Voices

A Relative Question of the Ascetic

Bibek Debroy

Adi Shankaracharya and the idea of a sannyasi

Make It Silly Policy

Madhavankutty Pillai

On the pride Rajasthan’s education department takes in evicting TS Eliot from a textbook

The Consort

Manu S Pillai

The story of Lalitamba Bayi and Kerala Varma is no ordinary love story. It tells of many political machinations and the slow unravelling of the matrilineal court in Travancore

What you eat, who you eat with and how you eat express religious, ethnic, gender and class identities, and reflect one’s personal views on justice and ethics. The questions posed in relation to food are the sort of issues philosophers like to ponder

Inside the Soul of Dmitri Shostakovich

S Prasannarajan

How much does it take to be an artist under Soviet communism? Julian Barnes' exquisite portrait of a tormented musical genius

The Dangerous Dozen

MJ Akbar

One misconception foisted by moral science classes is that we learn best from the lives of the worthy. There is at least as much, if not more, to be learned from excess and depravity