princely states

How the begums of Awadh had stood up to the East India Company

Ira Mukhoty

Queens of resistance

The Big Picture

Nandini Nair

Coffee-table books that showcase the arts, crafts and cultural histories of India

The Quest for a Sovereign Identity

Rajshree Chandra

Divine authority and other idioms of power in the shaping of modern India

Woes of a Warrior

Nanditha Krishna

The prince who took on the East India Company for the era’s biggest port city

The Diaries of Eliamma Mathen: Homemaker as Intimate Historian

Shahina KK

The diaries of Eliamma Mathen capture with rare sensitivity the political intrigue and skullduggery in the former princely state of Travancore

From An Imperial To A National Cuisine

Shylashri Shankar

If India’s cuisine was influenced by colonial and princely tastes before 1947, the driving force after Independence was the palate of the urban middle-class. The task of shaping the national cuisine was taken up by the menus of restaurants, cookbooks and magazines and later by TV and films