On Sunday, January 23, India reported more than 333,000 active COVID cases while the official number of fatalities surpassed 500 deaths. What is the state of COVID in India today? ... Read more
On Sunday, January 23, India reported more than 333,000 active COVID cases while the official number of fatalities surpassed 500 deaths. What is the state of COVID in India today? What lessons has this pandemic imparted? And what, if anything, does COVID mean for the future of economics and politics in the country. To discuss these questions and to kick off the seventh season of the podcast, Milan speaks with Sukumar Ranganathan, editor-in-chief of the Hindustan Times, on the show this week. Milan asks Sukumar to assess India’s COVID response, the impact the pandemic has had on federalism, and whether India’s economy has turned a corner. Plus, Milan and Sukumar discuss whether COVID has fundamentally changed India’s future economic and political trajectories. Read more
This week, we conclude Season Six of Grand Tamasha with a bang. Before Milan was a podcast host, he was a podcast consumer. And two of his favorite India podcasts are “The Seen and ... Read more
This week, we conclude Season Six of Grand Tamasha with a bang. Before Milan was a podcast host, he was a podcast consumer. And two of his favorite India podcasts are “The Seen and the Unseen” with Amit Varma and “Ideas of India” with Shruti Rajagopalan. So, what better way to end our season than with a massive mash-up of three leading India podcasts. Amit and Shruti join Milan on the show this week to discuss the relevance of Lant Pritchett’s popular characterization of India as a “flailing state” and whether there is such a thing as the “Modi economic doctrine” eight years into his prime ministership. Plus, the three discuss the art and science of podcasting. Grand Tamasha will be taking a little holiday break, but we will be back in late January with a new season of insightful conversations on Indian politics and policy. Stay tuned for more information about our new season! Read more
Shrayana Bhattacharya joins Milan this week to talk about her new book on Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan and his influence on women’s empowerment in India. Most of our listen ... Read more
Shrayana Bhattacharya joins Milan this week to talk about her new book on Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan and his influence on women’s empowerment in India. Most of our listeners do not need an introduction to the Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan. You’ve watched his movies. You’ve sung the songs his films have popularized. You might even have had his poster on your wall growing up. A new book by the economist Shrayana Bhattacharya, Desperately Seeking Shah Rukh: India's Lonely Young Women and the Search for Intimacy and Independence, describes another role that Shah Rukh has fulfilled: he has been the north star for women across India as they search for intimacy, independence, and empowerment. Shrayana joins Milan on the podcast to discuss her new book—which is part economics tract, part reportage, part social commentary, and part feminist call to arms. Milan and Shrayana discuss how Shah Rukh has become a female (but not feminist icon), the economics behind the lack of women’s agency in India, and her own struggles with love and loneliness. Plus, the two discuss the mysteries of the Delhi social scene and the ways government policy can help challenge conservative, patriarchal social norms. Read more
Ambassador Nirupama Rao has had the kind of career that every Indian Foreign Service aspirant dreams of. In 2011, she retired as foreign secretary to the Government of India, the m ... Read more
Ambassador Nirupama Rao has had the kind of career that every Indian Foreign Service aspirant dreams of. In 2011, she retired as foreign secretary to the Government of India, the most senior position in the foreign service. She has served as spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs, ambassador to Sri Lanka, ambassador to China, and ambassador to the United States of America. She is also the author of a new book, The Fractured Himalaya: India Tibet China, 1949-62. The book is a deep dive into one of the most consequential periods of India-China relations—a period whose repercussions are felt even today. Ambassador Rao joins Milan on the podcast this week to discuss Nehru’s long fascination with China, his inability to settle India’s border dispute with China, and his “flawed heroic” character. Plus, the two discuss the current state of border tensions and the deep roots of China’s infrastructure advantage in the Himalayas. Read more
In September 2020, India’s Parliament passed three farm reform bills that the government claimed would radically change the way in which agriculture was practised in the country. Y ... Read more
In September 2020, India’s Parliament passed three farm reform bills that the government claimed would radically change the way in which agriculture was practised in the country. Yet, just over twelve months later, the same government announced its intention to repeal those laws—a major concession to large-scale, dogged protests launched by farmers in northern India. The repeal of the farm reform laws, hailed by many observers as a short-term victory for struggling farmers, has also raised complex questions about the future of agriculture in a rapidly urbanizing India. To consider some of these questions, Milan is joined on the podcast this week by Harish Damodaran. Harish is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research in Delhi where he is enjoying a sabbatical from his day job as National Rural Affairs and Agriculture Editor at The Indian Express. Harish and Milan talk about the state of Indian agriculture, the motivations behind the farm reform laws, and the complex reasons the government eventually withdrew them. Plus, the two discuss the next stage of farmers’ demands and what this setback does to the larger push for agrarian reform. Read more
We are nearly done with our sixth season of Grand Tamasha and we have been shamefully overdue in scheduling a news round-up for the Fall. To set things straight and to discuss the ... Read more
We are nearly done with our sixth season of Grand Tamasha and we have been shamefully overdue in scheduling a news round-up for the Fall. To set things straight and to discuss the latest news coming out of India, Milan is joined on the podcast this week by Grand Tamasha regulars Sadanand Dhume of AEI and the Wall Street Journal and Tanvi Madan of the Brookings Institution. The three discuss the Modi government’s abrupt about-turn on the farm law bills, the perilous state of China-India relations, and new murmurs out of Delhi on the trade policy front. Plus, Tanvi, Sadanand, and Milan discuss three stories coming out of India that podcast regulars should be following. Read more
After two, torturous weeks of around-the-clock negotiations at the COP26 Summit in Glasgow, Scotland, diplomats from nearly 200 countries agreed to accelerate their commitments to ... Read more
After two, torturous weeks of around-the-clock negotiations at the COP26 Summit in Glasgow, Scotland, diplomats from nearly 200 countries agreed to accelerate their commitments to reduce carbon emissions, phase out fossil fuels, and ramp up aid to poor countries, many of whom are the biggest victims of the climate crisis. However, not everyone is pleased with the outcome in Glasgow. Climate experts point out that the accord will not put the world on track to avoid catastrophic warming beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius. To discuss the Glasgow accord, India’s commitments, and the questions that remain, Milan is joined on the show this week by Navroz Dubash, a professor at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi and a veteran energy and climate scholar, policy adviser, and activist. Navroz and Milan discuss the big takeaways from COP26, India’s surprise net-zero pledge, and an eleventh hour fracas over language on coal. Plus, the two discuss the credibility deficit plaguing the United States’ climate diplomacy. Read more
For more than fifteen years, the scholar Mukulika Banerjee has been deeply embedded in the social and political life of two villages in the state of West Bengal—studying developmen ... Read more
For more than fifteen years, the scholar Mukulika Banerjee has been deeply embedded in the social and political life of two villages in the state of West Bengal—studying developments there, both during elections and between them. Her new book, “Cultivating Democracy: Politics and Citizenship in Agrarian India,” is a deeply researched study of Indian democracy that shows how agrarian life creates values of citizenship and active engagement that are essential for the cultivation of democracy. Mukulika Banerjee is an associate professor in social anthropology at the London School of Economics, and she joins Milan on the podcast this week to discuss the importance of India’s status as a “republic,” what B.R. Ambedkar got wrong about rural life, and popular misconceptions about agriculture. Plus, the two discuss the evolution of Bengali politics and the regional roots of illiberalism. Read more
On February 14, 2019, a suicide bomber crashed into an Indian paramilitary convoy in Pulwama, Kashmir, killing forty Indian soldiers. The attack was the deadliest assault on Indian ... Read more
On February 14, 2019, a suicide bomber crashed into an Indian paramilitary convoy in Pulwama, Kashmir, killing forty Indian soldiers. The attack was the deadliest assault on Indian security personnel in Kashmir in three decades and captured the attention of domestic and international headlines. It also led to a nationalist fervour that fueled, in part, the BJP’s dramatic reelection just months later in the 2019 general election. How did the attack take place? Who were the masterminds of the operation? And how does this attack fit into a decades-long story of terrorism, militancy, and spycraft that has come to define the contemporary politics of Kashmir? These questions are clinically addressed in a new book by the journalist Rahul Pandita, The Lover Boy of Bahawalpur: How the Pulwama Case was Cracked. This week, Rahul joins Milan on the show to discuss the inside story of the Pulwama attacks, the Indian investigation into the attack’s masterminds, and India’s retaliatory airstrikes on Pakistani territory. Plus, the two discuss the legacy of the Modi government’s abrogation of Article 370 and the nature of the terrorism threat in Kashmir today. Read more
This week on the show, Milan sits down with Levy to discuss the secret world of South Asia’s top spies. The two discuss the different trajectories of the ISI and RAW, the defining ... Read more
This week on the show, Milan sits down with Levy to discuss the secret world of South Asia’s top spies. The two discuss the different trajectories of the ISI and RAW, the defining character of India’s current National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, the roots of turmoil in Kashmir, and the long shadow of the IC 814 hijacking. Plus, Milan asks Adrian about the terror outlook for India in the wake of America’s Afghanistan exit. Read more
