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Friday, January 9, 2026
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Book Excerpts

How Hindu polytheism survived Islamic invasion and colonial conquest

In 'The Decline of the Hindu Civilization', Shashi Ranjan Kumar explores how and why Hindu civilisation faltered across culture, politics, and thought.

84% of Indian IT employees have fatty liver disease. Cutting calories won’t fix it

In 'Sick Nation', Karan Sarin offers a proactive, preventative protocol for metabolic health—designed to detect and address insulin resistance in Indians.

‘Deadline’ originally meant a line in a US prison yard. Cross it and you’d be shot dead

In 'Stories of Words and Phrases', Sumanto Chattopadhyay peels back the layers of language and takes us on a rollicking ride to demystify the origins and meanings of common words and quirky idiomatic expressions.

Salman Khan didn’t like how ‘Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam’ ended. He wanted Nandini to choose Sameer

In her book, 'Salman Khan', Mohar Basu traces the actor's journey through controversies and comebacks, blockbusters and hard-learnt lessons of life.

‘Tamils will all be killed.’ The terror of Sri Lanka’s militant monks

In 'The Robe and the Sword', Sonia Faleiro uncovers how militant monks in Asia have transformed a tradition of nonviolence into a tool of terror.

Indians and their cultural inferiority complex, explains Romila Thapar

In this chapter from 'Speaking of History', Romila Thapar and Namit Arora discuss the cultural inferiority complex among Indians.

Caste Hindus lobbied the Constituent Assembly to defend untouchability as a ‘religious right’

In Assembling India’s Constitution: A New Democratic History, Rohit De and Ornit Shani show how upper-caste Hindus tried to protect caste privilege by presenting themselves as a minority under threat.

The modern man is a lethal mix of entitled narcissism, crippling self-doubt

In his book, 'Memes for Mummyji', Santosh Desai chronicles the everyday theatre of Indian life in the digital age.

What made the Goa stone the most coveted antidote of its time

The stone was made from a small quantity of natural bezoar blended into a paste along with various other substances meant to enhance its healing properties.

Indian intellectuals still can’t decode Narendra Modi

In Modi's Mission, Berjis Desai traces Modi’s national rise and why it unsettled India’s intellectual elite.

On Camera

Venezuelan economy did not collapse overnight. 4 decades of stagnation is the cause

In 1980, South American countries exhibited similar income levels, with Venezuela ranking among the more affluent economies. By 2023, this landscape had significantly altered.

500% tariffs ahead for India? Trump’s lined up a big bad Bill for countries buying Russian oil

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham says bill will be 'well-timed, as Ukraine is making concessions for peace and Putin is all talk, continuing to kill the innocent'.

2025: Pakistan’s deadliest year in over a decade

Islamabad-based think-tank PICSS's new report says Pakistan saw 'pronounced escalation' in violence last year, with 3,413 conflict-related deaths compared to 1,950 in previous year.

A year-end Mea Culpa in National Interest—The Army-Islam combo doesn’t kill democracy

Many of you might think I got something so wrong in National Interest pieces written this year. I might disagree! But some deserve a Mea Culpa. I’d deal with the most recent this week.