Zareer Masani
Amritsar: beginning of the end of Empire
The true casualty figures are still hotly disputed 100 years after the Punjab massacre, but its real legacy was the slow death of the Raj
Chastising Churchill
‘Seventy years after independence, bashing Winston Churchill has become a sure-fire way of attracting a mass following on Indian social media’
Last Days Of India’s Empress
A biography of Indira Gandhi’s final years offers insights into a dark period of unmitigated corruption in Indian politics
Crocodile Tears For India
A story of unmitigated British plunder in India, but one which subscribes to conventional views
Jovial Pragmatists
SOAS’s new exhibition on Zoroastrianism fails to capture the rich cultural and historical legacy of this much-misunderstood and embattled faith
The Making of the Mahatma
Dubious racial attitudes, an obsession with excrement and sexual eccentricities: Gandhi Before India reveals the unsavoury sides of the statesman’s character
The Alternative History of an Undivided India
The perils of Partition would have been averted by Viceroy Wavell’s bold 1946 plan to create a subcontinental federation
Why Remoaners should back Boris
“Boris, ironically, now offers Remoaners the best chance of a soft Brexit, or at least a sensible one. And to those who want a second referendum—’the people’s vote’—there may even be a chance of that too.”
On the road
“In the summer of 1980, in the grip of some Kerouac-ish fantasy, I opted to hitch-hike from Laredo to New York”
Discovering the Great War of China
A third of a million Chinese labourers helped the Allies defeat the Kaiser, but their huge unsung contribution ended in betrayal