Gopalkrishna Gandhi
Gopalkrishna Gandhi read English Literature at St Stephen’s College, Delhi. A civil servant and diplomat, he was Governor of West Bengal, 2004-2009. He is currently Distinguished Professor of History and Politics at Ashoka University
Articles by Gopalkrishna Gandhi
Champaran to Singhu: A tale of two satyagrahas
PUBLISHED ON JAN 13, 2021 07:47 PM IST
To assuage the protesting farmers, the Centre must suspend the Acts indefinitely, refer demands to the Inter-State Council; and call a Parliament session
Five lives from the land of five rivers
UPDATED ON DEC 07, 2020 08:22 PM IST
These five Sikh Indians have tilled historical and cultural truths with the hoe of faith
For Joe Biden, from the Jawaharlal Nehru of 1945
UPDATED ON NOV 13, 2020 08:50 PM IST
President-elect Joe Biden’s burden is about the world’s safety — from errors and terrors, nuclear, chemical, biological. It is also about the world being made safe from its own globe-warming, globe-infecting ways. He will be helped by an India that speaks not in terms of “nationalist individualism” but of world safety.
Are any socialists left in Indian politics?
UPDATED ON OCT 13, 2020 06:16 AM IST
Socialists were once austere, uninterested in personal power, free-spirited. The era is gone
When India and China talked
UPDATED ON SEP 15, 2020 09:17 PM IST
The history of peace is much longer than the history of discord. There are common challenges
For the Mahatma, the meaning of Independence, nation and religion
PUBLISHED ON AUG 14, 2020 04:00 PM IST
Healing divisions as India turned free, Gandhi was clear a nation could have no religion or sect
The Congress is not meant to die or wither away. It must change |Opinion
UPDATED ON JUL 18, 2020 05:50 AM IST
Proposing an alternative leadership is not disloyalty. There is an opportunity now
When Gandhi battled an epidemic
UPDATED ON JUN 04, 2020 07:39 AM IST
His directives on how to contain the South African plague can be useful for Covid-hit India
Recognise the centrality of states in defeating Covid-19, writes Gopalkrishna Gandhi
UPDATED ON MAY 07, 2020 07:15 PM IST
Federalism has been at work in the best sense. The states have worked with limited resources and within constraints
What would Gandhi have done today?
UPDATED ON JUN 04, 2020 07:37 AM IST
In times of a health crisis, he showed exceptional care and extreme sternness. India is doing it now
India must bow its head to Maharashtra on this day
UPDATED ON FEB 19, 2020 12:00 PM IST
Three Marathas — Shivaji, Tilak and GK Gokhale — made their mark on history in different ways on February 19
What Abide With Me means to India , writes Gopalkrishna Gandhi
UPDATED ON JAN 22, 2020 06:20 AM IST
The authorities must not be impervious to the hymn’s aesthetic, spiritual and human appeal
TN Chaturvedi: A scholar in bureaucracy and politics| Opinion
PUBLISHED ON JAN 12, 2020 07:35 PM IST
An exceptional IAS officer, a truly non-partisan governor, TNC was engaged with ideas and books till the very end
The wisdom in CJI Bobde’s words
UPDATED ON DEC 10, 2019 06:29 PM IST
Vengeance can lead to pre-institutional disarray, fixing over due process, haste over efficiency
The core of the Ayodhya judgment | Opinion
UPDATED ON NOV 12, 2019 06:59 PM IST
Work simultaneously for both parties, ensure tangible action, and answer questions on funding
Gandhi and Savarkar’s Bharat Ratna
PUBLISHED ON OCT 22, 2019 04:34 PM IST
There is a Savarkar who deserves it. There is a Savarkar on whom it will sit deeply troubled
A newspaper with a view
UPDATED ON OCT 01, 2020 06:13 PM IST
MK Gandhi’s English daily, ‘Young India’, helped shape educated Indians’ thoughts and world view for the duration of its lifetime. It still has a thing or two to teach us in a world saturated with buzzing websites.
Gandhi’s lost gem
UPDATED ON JUN 30, 2020 10:09 PM IST
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi decided, in the same year that Harilal was born — and in the face of several adverse circumstances — to go to London to become a barrister.
Kasturba, on her own terms
UPDATED ON SEP 17, 2019 01:10 PM IST
Mohandas described his departure for London: “…Last but not least, came the leave-taking with my wife. It being contrary to custom for me to see or talk to her in the presence of friends, I had to see her in a separate room.
Nazir Ali’s story: A life bigger than nationalities
PUBLISHED ON JUL 13, 2019 07:01 PM IST
Ratan Kumar was his screen name. The home-given name of this boy, born in 1941, in Ajmer, was Syed Nazir Ali Rizvi. And just as Bombay turned Mohammad Yusuf Khan into Dilip Kumar, Mahjabeen into Meena Kumari, it morphed Nazir Ali into Ratan Kumar.
EC has a formidable reputation to maintain – or to lose
UPDATED ON MAY 16, 2019 07:01 PM IST
If candidates have a symbol, the EC has a symbol too, its logo. The poll panel should remember that it is in the fourth colour, the blue of dharma, that its dynamism lies, its vitality and its momentum. And the bharosa, aitbar and vishvas of the people.
Opinion | Converting valour to votes is simply not done
UPDATED ON APR 15, 2019 08:55 AM IST
“Dedicate the votes to the air force and to jawans”? Did they perform their duty, lay down their lives for someone to ask someone for votes? That sentence meant – who will deny it? – “dedicate your vote to me”. “Not done”, I said to myself. “Simply, simply not done”. Here are brave hearts laying their lives on the line for our country and their daring, their training, their striving, is used to seek votes.
Leaders must draw from New Zealand PM’s courage and wisdom
UPDATED ON MAR 18, 2019 11:56 PM IST
By saying “they are us” while referring to the 49 victims of the massacre, she reverses the us-them binary
In the cause of peace, Kulbhushan Jadhav must not die
UPDATED ON FEB 25, 2019 08:14 AM IST
His hanging will not serve any end of justice. But such an act will definitely mutilate the ends of peace
Opinion | Alok Verma has rekindled our sense of dharma
UPDATED ON JAN 15, 2019 08:58 AM IST
Alok Verma’s demand for a dignified exit, not accommodation or sops, has given our institutions an unexpected dignity.
There was something in Vajpayee that marked him out as his own person
By Gopalkrishna Gandhi | Hindustan Times, New Delhi
UPDATED ON DEC 25, 2018 01:17 PM IST
He would think and plan and strategise as part of the saffron family. But he would feel, empathise with, smile, lament and – most importantly – share the silence of reflection with those outside the saffron family, no less than with those within it
Gandhi did not want and does not need statues
UPDATED ON DEC 18, 2018 11:48 AM IST
India should see the removal of Gandhi’s statue in Ghana as the decision of a sovereign people having a say in the design of their political architecture and their public spaces.
Farmers march: A spontaneous outpouring of agony
UPDATED ON DEC 03, 2018 05:30 PM IST
In India’s farmers and their distress, India’s democratic parties have found a loan of strength that can and should be their fuel for the coming test. But be it noted that this loan of a wave is not going to be waived. India’s farmers will recover it, with interest, as is their due.
Twist in the tale: The dilemma that Maneka Gandhi faces
UPDATED ON NOV 09, 2018 05:38 PM IST
Her response to the orchestrated killing of a tiger in Maharashtra shows that her forbearance has hits limits
Resigning gracefully may lead to finding a new role from within oneself
UPDATED ON OCT 18, 2018 05:55 PM IST
History is replete with examples of many men who gave up office, power and pelf to redeem themselves