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Monday, November 24, 2025
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Book Excerpts

When Licence Raj went after Vicks Vaporub in India’s peak flu season

In 'Another Sort of Freedom', Gurcharan Das says that one must squarely blame Indira Gandhi for not changing course when Japan, Korea and Taiwan had already shown the way.

‘The problem with soldiers—you don’t ask for rewards’, politician told an Army general

In 'Beyond Fear', Ian Cardozo says that soldiers never receive monetary rewards for their work. And when rewards do come their way, they're unable to recognise them.

An Assamese can never be fully vegetarian—Even temple ‘praxad’ is often incomplete without meat

In ‘The Assamese’, author and journalist Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty details the diverse cultures and peoples of Assam.

What Gandhi wanted from students—avoid politics, strikes

This first critical edition, with a comprehensive contextual introduction by Dhananjay Rai, sets the backdrop for readers to understand Gandhi’s thoughts on making an ideal society.

‘Leave Rogan Josh alone’— Why Kashmiris & Palestinians are protective of their recipes

‘Forgotten Foods’, edited by Siobhan Lambert-Hurley, Tarana Husain Khan and Claire Chambers is a collection of essays and recipes. It documents the cuisine of Muslims in South Asia.

Caste, cash, compromise – What Tamil Nadu’s Dalit party VCK gives up to win elections

'Dalits in the New Millennium', edited by D Shyam Babu, Rahul Verma and Sudha Pai, analyses the political and economic shifts that influenced Dalit lives.

This is why Nehru dismissed CPI rule in Kerala

In 'Violence of Democracy', Ruchi Chaturvedi tracks the rise of India’s divisive politics through close examination of decades-long confrontations in Kerala between members of the CPI (Marxist) and supporters of the RSS and the BJP.

ECI got away with many mistakes. Problem lies in appointment of CECs, says former chief

In 'India's Experiment With Democracy', SY Quraishi talks about the de-politicisation of the appointment of election commissioners.

KCS Paniker’s paintings moved between metaphysical & abstract. They redefined Modern Indian Art

Sponsored by the Ministry of Culture, Paniker travelled to Europe, where he held exhibitions in Paris and London, while also meeting artists such as Henry Moore and Pablo Picasso.

This Indian woman fled to Kabul for love in 1989. The sex life there repulsed her

In ‘The Taliban and I’, Sushmita Bandyopadhyay recounts how her life changed when she married an Afghan man and went to Kabul.

On Camera

Worker exploitation powers the firework industry in Tamil Nadu’s Sivakasi

For an industry globally classified as hazardous, protections such as health insurance and a provident fund for workers are necessities. In Sivakasi, they remain elusive.

172 countries & counting, India looks to hit new record in rice exports. But there’s a flip side

The industry forecasts exports are set to grow 16% in 2025-26, boosted by surplus domestic production and a drive to push into 26 underserved global markets with strong potential.

India and France to jointly manufacture HAMMER air-to-surface missile

Indigenisation level will progressively increase up to 60 percent with key sub-assemblies, electronics and mechanical parts being manufactured locally.

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.