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The Persistence of Growth
THE YEAR WAS 1958 AND THE AMERICAN economist Walt Whitman Rostow was lecturing a Cambridge audience about the ingredients that make countries wealthy. He had a famous five-stage theory of economic...
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Dividends of Dreams
I LIKE THINGS MORE THAN PEOPLE,” SAYS ART collector Shalini Passi, seated on what looks like a throne, surrounded by art ranging from Raza to Anish Kapoor—and worried about the piece that has to be...
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Home Is Everywhere
FOREIGNERS EVERYWHERE WAS the theme of the 60th Venice Biennale. I am taking off from this theme curated by Adriano Pedrosa, the Brazilian curator. I was delighted to see two Indian artworks at the...
View ArticleRedeemer Unsung
THE THREAT OF communism’s taking over India receded after the hugely unpopular Chinese invasion. The Communist Party of India itself split into two, one section affiliated with the Soviet Union, and...
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Priya Bapat’s Process
Anything can trigger an actor’s imagination. For Priya Bapat, it was a still from Jabbar Patel’s Umbartha (1982) where the late Smita Patil is dressed in a white saree, standing by a pole. Patil...
View ArticleThe Afterlife of Socialism
WHEN JAWAHARLAL NEHRU died in May 1964 nearly one out of every two Indians was poor. It would take another 30 years before a dent could be made in poverty. Reducing multidimensional poverty required...
View ArticleResumption of Indian Patrolling Along LAC Reduces Salience of Buffer Zones
The disengagement agreement arrived at between India and China will restore patrolling by Indian troops in areas that have been designated as “buffer zones” by the two militaries along with Demchok and...
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The Illuminati
All through September, Chandigarh-based Gyandev Singh, a graduate from the National School of Drama (NSD, Delhi), who is trained as an actor and director and has, over the last 15 years, built a...
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Farmers’ Association Up In Arms as Tractor Makers Fail to Disclose MRP
This one is intended to introduce a sense of transparency in price. Often, good intentions aren’t taken seriously. How else could one view the response of this particular industry? Farmers are upset...
View ArticleMorals and Metahumans
“You are the future of our nation,” our politicians tell our youth. It is patronising. They do that because no politician ever wants to cede space to younger ones, until and unless, of course, his or...
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