Stormy petrels seldom have a cache beyond a point. They are rare in today’s universities, normally committed to propriety, or political lackeyism. Their presence in these precincts calls upon instit...

The novel is full of witticisms and entertaining episodes — in the course of their journey, Khudabaksh and Bholanath are shot at, chased by dogs, and trip on wild mushrooms. But perhaps what is most...

On the centenary of the end of “the Great War” that was supposed to end all wars, the present was as much at play as was the past, both with an Indian connection.Not just because French President ...

It’s early summer 2019 and George MacKay is standing in a trench, staring into the eyes of Colin Firth. They’re making a First World War film on Salisbury Plain, which is standing in for the Weste...

A little over a century ago, a man who had been born in a British colony, and who would die in it, pronounced this judgement, “The idea of the Nation is one of the most powerful anæsthetics that ma...

A divided nation grappling with rising inequality, new mass media and the growth of populist politics.Sounds familiar?Germany's first democracy, the Weimar Republic of 1919-1933, has long been regarde...

Lieutenant Shri Krishna Chanda Welinkar had disappeared while patrolling the skies above the Western Front in June 1918.His family had to wait nearly three years before they finally knew for certain t...

Augustin Trebuchon is buried beneath a white lie.His tiny plot is almost on the front line where the guns finally fell silent at 11 am on the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, after a four-year war ...

Where did Hercule Poirot come from? It is said that Agatha Christie found the origins of her Belgian detective among the Belgian refugees and soldiers in Torquay where she worked as a volunteer in the...

A statue commemorating the role of Indian soldiers in World War I was unveiled in the town of Laventie in France to mark Armistice Day when the war ended in 1918.The seven-foot bronze statue is the fi...