracy is fairly well established in South Asia, in a substantive sense there are real worries

Scholars and artists should not be afraid of offending political patrons

Writers, scholars, and artists should not be nervous about offending political patrons, nor ask that only their ideological kinsmen enjoy full intellectual or artistic freedom. They should stand together in solidarity, not pick and choose whom to defend and whom to ignore

The ‘U’ in UP stands for ungovernable

The ‘U’ in UP is said to stand for ‘Uttar’. This is a misnomer, for there are several states of the Union that lie further north of it. What the ‘U’ in UP really stands for is ‘Ungovernable’

The Indian tribals: Adivasis have been short-changed at every turn

A few days ago the country celebrated Republic Day. Every thinking Indian, every citizen who is concerned about the present and future of the Republic, should read The Burning Forest. It is an impeccably researched and finely written work of scholarship, redolent with insight, and displaying enormous courage as well

To reduce Tamil identity to Jallikattu is both farcical and tragic

To reduce Tamil identity to Jallikattu is as farcical and tragic as the ongoing attempt to reduce Indian identity to the worship of the flag.

Where Kerala meets India and India meets the world

In blending locality, region, nation, and the world, the Kochi Biennale serves as a standing rebuke to all forms of chauvinism and parochialism

Jayaprakash Narayan’s fears are as valid now as they were in 1966

JP had started life as a Congressman. Even after he left the party, he retained a close personal friendship with Jawaharlal Nehru. Nehru’s daughter Indira Gandhi was prime minister in 1966, yet JP did not hesitate to remind his audience of how the Congress had contributed to the decline of public morality in independent India