Essays

Subhas Chandra Bose: Stalin’s Prisoner?

Iqbal Malhotra

Was Netaji sent to the Gulag? The Subhas Chandra Bose files might reveal many hidden truths

The Last Mughal Renaissance

William Dalrymple

The works produced by the last of the Mughal painters in Delhi for British patrons are an extraordinary fusion of English and Indian artistic sensibilities

A Legacy of the Gods

Sunanda K Datta-Ray

Our cavalier attitude to truth imperils institutions

Delight of the Eye

William Dalrymple

Nainsukh broke free from the formality of Indian court art to explore the quirks of human reality, stripping courtly conventions down to create miniatures full of living and breathing individuals

Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri’s Memoir: Dialogue is Destiny

Mani Shankar Aiyar

Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri’s magisterial memoir further underlines the truth that the consolidation of India’s own nationhood depends crucially on our being able to look on Pakistan as a friend and neighbour, not as a threat and an enemy

Sultan of the Sublime

William Dalrymple

The Deccani art patronised by the religious reconciler Ibrahim Adil Shah II of the Bijapur kingdom is an unparalleled alchemy of dream and fantasy

Will You Come Home?

Swapan Dasgupta

Subhas Chandra Bose: Legend, legacy, folklore, conspiracy and the politics of hidden files

The Antique Lands

Srinath Raghavan

A majestic narrative on the Silk Roads retells global history where West and Central Asia form the axis of power play. The historian as a captivating storyteller is less convincing when he turns prophetic. The roads may not rise again