Raghu Karnad

Gandhi’s​ adversaries seem to have prevailed. The last generation of his disciples is dying off, and his pedestal can now be dismantled. In the LRB in 2012, Perry Anderson could still describe a reverent consensus around the Mahatma, which he then assailed with a catalogue of Gandhi’s missteps and obdurate follies. In 2014, Arundhati Roy wrote an introduction to Annihilation of...

Ihid​ the covers of the books I read about Savarkar for this piece. I wanted to be able to read in public without worrying about the judgment of strangers; without looking like another affluent Hindu man being red-pilled into ancestral resentments. I was wary of being seen reading about Savarkar and wary of writing about him. The former might upset anyone who saw me; the latter might upset...

According​ to the Mahabharata, the legendary city of Indraprastha was founded by the five Pandava brothers for their queen, Draupadi. Its wide streets and orchards surrounded a palatial hall, built by the demon-architect Maya, which appeared ‘like a mass of new clouds conspicuous in the sky’. The hall was ‘so rich and well built’ that it rivalled the celestial home...