HomePastForward

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.

+TFP

This is why Nehru-Liaquat Pact failed. Its ghost haunted Indian politics for decades

Apoorva Mandhani - 8 April, 2024

+TFP

Indian politicians hit the jackpot with 1957 TISCO case. It set the tone for political funding

Rabinder Singh spy scandal exposed R&AW’s ugly sides. But India hasn’t learned from its mistakes

+TFP

1967 was the year politics changed. Modi wants to go back to the simpler times before that

With Rajnath Singh in Cairo, India-Egypt pick up Nehru-Nasser thread left off in the ’60s

+TFP Snehesh Alex Philip - 19 September, 2022

In the 1960s, an IAF team was in Cairo to make fighter jets. Both India and Egypt knew the importance of a domestic defence industrial base — that bond is restarting.

Take care, Rajiv Gandhi told Prabhakaran. Even gave bulletproof vest before Sri Lanka Accord

+TFP Vandana Menon - 28 July, 2022

Prabhakaran entered the accord thinking it would get him Eelam. Jayawardene hoped it would end violence in Lanka. And Rajiv Gandhi had good intentions for the Tamils.

How Nehru added ‘conditions apply’ to Article 19(1)(a) & India lost way to gates of freedom

+TFP Sonal Matharu - 18 July, 2022

The 16-day freedom of speech debate in Parliament pitted Jawaharlal Nehru against Syama Prasad Mookerjee. Their echoes continue to bedevil and bruise India today.

India’s anti-defection law didn’t stop power politics. It just moved from farmhouse to resort

+TFP Abhishek Dey - 17 July, 2022

Maharashtra turmoil shows Rajiv Gandhi's 1985 anti-defection law changed nothing, but only left India 'with the worst of both worlds'.

CPI was first communist party in world to win election. Then came its identity crisis and fall

+TFP Vandana Menon - 9 July, 2022

Within a decade of coming to power in Kerala in 1957, the cracks in the Communist Party were showing. A British 'spy', Nehru, and China made them wider.

India and US went pro-choice around the same time. Only one strengthened its abortion laws

Abantika Ghosh - 29 June, 2022

India's Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971 established women’s right to seek an abortion two years before US Supreme Court judgment in Roe vs Wade.

Somnath and Gyanvapi temples were rebuilt – long ago by Maratha queen Ahilyabai Holkar

+TFP Vandana Menon - 25 June, 2022

All major places of Hindu pilgrimage owe something to Ahilyabai. Her piety became her power in a world of men.

How Nehru’s friend Jayanti Dharma Teja went from Lutyens’ darling to international fugitive

+TFP Vandana Menon - 12 March, 2022

Before Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi, and Mehul Choksi, there was Jayanti Dharma Teja — scientist, shipping magnate, and alleged scamster who led the Indian government on a wild spin.

Hungry India, a nawabi US President, ‘Mexican blood’ — The real story of Green Revolution

Vandana Menon - 19 February, 2022

I don’t ever want us to have to beg for food again, Indira Gandhi said after a call with US President Lyndon Johnson. Science, Swaminathan and Subramanian made sure she didn’t have to.

Babri, Saraswati, Aryans – There are rival Indian histories now and campuses are the warzone

Vandana Menon - 19 December, 2021

What used to be ‘basement history’ is now mainstream in Lutyens’ Delhi. The ‘ivory tower' of the Left on academics is being contested by an ‘imaginative’ Right.

123 4 Page 2 of 4

PastForward

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.

This is why Nehru-Liaquat Pact failed. Its ghost haunted Indian politics for decades

Indian politicians hit the jackpot with 1957 TISCO case. It set the tone for political funding

Rabinder Singh spy scandal exposed R&AW’s ugly sides. But India hasn’t learned from its mistakes

1967 was the year politics changed. Modi wants to go back to the simpler times before that

On Camera

YourTurn

Guidelines for YourTurn submissions

Opinion

It’s ‘Advantage INDIA bloc’ in the first phase of Lok Sabha election

Why are South Indian temples larger than ones in North? Answer isn’t ‘Islamic invasions’

Modi’s Newsweek Q&A was without questions—and how ANI interviews in 2019 and 2024 compare

Economy

CBDT signs record 125 Advance Pricing Agreements, 31% more than last year

Defence

India to start delivery of BrahMos missiles and launchers to Philippines tomorrow

National Interest

44 years on, two things that have changed in Modi’s BJP, and one that hasn’t

COMMENTS

Cancel

Follow us