Odious comparisons are par for the course in politics. But some politicians seem more vulnerable to this contagion than others. The Indian prime minister, unfortunately, belongs to the extremely vulne...

These are fraught times. Interestingly, the Constitution has become a powerful emblem of protest. Perceived as the ultimate saviour, “We, the people of India” have embraced it in a remarkable show...

Alfred North Whitehead, the mathematician-turned-philosopher, defined the task of philosophy as one of assembling. For Whitehead, it is the assembling of ideas that forms the task of philosophy. Exten...

While introducing the theme, the author explores a variety of literature on the use of violence and nonviolence as forms of protest. Starting from the nationalist interpretations, Hardiman deals in de...

What’s in a name? Well, a lot, actually, when it comes to Lord Mountbatten, the last viceroy of India who dropped his German name, Prince Louis of Battenberg, in 1917 because hostility towards Germa...

There is a close relationship between politics and violence. This closeness reached its zenith in the 20th century in the form of two World Wars. It is against this almost necessary relationship betwe...

The news is not that BJP parliamentarian Ananth Kumar Hegde has called the freedom struggle led by Mahatma Gandhi an “adjustment” with the British or questioned Gandhi’s “Mahatma” status or ...

As my collection grew, word spread among friends and other visitors to my home. Some alerted me to ones they had spotted and thought might interest me, others bought them as gifts – Gev picked up an...

This is a particularly appropriate time to recall K.M. Panikkar. Two contemporary Keralites — V.K. Krishna Menon and V.P. Menon — are the subject of new full-length biographies. Clearly Panikkar m...

Congress leader Manish Tewari has demanded the Bharat Ratna for freedom fighters Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev, putting the BJP in a fix as it had promised to confer the highest civilian award on ...