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Monday, October 13, 2025
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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.

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

Vandana Menon -
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.
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Babri, Saraswati, Aryans – There are rival Indian histories now and campuses are the warzone

Vandana Menon -
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.
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50 yrs of 1971 war: How forces, intel, politicians jointly made it India’s finest military hour

Snehesh Alex Philip -
On 16 December 1971, 93,000 Pakistani military and govt officials surrendered before Indian Army, ending the Bangladesh Liberation War that began on 3 December.
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59 lives, 95 hearings, 60 crore — The Uphaar Cinema tragedy is a story of fire, fate and fight

Vandana Menon -
The 1997 Uphaar Cinema fire case in Delhi was behind a smokescreen for decades — evidence went missing, Ansal brothers suddenly turned ‘poor’, judges recused themselves. A verdict has finally come.
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You are an OBC if you score 11/22 — We traced nearly 100 years of caste in Indian census

Vandana Menon -
Rajiv Gandhi called Mandal report a ‘can of worms’. India has tried to open it five times and shut it as quickly.
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Mystery of 1966 Air India crash, that killed nuclear pioneer Bhabha, is unravelling bit by bit

Srijan Shukla -
Air India 101 crashed at Mont Blanc, at nearly the same spot as Air India 245 in 1950. Since the ’80s, big discoveries & bigger conspiracy theories have emerged.
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The story of what really happened when Chinese troops ‘withdrew’ from Galwan Post 58 years back

Snehesh Alex Philip -
Months before the India-China war in 1962, an Army platoon held on to a post in Galwan despite being surrounded. The Chinese later moved back by about 200 m.
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Sumdorong Chu, Ladakh-like India-China face-off which took 9 yrs to end but without violence

Nayanima Basu -
The 9 years saw diplomatic wrangling, a defiant Indian general keen on 'teaching the Chinese a lesson' & a PM more inclined towards diplomacy, but not a single drop of blood.
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1994 Surat plague has many lessons for India on how to beat coronavirus

Mohana Basu -
ThePrint revisits events that led to the 1994 Surat plague and how the city emerged as one of India’s cleanest in the years to come.
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Maqbool Bhat, Kashmir’s first radical separatist, hanged by Indira after diplomat’s killing

Srijan Shukla -
ThePrint looks at the life of Maqbool Bhat, who became the leader of the first generation of Kashmiri separatists.
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Opinion

Resetting Afghanistan ties is geopolitical need. Gandhis are showing their diplomatic ignorance

Meenakashi Lekhi -
With two hostile neighbours in the immediate vicinity and one in the greater region, it is imperative that New Delhi forge alliances that can offer some stability.

Imbalance persists in ASI’s modus operandi. Bengal, Bihar demand more attention

China countering Trump with narrative swagger. This is what 8 ‘Zhong Caiwen’ editorials say

Economy

Niti Aayog recommends fully decriminalising 12 offences under new I-T Act to ‘foster more trust’

Udit Bubna -
Recommendations appear in Niti Aayog’s Tax Policy Working Paper Series–II. It says there is a need to shift away from fear-based enforcement to trust-based governance.

Defence

India, UK sign £350 mn deal for Martlet. What are these Lightweight Multirole Missiles

Snehesh Alex Philip -
In service with the British military since 2019, it is also known as the Martlet missile. Ukrainians have also deployed these missiles against Russian troops.

National Interest

CJI, IPS, IAS & Homebound: A wake-up call 75 years in the making

Shekhar Gupta -
Education, reservations, govt jobs are meant to bring equality and dignity. That we are a long way from that is evident in the shoe thrown at the CJI and the suicide of Haryana IPS officer. The film Homebound has a lesson too.

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