On Bhima Koregaon and the state of Indian democracy - my review of Alpa Shah’s brilliant new book for The Times and The Sunday Times:

thetimes.co.uk/article/incarc…

I had a trot around the Ranjit Singh show at the Wallace Collection for The Times and The Sunday Times:

★★★★☆
Opens tomorrow

thetimes.co.uk/article/ranjit…

Is India still a democracy? My latest for UnHerd:

unherd.com/2024/04/inside…

On the mighty Anna May Wong, Hollywood’s first Asian-American film star. My lead review in The Times and The Sunday Times:

thetimes.co.uk/article/not-yo…

Oof. An absolute belter of a review from ⁦Pratinav Anil⁩ in ⁦Guardian Books⁩

Impossible Monsters by Michael Taylor review – fossil feuds | History books | The Guardian theguardian.com/books/2024/mar…

I read Michael Taylor’s marvellous history of the science wars for the The Guardian:

theguardian.com/books/2024/mar…

This government is a huge threat to academic freedom - all academics should unite to protest

“What we have here is a truly encyclopaedic and monumental account of the ancient world. In 400 crisp pages, 30 societies are paraded before us with comparative reflection and world-weary wit. Better still, Quinn’s book is polemical.” (Pratinav Anil)
thetimes.co.uk/article/how-th…

I really enjoyed reading this review of How the World Made the West: fun, generous, and gets me bang to rights on the darlings I really should have killed. Even if the British kept pet geese and wife-swapping.

I enjoyed Josephine Quinn’s monumental, encyclopaedic history of the East in the West

Why the clash of civilisations is bunk - my review in The Times and The Sunday Times:

thetimes.co.uk/article/how-th…

I'm in the The Indian Express today, reflecting on the making of the world's largest theocracy:

indianexpress.com/article/opinio…

In praise of peasants. Me for UnHerd:

unherd.com/2024/02/the-pe…

Biographers of luminaries and figures as illustrious and complex as Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad  and Indira Gandhi come together in a panel to discuss what it means to bring these personae to life, compellingly and authentically, and the challenges they face in…

Listening to some of the most compelling writers on politics and political biographies in India today — Irfan, Abhishek Choudhary, Pratinav Anil, Narayani Basu —with issues of nationalism and the idea of India taking centrestage. At jaipurlitfest

Many thanks to the inimitable A. Faizur Rahman for this fantastic review of Another India in The Hindu today. I'll be touching on some of the themes with Narayani Basu, Abhishek Choudhary, and S lrfan Habib एस इरफान हबीब عرفان حبئب at noon today in Jaipur. Do come along.

'There’s a quietly subversive element to Smoke and Ashes for which Amitav Ghosh deserves to be commended... Had it not been for the Biharis, Ghosh shows, Mumbai might well have remained a backwater. It was opium — grown by Biharis — that turned the somnolent fishing village into…

I'm in The Times and The Sunday Times today recommending Amitav Ghosh's latest, a superb history of the world’s first drug cartel - the East India Company

thetimes.co.uk/article/smoke-…

How we got here with the Ram Temple. I take stock of Hindu-Muslim relations over the last 150 years for UnHerd:

unherd.com/2024/01/modi-h…

Historian ⁦Pratinav Anil⁩ writes: “India’s entry into the ranks of the world’s surviving theocracies…arrived bathetically. When the history of the nation’s descent from secularism to Hindu nationalism is written, it might end in #Ayodhya .” unherd.com/2024/01/modi-h…

‘The forelock-tugging ruler of Gwalior ... named his son George after the British king. His counterpart in Bahawalpur ... boasted a collection of six hundred dildos.’

Pratinav Anil on the collapse of India’s princely states.

literaryreview.co.uk/midnights-play…