The India Forum

1 month ago | theindiaforum.in | Partha Pratim Ray |Parthapratim Pal |Sandeep Bhardwaj

United States President Donald Trump has emerged as an essential ingredient of a VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous) world, characterising the present state of the global economy. Trump has made a number of statements and taken decisions that defy traditional economic logic, in the process undermining the global economic order put in place at the end of World War II. Is the old liberal order then going to be replaced by the new mercantilist policies of trade war and tariff arsenals?

1 month ago | theindiaforum.in | Ashish Kothari |Ramachandra Guha

Ramachandra Guha’s return to writing on environmental matters is to be celebrated. Over the last couple of decades, he has mostly applied his skill for uncovering historical insights and conducting sharp analysis to myriad other topics, including the life of M.K. Gandhi, recent Indian history, and cricket. Before that, his work on ecological history (alone and with Madhav Gadgil) brought refreshing accounts that gave us new insights.

1 month ago | theindiaforum.in | Aamir Raza |Ramachandra Guha |Sunil Kumar

What is the relationship between the Indian state and its Muslim minority? In Practices of the State: Muslims, Law and Violence in India, Tanweer Fazal argues that the Indian state has constructed and maintained a monolithic image of Muslims. This “state-sponsored identity,” as he describes it, is central to understanding the nature of violence and discrimination faced by Muslims in India.

2 months ago | theindiaforum.in | Sandeep Bhardwaj |Ramachandra Guha |Sunil Kumar

Since the turn of the century, the assertion that India is on its way to becoming a great power has become a cliché. The media is saturated with triumphalist narratives of India’s growing influence and status in the world. A vast majority of policymakers, academics, and analysts across the globe use the terms 'rising power' or 'emerging nation' to describe it. The claim has wide policy implications, especially in a world anticipating major shifts in the balance of power in the coming decades.

2 months ago | theindiaforum.in | Sunil S. Amrith |Ramachandra Guha |Gita Ramaswamy

The first substantive chapter of Sunil Amrith’s magnificent new book starts in the China of the 13th century, ‘the largest, most populous, and wealthiest agrarian state the world had ever known’. China’s rise had been fostered over the past two centuries by more productive means of rice cultivation. Soon, by relying on better techniques of growing wheat instead, Europe also witnessed a surge in human prosperity and human numbers.