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Home / Columns / Ramachandra Guha

Ramachandra Guha

Ramachandra Guha

Ramachandra Guha is a historian based in Bengaluru. His books include India After Gandhi, A Corner of a Foreign Field, Environmentalism: A Global History, and Gandhi Before India. He tweets as @Ram_Guha

Articles by Ramachandra Guha

A Corner of a Foreign Field: Read an excerpt on Dalit cricketer Palwankar Baloo

The book traces the early years of the game in India.

Updated on Sep 7, 2024 09:29 IST

Shed partisanship, reach out to the best minds, writes Ramachandra Guha

To accomplish these varied and complex tasks, Nehru and Patel recognised that, in the choice of their Cabinet colleagues, they must not be constrained by partisan considerations.

Updated on Apr 4, 2020 11:37 IST

India’s descent from a 50-50 to a 30-70 democracy

It is past reason that the Supreme Court has not yet heard the electoral bonds case, or habeas corpus petitions. But this pales into insignificance in comparison with the alacrity with which the former Chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi, has accepted a Rajya Sabha nomination

Updated on Mar 21, 2020 12:07 IST

Choosing a Congress president, democratically, writes Ramachandra Guha

Captain Amarinder Singh, Shashi Tharoor, Sachin Pilot, Bhupesh Baghel, and Siddaramaiah could be possible contenders for the presidency. But throw open the contest to others, including those who have left the party, such as Mamata Banerjee, or entrepreneurs and social activists

Updated on Mar 8, 2020 24:18 IST

In praise of two national treasures, writes Ramachandra Guha

Both have had productive international collaborations, yet remain strongly rooted in the Indian context. Both believe in the importance of original, primary, research; both have published a series of important books and reports embodying this research

Updated on Feb 23, 2020 09:48 IST

Great harmoniser of India’s diversity, writes Ramachandra Guha

Mahatma Gandhi’s body at Birla House after his assassination on January 30, 1948.

Updated on Jan 30, 2020 07:13 IST

The fourth crisis of the Republic, writes Ramachandra Guha

The worst year in the history of the Republic was 1984, which saw (among other things) the Indian Army’s storming of the Golden Temple, the assassination of Indira Gandhi, the pogrom against the Sikhs, and the Bhopal tragedy

Updated on Jan 26, 2020 02:58 IST

Why the CAA is illogical, immoral and ill-timed, writes Ramachandra Guha

A child dressed like Mahatma Gandhi participates in a protest against the amended citizenship law.

Updated on Jan 12, 2020 12:34 IST

Tracing Japan’s engagement with modern India

In the 21st century, travel between countries has become easier than it ever was before. You come and go from a foreign land very quickly; and you breeze through the sites you wish to see quickly too. Hence the sort of Japanese tourist we Indians see rushing through the Taj Mahal, Ajanta and Ellora, the Victoria Memorial, Humayun’s Tomb, and a hundred other places

Updated on Dec 29, 2019 02:53 IST

From Indo-Pak to Chindia and back to Indo-Pak, writes Ramachandra Guha

Future historians may come to recognise August 5, 2019 as the day on which our political leaders decisively turned their back on the ideals of the Republic‘s founders

Updated on Dec 15, 2019 05:18 IST

Why the Gandhis cannot lead India’s Opposition, writes Ramachandra Guha

The longer the Congress remains a Family firm, the easier it will be for Narendra Modi to deflect criticism of his policies and remain not just in power, but in control of the political narrative

Updated on Jul 24, 2020 20:50 IST

How the government internationalised Kashmir

Their visit was sponsored by an NGO of uncertain origin and still more uncertain funding, but which nonetheless enjoys considerable influence in the corridors of power in New Delhi

Updated on Nov 2, 2019 14:39 IST

Lucky is the country without a glorious history, writes Ramachandra Guha

The incumbent prime minister, a Liberal, was being accused of hypocrisy because of an act of casual racism he had once committed

Updated on Oct 19, 2019 15:15 IST

The cities that shaped Gandhi, the cities that Gandhi shaped

Gandhi thought of the technique of non-violent resistance in Johannesburg; Bombay was the centre of his first major satyagraha; his most famous fasts were in Poona, Calcutta and Delhi; and he was deeply attached to Madras

Updated on Oct 5, 2019 11:20 IST

A biographer’s journey: In search of the Mahatma

Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru spinning, Delhi.

Updated on Oct 1, 2023 15:17 IST

Creating a cult of anti-Gandhis

The hardline Hindu Right’s new-found love for Subhas Chandra Bose and Bhagat Singh is not a product of a belated appreciation of their virtues. It is a product of their deep hatred of Gandhi

Updated on Sep 21, 2019 23:47 IST

The twelve Apostles of Gandhi

These Gandhians after Gandhi worked inside Government, seeking to humanise it. They worked in Opposition to Government, seeking to hold the ruling party to account.

Updated on Sep 25, 2019 16:31 IST

The many tragedies of the Kashmiri Pandits | Opinion

From being killed and forced to flee their homes to seeing their suffering being used, or misused, by Hindutva to gloss over its own anti-Muslim violence, the story of Kashmiri Pandits is tragic.

Updated on Sep 8, 2019 10:52 IST

The Netaji that Hindutva wants you to forget

Despite their differences on the question of violence, on the central themes of interfaith harmony, gender equality, and admiration for Mahatma Gandhi, Subhas Chandra Bose and Jawaharlal Nehru stood absolutely shoulder-to-shoulder

Updated on Aug 24, 2019 16:07 IST

Opinion | On J&K, Modi-Shah have emulated Nehru-Indira

Three facts about modern Kashmiri history are true. Pakistan has promoted violence; Kashmiris have not atoned for ethnic cleansing of Pandits; and the Indian State has been arbitrary and authoritarian. The first crime committed was the arrest of Sheikh Abdullah by the Jawaharlal Nehru government

Updated on Aug 10, 2019 12:52 IST

Remembering Kamal Joshi: A hillman and a true national hero

Kamal Joshi was deeply engaged with his society, seeking to rid it of suffering and injustice.

Updated on Jul 27, 2019 13:35 IST

Here is my all-time India One-Day Eleven

At number eight would be our wicket-keeper-batsman, MS Dhoni, whose third dimension here would be his supreme tactical skills. For this particular team must have Dhoni as captain, leaving Kohli and Kapil free to concentrate on their own game

Updated on Jul 13, 2019 13:27 IST

Writers who stood up for what they believed in

Apart from exchanging letters for many years, Rolland and Tagore met several times, in Europe. They got along very well; Rolland telling one mutual friend, the musician and mystic, Dilip Kumar Roy, that “no living artist has made on me such a pure and almost spiritual impression”

Updated on Jun 29, 2019 14:38 IST

Girish Karnad, the greatest Kannadiga of his age

Girish Karnad seeks blessing from fromer PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee before receiving the 34th Jnanpith Awards, New Delhi, 1999. We should remember Karnad as a great playwright and superb actor, and as a profoundly civilised human being

Updated on Jun 15, 2019 17:04 IST

Godse worship goes mainstream in India

Even while diminishing Gandhi’s role in the freedom struggle, the RSS was careful to distance itself from Godse. This may no longer be true

Updated on Jun 1, 2019 12:39 IST

Recalling Jawaharlal Nehru’s campaign in 1951-52

Jawaharlal Nehru addressing a mammoth election meeting at Golf Ground, Ahmedabad, 28 December 1951

Updated on May 18, 2019 12:28 IST

Meetings the patriots in deeds, not words

Among others, patriots such as Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel commanded an abiding respect among those who knew them

Updated on May 4, 2019 11:17 IST

Elections in 1951-52 and 2019: Not much difference

One area in which there has been progress rather than regress is in the counting of votes. With electronic voting machines (EVMs) in place, it is no longer so easy to manipulate ballots and ballot boxes

Updated on Apr 20, 2019 13:40 IST

Recovering the spirit of the Rowlatt Satyagraha, 100 years later

The spirit of inter-community solidarity that so strikingly suffused the Rowlatt Satyagraha was less visible in later movements led by Gandhi. This was a fact he recognised, and mourned, and his own last years were devoted to recovering that spirit

Updated on Apr 6, 2019 14:58 IST

Celebrating club cricket in Bengaluru

Among all of Keki Tarapore’s wards, none has achieved greater distinction than Rahul Dravid. Dravid now serves as BUCC’s honorary president

Updated on Mar 24, 2019 03:27 IST

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