Best of 2019: My Choice

Public Intellectuals: Pratap Bhanu Mehta, 52, Shashi Tharoor, 63, Swapan Dasgupta, 63, Ramachandra Guha, 61

The Commentariat

The Ascetic versus the Urbane and the Swing Vote of Gods

Cavils without Context

Tharoor doesn’t even try to get into Modi’s mind

Shashi Tharoor, Scholar Politician

The Hindu Way

The Hindu Way of Writing

Both scholarly and simple in his argument, Shashi Tharoor celebrates Indian syncretism

Books: Highlights of 2018

Shashi Tharoor, TM Krishna, Daniel Ellsberg, Yasser Usman, Husain Haqqani, Mary Beard, Zadie Smith, Snigdha Poonam, Salman Khurshid, John Zubrzycki, Sheila Dikshit, Roxane Gay, Barkha Dutt, Mohammed Hanif and others

Country Report

Inconsistent but illuminating essays on an India shifting right

In Defence of the Empire

Shashi Tharoor misses history for the sake of wounded national pride

Steve Smith: ‘I am more of a lover than a fighter’

Steve Smith and Ben Stokes talk about their game and passion