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Saturday, November 22, 2025
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Book Excerpts

Gandhi’s encounter with a young Romila Thapar in Pune that inspired her activism

In 'The Psychology of a Patriot', journalist Saket Suman delivers an account of modern India, tracing the evolution and contestation of patriotism.

How secret Congress Radio played ‘Vande Mataram’ with police at door in 1942

In ‘Congress Radio’, Usha Thakkar writes about the secret radio channel during India’s freedom struggle and the woman who refused to let the police stop ‘Vande Mataram’.

‘Turbaned strangers’ — British questioned, sorted and colour-coded Indian POWs after Dunkirk

In ‘The Indian Contingent’, Ghee Bowman writes about the 9,711 Indian soldiers —including from Bose’s INA — recovered after the world war and sent back to India.

The Gita is universal and still endorses caste inequality. But story of Ekalavya stands out

In ‘The Gita for a Global World’, Rohit Chopra uses the Gita as a lens to look at pressing questions of war, difference and uncertainty.

The art of conjuring realities – How the BJP gets Hindus to believe ‘love jihad’ story

In ‘The Art of Conjuring Alternate Realities’, Shivam Shankar Singh and Anand Venkatanarayanan write how political parties, godmen, nation-states manipulate our thoughts.

How British used Indian Railways, free cups, and targeted women to make Indians tea drinkers

In ‘Taste of Time’, Mohona Kanjilal writes that tea wasn’t widely drunk in India before the British came. Then the Opium Wars with China happened.

Military equipment to WTO push – How US aided China’s extraordinary rise

In an article in ‘A New Cold War’ edited by Sanjaya Baru and Rahul Sharma, Kanti Bajpai writes that the US’ fascination with China has been far greater than with India.

India’s textbooks were written with Nehru in mind. It rejected the past

In ‘The Great Hindu Civilisation’, former diplomat and Rajya Sabha MP Pavan Varma writes that India’s history books made little mention of great Hindu kings like Krishnadevaraya or of Raja Chola I.

The unusual friendship between Mithun Chakraborty and Balasaheb Thackeray

In 'Mithun Chakraborty: The Dada of Bollywood' journalist Ram Kamal Mukherjee traces the personal, professional and political story of the actor.

Nehru sent Indira as a ‘gift to the children of Japan’. She stayed in Tokyo’s Ueno zoo

In ‘Orienting: An Indian In Japan' journalist Pallavi Aiyar explores the various facets of Japanese culture and the common history between the two counties.

On Camera

In Tejas Dubai crash, the harm goes beyond the loss of an aircraft and pilot

Airshows are thrilling spectacles of aviation skill and engineering marvels. But they carry inherent risks as the crew is pushing the aircraft, and themselves, to perform at the edges of the envelope.

At Charcha 2025: Local entrepreneurship, not just big IT, will drive next wave of distributed AI work

While global corporations setting up GCCs in India continue to express confidence in availability of skilled AI engineers, the panel argued that India’s real challenge lies elsewhere.

From a small Kangra village to Tejas cockpit: IAF fighter pilot Namansh Syal’s journey cut short

Wing Commander Namansh Syal is survived by his wife, their 6-year-old daughter and his mother. Back in his native village, relatives and neighbours wait for his remains for last rites.

A tribute to Tejas. India’s delay culture is the real enemy in the skies

It is a brilliant, reasonably priced, and mostly homemade aircraft with a stellar safety record; only two crashes in 24 years since its first flight. But its crash is a moment of introspection.