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The Dynasty and the Darkness
India’s tryst with authoritarianism during the Emergency remains a lesson in the dangers of dynastic politics and constitutional...

Akhilesh Sinha
Jun 253 min read


The Unsung Saviours of Democracy: the RSS and The Emergency
While liberal academics and Congress loyalists paint the RSS as reactionary, it was the Sangh’s disciplined underground network that...

Kiran D. Tare
Jun 255 min read


Persian Entanglements: How Israel and Iran went from covert allies to existential enemies
In the final part of this series, we trace the forgotten Cold War alliance between Iran, Israel, and the U.S. and their lasting political...

Shoumojit Banerjee
Jun 235 min read


Deir Yassin and the Invention of Israel’s ‘Original Sin’
In this series, we examine some of the most enduring myths surrounding the Arab-Israeli conflict by tracing their historical roots and...

Shoumojit Banerjee
Jun 225 min read


Founding Fictions: Israel, Colonialism and the Weaponisation of History
In this series, we examine some of the most enduring myths surrounding the Arab-Israel conflict by tracing their historical roots and...

Shoumojit Banerjee
Jun 215 min read


Unyielding Flame
On the 167th death anniversary of Rani Laxmibai, India remembers the woman who dared the world’s mightiest empire. On a dusty plain...

Amit Bhowmik
Jun 183 min read


The Geometry of Resistance: How Algeria’s FLN, Spain’s ETA and Sri Lanka’s Tigers reshaped the asymmetric battlefield
Our series on asymmetric warfare revisits pivotal moments in modern history when underdogs rewrote the rules of war, and forced...

Shoumojit Banerjee
Jun 115 min read


An Empire’s Shadow War: How the IRA mastered asymmetry in Britain’s backyard
Our series on asymmetric warfare revisits pivotal moments in modern history when underdogs rewrote the rules of war, and forced...

Shoumojit Banerjee
Jun 105 min read


Black Hawk Upended: For America, Mogadishu Proved the Intervention That Wasn’t
Our series on asymmetric warfare revisits pivotal moments in modern history when underdogs rewrote the rules of war, and forced...

Shoumojit Banerjee
Jun 95 min read


The First Drone War? When the Mujahideen bled the Soviet Bear
Our series on asymmetric warfare revisits pivotal moments in modern history when underdogs rewrote the rules of war, and forced...

Shoumojit Banerjee
Jun 85 min read


The Valley That Killed an Empire
Our series on asymmetric warfare revisits pivotal moments in modern history when underdogs rewrote the rules of war and forced...

Shoumojit Banerjee
Jun 74 min read


Maratha Murder Most Foul: Raghoba and the Fall of the House of Bhat
In Dr. Uday S. Kulkarni’s hands, the 1773 assassination of Peshwa Narayan Rao becomes a window into Maratha power politics, imperial...

Shoumojit Banerjee
Jun 25 min read


Marching Blind: Why Pakistan’s Generals Keep Misreading India
Every time Pakistan’s military elite tries to bleed India, it ends up slashing its own wrist. In his classic treatise On War (1832), the...

Shoumojit Banerjee
May 65 min read


History’s Longest Shadow, Clio’s Endless War
Eighty years after VE Day, the Second World War continues to be rewritten. It is the war that has never ended, at least not for...

Shoumojit Banerjee
May 35 min read


The Storm at Europe’s Gates
Nearly 800 years ago to this month, in the spring of 1241, the Mongol armies surged into Europe like a flood without banks. Two battles,...

Shoumojit Banerjee
Apr 193 min read


The German Decline in a Czech Mirror
In the contrast between Prague’s civility and Berlin’s malaise lies the tale of two post-totalitarian nations and the leaders who shaped...

Christoph Ernst
Apr 154 min read


The Boy Who Would Not Bow
A forgotten martyr from Sialkot whose defiance shaped the soul of Punjab. The year was 1734. In the town of Sialkot, nestled in what is...

Rajeev Puri
Apr 123 min read


Blueprint for a Divided World
Seventy-seven years ago on April 3, 1948, the United States under President Harry Truman did something unprecedented in the history of...

Shoumojit Banerjee
Apr 73 min read


Khanwa 1527: The Clash That Could Have Stopped the Mughals
The Battle of Khanwa was a defining moment in Indian history. Had the Rajputs under Rana Sanga triumphed, the Mughal empire might never...

Shoumojit Banerjee
Mar 295 min read


The ‘Triumph’ of Panipat: Why Jitendra Awhad Gets It Wrong?
The Third Battle of Panipat was no lamentable defeat but a testament to Maratha courage that shaped India’s history.

Kiran D. Tare
Mar 274 min read
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