This month, we mark the fiftieth anniversary of the death of East Pakistan. Although freedom fighters in exile had announced a ‘Provisional Government of Bangladesh’ as early as April 1971...

In 1931, the annual meeting of the Indian National Congress was held in the port city of Karachi. Vallabhbhai Patel was elected president. Early in his address, Patel remarked: “You have called ...

The city outside India I know best is London, and the place in London I know best is the British Library, where, for 30 years and counting, I have scoured the capacious collections pertaining to the h...

Like all other Indians, I grew up thinking of August 15 as the day when, back in 1947, the first government of independent India was sworn into office. However, in recent years the day has acquired fo...

For all its other achievements, the Gandhian movement in independent India has never paid adequate attention to the threat posed to the Republic by the rise of Hindutva majoritarianism. (Sun...

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Arguably the two greatest modern Bengalis were Swami Vivekananda and Rabindranath Tagore. Both have had a colossal and still enduring influence on their state, their country, and the world. Tagore and...

There have been many protests against the citizenship (amendment) bill (now Act), and there will be many more. This piece of legislation strikes at the heart of the Constitution, seeking to make India...

“I believe that freedom of thought is a fundamental human right. I don’t want to be a nut and bolt of the state. I want to be a free person. And that is why I resigned.” — Hemantkumar Shah, fo...

In the last week of March 1959 — exactly 60 years ago — the Dalai Lama fled to India after a rebellion by his fellow Tibetans had been brutally crushed by the Chinese military. He entered what is ...