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PastForward

PastForward is a deep research offering from ThePrint on issues from India’s modern history that continue to guide the present and determine the future. As William Faulkner famously said, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” Indians are now hungrier and curiouser to know what brought us to key issues of the day. 
For now, this is available immediately to all ThePrint readers. Very soon PastForward will be among the premium offerings that go behind a paywall, only available to subscribers.

Gun-toting IAS trainee vs academy director. 1981 scandal shaped dissent in civil services

+TFP Vandana Menon -
In 1981, a drunk IAS probationer terrorised peers with a gun during a Himalayan trek. When Home Ministry didn’t act, academy head PS Appu quit in protest, setting off storm in Parliament.
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1800s Kolkata is key to Modi’s Act East policy. It needs imagination, not just bureaucracy

+TFP Praveen Swami -
A globalised India is a project of imagination. It must model itself after 19th century Kolkata, as it seeks to integrate with the economic powerhouses to its East.
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George Mallory’s Everest climb was no macho heroism—It was rooted in racism, war, tragedy

+TFP Praveen Swami -
In 1999, Mallory’s mummified body was retrieved from the ice, with signs of injuries suggesting he was killed in a fall. The body of his climbing partner Sandy Irvine was never found.
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The spy who sold out Subhas Chandra Bose—he worked with Britain, Germany, USSR, Japan, Italy

Praveen Swami -
The collapse of the Japanese in Burma and the death of Bose, brought the curtain down on Talwar’s incredible career—one that had seen him work for 3 Axis intelligence services & 2 Allied ones.
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This is why Nehru-Liaquat Pact failed. Its ghost haunted Indian politics for decades

+TFP Apoorva Mandhani -
It was either war or exchange of population—and Nehru wanted neither. So he devised a third option.
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Indian politicians hit the jackpot with 1957 TISCO case. It set the tone for political funding

+TFP Apoorva Mandhani -
Electoral bonds have done what past innovations in party funding couldn’t — they have sprung the issue of party funding onto the national stage.
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Rabinder Singh spy scandal exposed R&AW’s ugly sides. But India hasn’t learned from its mistakes

+TFP Praveen Swami -
Vishal Bhardwaj's Khufiya touches on the penetration of R&AW. The reel-world denouement, though, was quite different from the real-world ending.
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1967 was the year politics changed. Modi wants to go back to the simpler times before that

Vandana Menon -
Apart from One Nation, One Election, there is a strong similarity between 1967 and 2023—a dominant party at the helm, and a politics that’s bringing oddballs of opposition together.
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Duties, duties, duties. Modi is going back to the Indira Gandhi Emergency era

+TFP Vandana Menon -
Speaking in the Old Parliament for the last time, PM Modi said the Central Hall of Parliament inspires us to fulfil our duties. Earlier, he had changed Amrit Kaal to Kartavya Kaal.
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When Indira Gandhi nationalised foodgrain and failed — a disaster and a cautionary tale

Vandana Menon -
The contrast is glaring — Indira Gandhi tried to edge out private players & failed, while Modi tried to bring in private players through the now-repealed farm laws & also failed.
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On Camera

YourTurn

Opinion

Empires inflicted a century of regime change on Iran. Each wanted a compliant, powerless nation

+TFP Praveen Swami -
The lessons of earlier American regime-change efforts should be obvious. The dismantling of Iran’s regime could lead to the breakdown of state authority and the rise of warlords.

Carolyn Bessette is suddenly the new Gen Z ‘It Girl’. She’ll be forgotten before you know it

Maharashtra’s Holi is different. It’s not colourful

Economy

European gas holds near 3-year high as Middle East conflict rattles energy markets

Elena Mazneva -
Major energy infrastructure is in the crosshairs of the conflict, raising risks of the biggest shock since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Qatar’s largest LNG plant remains shut, fuelling supply fears.

Defence

War reaches India’s backyard as Iranian warship sunk by US submarine off Sri Lanka coast. 100 dead

Snehesh Alex Philip -
Sinking of the ship has raised eyebrows in the Indian defence and security establishment. Lankan navy has recovered several bodies, believed to be of crew members.

National Interest

Pakistan is fighting a two-front war. I saw it coming 15 yrs ago

Shekhar Gupta -
The Pakistani political leadership is weak and devoid of any intellect. Its diplomacy is entirely India-China-US focused and suffers from a presumptive view of Afghanistan as a vassal.

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