A ‘Janus-like’ Being: The Long Shadow of “Vande Mataram”
From ancient Hindu traditions of retributive violence as well as history of aid and inspiration from abroad, Abhimanyu Kumar explores the complicated associations of our national song with India’s revolutionary movement.
A Forgotten Rebellion: The Royal Navy’s Mutiny of 1946
1946 Royal Indian Navy Mutiny: Last War of Independence adds yet another dimension to the existing accounts on the struggle for Independence. But how does our remembrance of history truly carry over to the present? By Priyanka Chakrabarty
Maha-India: Revisiting the brave complexities of Shashi Tharoor’s The Great Indian Novel
Why Shashi Tharoor’s satirical 1989 masterpiece The Great Indian Novel—which married India’s recent history with The Mahabharata—is as relevant as ever in today’s polarising times. - by Atulya Pathak
Short story by Debi Mukherjee: “Unlike the little girls I see outside temples, draped in their pano bhaju’s stringing garlands of Marigolds, I dare not play with the flowers in our garden. Papa cautions me against the rows of Mogras, Shoe-flowers, Frangipanis and a multitude of others. He says that I must not be lured by a flower’s fragrance.”