crown

Subscribe Now

FOLLOW US

Sign in

Home / Author / Rahul Sagar

Rahul Sagar

Rahul Sagar

Articles by Rahul Sagar

How the US soared to the heights of dangerous greatness

As fireworks burst above the US’ vast and richly peopled expanses, it is worth recalling that clarity and honesty about human nature have been its elixir.

Updated on Jul 11, 2026 12:13 IST

The Rao of Kutch who outwitted a Viceroy of India

As a class, the Native States made unwise choices: They ought to have tolerated criticism, adopted constitutions, and conceded gracefully to nationalism.

Updated on Jun 26, 2026 16:37 IST

The mistake India keeps making about its neighbours

Where will the Chinese draw their impressions of India from if they cannot visit the country? (Shutterstock)

Updated on Jun 12, 2026 17:42 IST

The God that Indian liberalism has forgotten

At its core, liberalism seeks to protect the individual against compulsion. But why should we care about the individual? A leading response was that individuals were entitled to freedom because God had endowed them with reason. (Wikimedia Commons)

Updated on May 29, 2026 17:15 IST

The untold story & unsung heroes of Indian liberalism

The earliest defences of individuality emerged out of rationalist associations such as the Manav Dharma Sabha, the Paramahansa Mandali, and the Prarthana Samaj. (Wikimedia Commons)

Updated on May 15, 2026 15:36 IST

War against British colonialism began long before 1857

Viewing 1857 as the launch of the “independence movement” has left Indians with a distorted sense of their past. (Getty Images)

Updated on May 1, 2026 15:24 IST

Conservatism’s paradox: Abiding internationalism

Vance’s appearance in Budapest did not come out of the blue. A distinctive feature of the Trump administration has been its efforts to rally like-minded parties around the world. (Reuters)

Updated on Apr 17, 2026 17:07 IST

The price we pay for a free encyclopaedia

Wikipedia’s leaders are conscious of the threat of bias (as co-founder Jimmy Wales’s intervention shows). The problem is that they try to combat bias through procedural rules. (AP)

Updated on Apr 3, 2026 15:39 IST

Why campuses must be kept free of party politics

The purpose of a university is tutelary: The student is expected to learn, understand, and build upon accumulated human knowledge through free enquiry. (HT Archive)

Updated on Mar 20, 2026 15:25 IST

Must Lutyens fall so that Bharat can rise again?

The idea behind decolonisation is that British rule was so dominating that it “denationalised” Indians, leaving them unaware or even ashamed of their heritage, and turned them into “mimic men” who slavishly imitated their colonial masters. (HT Archive)

Updated on Mar 6, 2026 14:48 IST

What Japan has meant to India, through a lens of history

Fearing diminishment, Japan is moving in the direction of rearmament, in every sense of the word. The spectacular election of Takaichi is but a sign of this churn. (AFP)

Updated on Feb 20, 2026 14:37 IST

Xi’s ‘rejuvenating China’ vision hits demographic wall

The question before contemporary China is whether “self-forgetfulness” can truly be fostered in our age. The blunt answer offered by plummeting birth rates is no. (Bloomberg)

Updated on Feb 6, 2026 15:19 IST

The national anthem before our national anthem was adopted

The task of popularising the UK’s anthem in India fell to Frederick Harford’s National Anthem for India Fund. Thousands of pounds poured into the effort. But little went as planned. (PTI)

Updated on Jan 23, 2026 15:21 IST

Reserving the right to counter foreign media narratives

As India became a sizeable market and a prospective ally, the foreign press became much more interested in understanding — and shaping — India’s rise. (ANI)

Updated on Jan 9, 2026 15:45 IST

Higher education in India: Why making our universities great again won’t be easy

A few institutions, particularly the IITs and IIMs, have remained autonomous and grown in stature. But, in the international race, it is not enough to walk briskly. (HT Archive)

Updated on Dec 26, 2025 15:26 IST

India’s history, preserved in the distant archives of UK

What makes this imbroglio a cause of particular concern for India is that the British Library is the principal repository of the records and holdings of the India Office. (Shutterstock)

Updated on Dec 12, 2025 15:20 IST

For democracy, X marks the spot. But only for now

Transparency reduces the scope for sensationalism on X and thus imperils user engagement, a metric Musk cares deeply about. So, perhaps, in a few weeks the algorithms at X will magically boost complaints about “user privacy”. (AFPafp)

Updated on Nov 28, 2025 16:15 IST

Lessons from history for republic of rajas

A visitor looks at a picture scene during her visit to the opening of "The Modern Maharajah" exhibition on September 25, 2019 at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris. - The exhibition tells the story of the Maharaja of Indore, an Indian Prince, Yeshwant Rao Holkar II and his wife Sanyogita Devi of Indore who spent much of their time in Europe and the United States. (Photo by STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP) (AFP)

Updated on Feb 5, 2025 17:15 IST

Trump’s triumph and the revival of America’s creed

A supporter in the crowd holds up a baby wearing headphones as Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, November 1, 2024. (Photo by KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI / AFP) (AFP)

Updated on Nov 15, 2024 15:50 IST

What a false quote about Bengal reveals about our past

The eager or embittered babu may have been the most visible consequence of English learning in Calcutta, but the same books produced a very different outcome in the Native States

Updated on Sep 22, 2024 16:49 IST

The custodial death of Indian history

The task of digitising and presenting archival materials must be entrusted to a dedicated non-profit foundation governed by a board composed solely of experienced professionals (Chaitanya Library, Kolkata/ Nidhi Shukla, 2020)

Updated on Mar 12, 2023 14:59 IST

The 7 habits of highly effective Maharajas

Between 1858 and 1883, Raja Sir Tanjore Madhava Rao had the unique distinction of serving successively as dewan to the maharajas of Travancore, Indore, and Baroda. In each instance, he was lauded for transforming moribund regimes into Model States (WIKICOMMONS)

Updated on Sep 14, 2022 15:41 IST

China’s aggression will fail to thwart India’s ambition

Perhaps hardliners in China believe that scooping up pieces of territory or inflicting a military defeat will fatally embarrass the present government, and thus bring its troubling adroitness to an end. If so, they have misidentified their adversary.

Updated on Jun 3, 2022 13:24 IST

The BJP and Indian democracy

Whether BJP’s Hindu nationalist policies are an expression of democracy or a threat to it hinges on methods it employs

Updated on Jan 28, 2020 14:15 IST

The US Left and Indian democracy | Analysis

The abrogation of Article 370 is criticised but little concern is shown for iniquities that sheltered under the benign term, for example, the ethnic cleansing of Pandits, discrimination against Dalits, corruption, and the blight of dynastism

Updated on Jan 6, 2020 24:59 IST

Discovering India’s intellectual past

The periodicals show the reverence of our forefathers for modern knowledge, and their conceptions of India

Updated on Dec 2, 2019 01:00 IST

© 2026 HindustanTimes