This special edition of Open is a celebration of arguments, and we have invited some of the brightest from the world of ideas to make the name of this magazine the abiding ideal of India.

India pays lip service to a 19th century European idea that is of little relevance today

A question for Lord Macaulay’s children

India can’t play out its soft power on the global stage if we continue with our restrictive visa policy

How can the media help a society become more open when it shuts the door on facts?

Why democracy and protectionism don’t mix

What does an AAP candidate say about Indian democracy?

The last Englishman could still be an Indian

Patrick French • Shashi Tharoor • Shekhar Gupta • Priyamvada Gopal • Sunanda K Datta-Ray • Ananya Vajpeyi • Jug Suraiya • Tishani Doshi • Bennett Voyles • and others

An elemental reunion of the sensuous and the erotic

How the politically incorrect ethnic joke keeps us together in the great fraternity of laughter