The European Jesuits who championed Vedanta: Challenging the ‘outsider’ myth of Indian Christianity Subscriber Only

A group of highly educated Jesuits once championed Indian languages, classical texts, and philosophical traditions, asserting that one could be a culturally rooted Indian nationalist while remaining within the Catholic faith.

Statute and society: What Maharashtra’s 80 repealed laws say about who we were under our colonial masters Subscriber Only

Maharashtra has repealed 80 obsolete Acts and buried in them is a history of opium dens, flogging courts, leprosy asylums and wartime grain control

Rethinking Wajid Ali Shah, more than a ‘debauched king’

Drawing from rare documents, Wajid Ali Shah: A Cultural and Literary Legacy reconstructs the life of Wajid Ali Shah, who was not only a patron of music and the arts but also a poet, dramatist,

How World War 1 redrew Persian Gulf’s map and why Trump’s South Pars threat echoes a century of conflict Subscriber Only

For over 5,000 years, the Persian Gulf has been a hub of civilisation. From Elam and Sumer to the Assyrians and Babylonians, ancient societies thrived along its shores, trading and connecting with coastal communities.

‘He was passionately committed to nonviolence’: Rajmohan Gandhi on James Lawson, who brought Satyagraha to the US civil rights movement Subscriber Only

In ‘James Lawson: The teacher of Satyagraha’, author Rajmohan Gandhi throws light on a key figure in the American civil rights movement and his reverence towards Mahatma Gandhi.

How Shi’ism in India evolved differently from the rest of the Shia Muslim world Subscriber Only

Although a minority, Indian Shias maintained cultural influence through connections with ruling dynasties, balancing local customs with ties to broader Shia networks in Iraq and Iran. They saw a significant shift in identity following the

A German school and the untold history of Berlin’s century-old ties with Bombay Subscriber Only

Founded in 1960, the Deutsche Schule Bombay was the realisation of a long-cherished dream of the German diaspora in the city.

Author Daneesh Majid on Hyderabad, the Gulf dream, and an identity under strain Subscriber Only

The author of The Hyderabadis on the Shia roots of the Old City, the slow collapse of the Gulf dream, and whether a composite culture can survive the pressures closing in on it.

Trade, language, and shared identities: How an ancient world linked India and Iran thousands of years ago Subscriber Only

Today, India, despite global scrutiny, has maintained a principled partnership with Iran, balancing its energy and strategic interests with Western diplomacy.

US strike on IRIS Dena and the memory of a German warship shelling Madras Subscriber Only

In September 1914, Captain Karl von Müller, who was in charge of ‘SMS Emden’, ordered an attack on several large oil tanks in Madras—a bombardment that was a severe blow to British morale.

What ‘martyrdom’ means in Iran: From Karbala to Khamenei Subscriber Only

Rooted in Shiism, the official religion of the Islamic Republic, martyrdom is not merely a theological concept but a powerful strand in the country’s collective memory and political imagination.

The forgotten story of Yankee merchants: America’s first trade connection with India Subscriber Only

US trade with India began immediately after America’s independence from Britain in 1783, when American shipowners could trade directly with the East.

How Bankim Chandra’s Anandamath shaped the debate over Vande Mataram Subscriber Only

The political debate around Vande Mataram cannot be understood without revisiting Anandamath, the 1882 novel by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay that embedded the song within a larger nationalist narrative set during the 18th-century Sanyasi Rebellion.

Meet ‘Capital’, the forgotten Kolkata newspaper that invented business journalism in India Subscriber Only

From 1888 to 1979, ‘Capital’ reported on trade, production, taxation, infrastructure, labour relations, and politics with balanced authority and clarity.

Aminia Restaurant: From a tiny food cart in 1929 to a biryani institution in Kolkata Subscriber Only

Aminia’s legacy traces its roots to Dariabad, a small town near Lucknow, says Kabir Azhar, the fourth-generation owner of the iconic Kolkata restaurant.

Jesse Jackson: The Civil Rights icon who popularised the term ‘African American’ over ‘Black’ Subscriber Only

Born in 1941, Jesse Jackson emerged as a civil rights leader, shaped by the principles of Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi

The forgotten Danish colony in India: How Tranquebar became Denmark’s foothold in Tamil Nadu Subscriber Only

An expedition meant to challenge the Portuguese in Sri Lanka instead left behind a Protestant church, a Tamil printing press, and a marginal empire in Tranquebar.

Jamini Sen: The forgotten Indian doctor who became Glasgow’s first female fellow Subscriber Only

Deepta Roy Chakraverti’s ‘Daktarin Jamini Sen’ traces Jamini Sen’s journey from her birth in a Bengal village to her rise as one of British India’s first female doctors.

How a 500-year-old British school found a new home in the heart of India Subscriber Only

Founded in 1552 by King Edward VI in the United Kingdom, Shrewsbury School opened its fully boarding international campus in Bhopal last year.

The king’s lover and a devil, a spotted monster: Why the 17th century needed the Duke of Buckingham to die Subscriber Only

Hated in his lifetime and celebrated in death, the Duke of Buckingham became the convenient villain through whom England learned to criticise power without naming the king.

Weapon of peace or trade war? Trump slashes India tariffs to 18% in historic deal. But the Founding Fathers might disagree Subscriber Only

While Trump described the reduction of tariffs on Indian goods as an act of reciprocity, an idea rooted in early American trade policy, the First Tariff Act of 1789 treated reciprocity as a safeguard against

Echoes of history: Before Sunetra Pawar, VN Janaki was sworn in as Tamil Nadu CM after MGR’s death Subscriber Only

Vaikom Narayani Janaki served as the chief minister of Tamil Nadu for 23 days in 1988 following the death of her husband, M G Ramachandran (MGR).

Book excerpt: How Sikkim went from kingdom to Indian state Subscriber Only

Akhilesh Upadhyay’s book, In the Margins of Empires: A History of the Chicken’s Neck, spotlights the borderland people of the eastern Himalayan region who find themselves caught in the crosscurrents of larger geopolitical rivalries.

From Opium Wars to 1962 Tezpur invasion, Shehnab Sahin opens a fictional window to Assam’s forgotten history Subscriber Only

Shehnab Sahin’s short story collection, ‘Colour My Grave Purple and Other Stories’, seeks to expand Assam’s narrative beyond insurgency and AFSPA.

‘Ireland was laboratory for the Empire’: Jane Ohlmeyer on India, Ireland and British rule Subscriber Only

Historian Jane Ohlmeyer reflects on the long and uneasy connections between Ireland and India under British rule, from shared imperial structures and Irish participation in empire to partition, migration, and the politics of historical memory.