The Search for the Historical Buddha
Arriving in the West in the 19th century, the Buddha of legend was stripped of supernatural myth and recast as a historical figure. What do we really know about him?
India
India’s Kuka Revolt Ends in Death
On 17 January 1872, 49 Namdhari Sikhs – dubbed ‘Kukas’ by the British – were executed by cannon, supposedly for spreading insurrection.
How Has Gandhi Influenced Indian History Since His Death?
Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated on 30 January 1948. As India has changed, so has his place in its history.
‘Shadows at Noon’ by Joya Chatterji review
Shadows at Noon: The South Asian Twentieth Century by Joya Chatterji is a gently revisionist account of an enduring, if ever-tottering, democracy.
‘Courting India’ by Nandini Das review
Courting India: England, Mughal India and the Origins of Empire by Nandini Das details the uncertainty, contingency and precarity of England’s imperial ambitions.
Treason of the Clerics
For 600 years Muslims held sway over the Indian subcontinent. Then democracy and a desultory leadership did them in.
Billiard Balls
What were Indian nationalists thinking?
The Nandi Bull
Two Hindu gods discover an abandoned child while following the wind’s path.
Zoroastrian Zeligs
Questioning the powerful Tata dynasty’s claims for a ‘different kind of capitalism’.
The Year of the Sepoy Revolt
How events in British India were leveraged in the debate over slavery.