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    Home / Columns / Gopalkrishna Gandhi
    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

    The dilemma in treating defamation as an offence

    Using hurtful and insulting words to make the targeted person feel shocked and humiliated is one of humankind’s timeless weapons of belligerence. In India, we have used it with abandon. (Photo for represrntation)
    opinion
    Updated on Aug 30, 2026 24:52 IST

    When resignation cleanses and restores lost stature

    The fact of Sardar Patel’s reflexive act of statesmanship in seeking to leave office sends a powerful message — resignations are meant to be given, not extorted. They are meant to be treated as something beyond office-holding or office-leaving.
    opinion
    Updated on Jul 26, 2026 01:00 IST

    ‘India-Bangladesh same blood’: Ties built on shared history and culture

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Dinesh Trivedi during a rally in Kolkata.
    opinion
    Updated on Jun 24, 2026 01:21 IST

    Living austerely in this world riven by conflict

    Fuel and chemical fertilisers were high on the list of things that were obviously already under strained supply and likely to turn very soon very short in stock. That we must use them without wasting them was sound and essential advice coming from the PM. (Reuters)
    opinion
    Updated on May 16, 2026 13:38 IST

    A podium to speak and heal, not wound further

    John F Kennedy’s Inaugural Address is made of ideas and words we can hardly believe came from where they did. Every paragraph of that speech crafted by Kennedy is of epic voltage. (Getty Images)
    opinion
    Updated on Apr 18, 2026 14:35 IST

    Two leaplings who nearly changed India’s history

    Morarji Desai was capable of doing some unexpected things.As prime minister he held secret parleys with Israel’s defence minister Moshe Dayan, in the interests of India’s security. (HT Archive)
    opinion
    Updated on Mar 2, 2026 15:31 IST

    If clocks do not stop on Sundays, life too shouldn’t

    Such a mystique hangs over that last day of the week, that it cannot be regarded as just like any other day. (PTI)
    opinion
    Updated on Feb 21, 2026 16:01 IST

    Remembering the heroes of our resilient Republic

    The Republic of India salutes the sagacity and statesmanship shown by the founders of the nation. (Praful Gangurde / HT Photo)
    opinion
    Updated on Jan 26, 2026 01:49 IST

    A few silver linings on the South Asian horizon

    Terrorism hurts and will continue to do so. It has to be met with unequivocal force. But alongside that use of force, there has to be use of a higher force — sanity and humanity — to defeat the larger aim of terrorism, which is the deepening of fault lines, of hates and fears. (HT Archive)
    opinion
    Updated on Jan 10, 2026 16:50 IST

    Building on the gains, reversing the decline

    One of the permanent strengths that will keep us safe is Gandhi’s truth, saluting ahimsaic love unto the last human being. (HT Archive)
    opinion
    Updated on Dec 31, 2025 14:49 IST

    A prescription for getting Delhi to breathe fine again

    Enforce without remorse the retrenchment of air-polluting vehicles after a verification of their quality levels after pollution checks. These vehicles do no less damage to national safety than infiltrators. (PTI)
    opinion
    Updated on Dec 20, 2025 15:26 IST

    Khrushchev era lessons on ceasing nuclear tests

    At a time when both the US and Russia are speaking openly of giving up on all arms control and on CTBT-governed codes on nuclear testing, there can be no greater crown on President Putin’s visit than an announcement from Indian soil by the visiting dignitary that Russia will stay its option of resuming nuclear tests. (AP)
    opinion
    Updated on Dec 4, 2025 16:58 IST

    Diplomat for difficult times, friend for all seasons

    Nuance, subtle differentiation, the adjudication of the competing claims of importance, urgency and immediacy were Raghavan’s forte
    opinion
    Updated on Nov 28, 2025 16:52 IST

    His noble soul remains country’s inner monitor

    The Statue of Unity.
    india news
    Updated on Oct 31, 2025 01:30 IST

    Today’s nuclear world needs Gandhi’s values

    Today, nine countries in the world stock between them a total of 12,331 nuclear warheads. (HT Archive)
    opinion
    Updated on Oct 1, 2025 15:29 IST

    An age for introspection, reflection and gratitude

    For an Indian with public responsibilities, crossing the average life expectancy at birth and reaching the diamond jubilee of 75 years, must lead to introspection, atma vichara , and to unadvertised acts of self-abnegation. (@NarendraModi via PTI)
    opinion
    Updated on Sep 16, 2025 14:52 IST

    An Independence Day message from Red Fort

    Red Fort has witnessed the fabric of India’s social cohesion being torn, shredded repeatedly, only to see it becoming whole again. (Raj K Raj/HT Photo)
    opinion
    Updated on Aug 14, 2025 15:14 IST

    Consequences if Yemen executes Nimisha Priya

    Should India consider getting all Indian nationals still remaining in that part of Yemen – said to be a few thousand – back ? Whether it hurts Yemen or not, the point would have been made that India does not trust the safety of its nationals there (Shutterstock)
    opinion
    Updated on Jul 22, 2025 15:04 IST

    When India was turned into a vast prison house

    Jayaprakash Narayan, as he was being taken to jail, is said to have remarked vinasha kaale vipareeta buddhi. (HT Archive)
    opinion
    Updated on Jun 21, 2025 14:49 IST

    Organic intelligence in the time of artificial intelligence

    AI should neither be worshipped as a new God nor be viewed in terror as Faustian. It should be kept in its place. (Bloomberg)
    opinion
    Updated on May 17, 2025 13:32 IST

    After Pahalgam, a nation united in battling terror

    There is something very important in this preparedness we must remind ourselves at all times: Readiness for war is one thing, the mongering of war quite another (Hindustan Times)
    opinion
    Updated on Apr 26, 2025 14:31 IST

    We, the people; neither free of fear nor fearless

    Rabindranath Tagore’s great pre-independence song, Chitto jetha bhoyshunno (Where the mind is without fear), today holds hope for us, the brave and good people of India. (Indian Consulate in Seattle)
    opinion
    Updated on Mar 21, 2025 14:21 IST

    For politics which runs without fear or favour

    Thiruvananthapuram: Congress leader Shashi Tharoor speaks during the Kerala Legislative Assembly International Book Festival, in Thiruvananthapuram, Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025. (PTI Photo)(PTI01_08_2025_000133B) (PTI)
    opinion
    Updated on Feb 19, 2025 14:40 IST

    The Republic’s journey so far, the journey ahead

    Children perform during the rehearsals for the country's upcoming Republic Day parade in Amritsar on January 24, 2025. (Photo by Narinder NANU / AFP) (AFP)
    opinion
    Updated on Jan 25, 2025 14:26 IST

    The right choices for a world at the crossroads

    TOPSHOT - This picture taken from Gaza City shows smoke billowing after an Israeli strike in the north of the Palestinian territory on December 29, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP) (AFP)
    opinion
    Updated on Dec 31, 2024 14:31 IST

    Prime minister, great economist, a greater ethicist

    Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh during an executive session on the second day of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) at the Hyatt Hotel on November 28, 2009 in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad And Tobago. (Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images) (Getty Images)
    opinion
    Updated on Dec 27, 2024 15:35 IST

    The need to protect the sanctity of the Preamble

    The Constitution was sufficiently secular in spirit and socialist in direction without the Preamble saying that in as many words
    opinion
    Updated on Dec 7, 2024 14:38 IST

    Silence on portents of a global conflict

    TOPSHOT - Palestinians warm by the fire in the rubble of destroyed buildings in the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on November 16, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and the Hamas militant group. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)
    opinion
    Updated on Nov 17, 2024 16:10 IST

    In Gaza and Beirut, the echoes of a tragic past

    A boy sits next to a mattress and blankets with other children in the yard of the Shuhada (Martyrs) school, which was hit by Israeli bombardment, in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip on October 24, 2024 amid the ongoing war in the Palestinian territory between Israel and Hamas. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP) (AFP)
    opinion
    Updated on Oct 26, 2024 15:06 IST

    Listening to the inner voice for inner peace

    31 October 1974 - Jayaprakash Narayan Addressing a Rally - HT Photo by Rane Prakash.
    opinion
    Updated on Sep 23, 2024 15:33 IST
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