4
From Bindiganavile to Jind via Central Asia
Where is hometown in the world of elastic geographies? What is mother tongue in the era of mixed parentage? In this, the first chapter from his new book, Homeless on …
The four forms of Indian political populism
Mukul Kesavan in The Telegraph, Calcutta: “Populist politics in India is of roughly three sorts: majoritarian, Mandalist and Congressite. Narendra Modi’s populism is clearly of the first sort. His appeal …
The best actor in the history of Hindi cinema is…
Indian film fans and critics and “writers” can barely think beyond Dilip Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan, Kamal Hassan, Rajesh Khanna, et al when talking of the “greatest actor” produced by Bombay’s …
Liberalistion, Sachin Tendulkar & the elusive 100
Muttiah Muralitharan took 1,334 international wickets: 800 in Tests and 534 in one-dayers. Shane Warne had 1,001: 708 in Tests and 293 in one-dayers. Yet, no one remembers any of …
CHURUMURI POLL: Do we like our ‘icons’ single?
“The victory of Jayalalitha and Mamata Banerjee means that India has three chief ministers who are women. They are single, they don’t have children and they are routinely represented in …
Does IPL need Bollywood or the vice-versa?
After submitting himself to the manufactured thrills of Twenty20 cricket in South Africa, Mukul Kesavan writes in The Telegraph, Calcutta: “The IPL’s apologists tell us that the Bombay film industry’s …
Why some of us just love to hate Sunil Gavaskar
For all his titanic batting feats, Sunil Gavaskar doesn’t quite earn the automatic applause of Kannadigas, partly because, well, he batted left-handed against Karnataka in a Ranji Trophy match that …
High Court verdict or Panchayat pronouncement?
The reliance of the Allahabad high court on the “faith and belief of Hindus”—that Lord Rama was born in the “area covered under the central dome of the disputed structure”—in …
Hindutvavadis have gorged on Ayodhya since ’47
On the day the judiciary put an end to the dilatory tactics of the executive in the Ayodhya title dispute , by ruling that the Allahabad High Court can go …
‘Public apetite whets blood-thirst of killer-cops’
Mukul Kesavan in The Telegraph, Calcutta: “What should worry us about the 2004 killings on the outskirts of Ahmedabad is that they are one more example of the impunity with …
How our buddhijeevis became one-tongue ponies
In May this year, the Bangalore-based historian Ramachandra Guha delivered a lecture in Delhi on “The rise and fall of the bilingual intellectual”, lamenting the demise in modern India of …
Greatest batsman in Test match cricket today?
Mukul Kesavan in The Telegraph, Calcutta: “The true significance of the [Madras Test] match was that it marked Virender Sehwag’s unofficial coronation as the greatest Test batsman in contemporary cricket…. …
‘Godse’s way of thinking is alive and influential’
The following is the full, unexpurgated text of the convocation address made by the Kannada literatteur Prof U.R. Anantha Murthy at the Jamia Milia Islamia on Thursday, 30 October 2008: …
Not winning, it’s the not drinking that matters
Mukul Kesavan in The Telegraph: “Watching Abhinav Bindra [at the Beijing Olympics], I suddenly thought of how much more exciting dart championships on British television used to be: large men …
Mallya gharana will never replace Kirana gharana
In The Telegraph, Calcutta, Mukul Kesavan compares Twenty20’s threat to Test cricket with bhangra pop’s to classical music. Without serving a long apprenticeship to an ustad or a guru from …
Dear God: Here are 4 good reasons to throttle IPL
Mukul Kesavan, son of the first national librarian of independent India, the Mysore-born B.S. Kesavan, in The Telegraph: “The English Premier League’s audience has been built over a century of …
What if India had done to Kashmir what China…?
Mukul Kesavan in The Telegraph, Calcutta: “The controversy over Tibet is a controversy about pluralism. The main allegations against China — that it has tried to alter the demographic balance …
The world’s first truly globalised president-to-be?
Mukul Kesavan on Barack Obama in The Telegraph, Calcutta: “The more I read about him, the more he seemed like a mythical creature constituted out of a politically correct wish-list. …
A bird in hand is better than two in the Bush
Mukul Kesavan in The Telegraph, Calcutta: “Indians don’t think much of Ricky Ponting for several reasons. His first tour was dogged by rumours of bad behaviour, his second tour was …