Author: EconHistorienne
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Indian campuses get a foreign flavour
Opportunity brought Tatiana Alejandra Cardona to Phagwara, 335km north of New Delhi. This past summer, during her arduous search for a job, Cardona, who hails from Colombia, stumbled upon an online advertisement for faculty positions at Lovely Professional University (LPU), a private institution. Cardona, who is 23, recalls that “the university appeared very big”, and…
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Jamia Millia fights to preserve secular spirit
In just a fortnight, Jamia Nagar, best known as the host of the historic Jamia Millia Islamia, has become a world of fear. The realization hit A.K. Ramakrishnan, a professor at the university’s Centre for West Asian studies, after 19 September. That’s when bullets fired by the police at Batla House, one of the several…
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25 years on, what’s next for Mayawati?
Kairana, Muzaffarnagar: The young lady was dark, dressed in a salwar-suit, and had been through college —a rarity for a Dalit woman 25 years ago (as was the dress itself). Khem Chand remembers the day in December the lady, a candidate in the parliamentary elections, came campaigning in the Al Darmiyan area of Kairana where…
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Government’s madrasa reform plan hits theological hurdle
The impasse over a government proposal to modernize madrasas, or traditional Islamic schools, illustrates how a “minority mindset” imposed by the ulema, or clergy, and politicians could draw Muslims deeper into the morass of conservatism, poverty and unemployment. Fostering education: (from left) Shafiqur Rahman, Abdul Khan, Afaque Rahmani and Salim Akhtar Bellali at a New…
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Not enough teachers to educate India
Roop Singh Taroke, huddled in the back rows of a damp and congested classroom, drew a blank at the mention of a geometry box and looked to his teacher for help. At the upper primary school in Amazhir village, only 30 students out of the 180 enrolled in classes I to VIII had turned up…
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The management of Bihar
At Patna’s congested Dak Bunglow intersection, where maddening traffic throbs like the impatient pulse of its people, a life-size billboard dazzles passers-by, announcing an ambitious venture: a “world-class business school for transforming Bihar”. The plan for the proposed transformation is simple: The B-school will help students set up new ventures, consult and collaborate with public…
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The roads more travelled
By any measure that day in May, at the peak of summer, was an important one for Nawada, one of Bihar’s 37 districts. The bridge over the teeming Sakri river at Kadirganj block opened that day and soon enough two decisions on either side of the river, though seemingly disparate, were taken. In Kadirganj, on…
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Bihar sees a growing tribe of rural migrants
Amipur may be a small dot along the national highway from Patna to Nawada, but its ambitions are big. In the 50-odd households in the village, sparsely populated and rife with an uneasy quiet, most men have left for work outside Bihar. Siyaram Chauhan is the one who returned. He was rescued last month by…
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Bihar sees reverse brain drain
It was perhaps the worst of times. With the fall of night, Patna would blanket itself in a pall of darkness, interrupted occasionally by traffic thinning rapidly with each passing hour. Downed shutters in shops would signal fearful business, rickshaws would accept no late evening passengers and women and children would be home before sunset.…
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In this book of history, you are the hero
Shubhashree Sangameswaran was a software engineer, decoding programming questions with her technical expertise and poise. Then she became a life chronicler. One fine day in Bangalore, where pleasant weather makes up for the congestion on roads, she began to unravel human hearts. Preservation movement: Founder of My Life Chronicles and personal historian Sumit Chowdhury (right)…
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The girl with the peacock tattoo
One evening in February last year, a girl raised many eyebrows in the conservative Jat neighbourhood of Matiala in west Delhi. She was returning home from work when a group of young men passed lewd comments. Almost in a rage, the girl hopped off her autorickshaw and grabbed one of the boys by his collar.…
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Theatre | Hullabaloo in the hinterland
Fringe groups from small towns are revving up the theatre scene with themes that have mass appeal
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Delhi’s Belly | An equal music
As the first batch of girls graduate from one of the Walled City’s oldest schools, it prepares for more change
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Holidays by Shatabdi | On a train, spotting birds, scaling mountains
Trains carry a nostalgic value, relics of a childhood when holidays began and ended with rail journeys. The Shatabdis, Indian Railways’ super-fast trains that connect the metros to tourist, pilgrimage and business centres, still retain that quintessential charm, says Lonely Planet’s latest travel guide. In a pocketbook format, Holidays by Shatabdi lists 30 possible great…
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Vanessa Able | Freewheeling around India
Vanessa Able travelled around India in a Tata Nano in 2010 and wrote her book ‘The Nanologues’
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A disciple’s tribute to Pandit Birju Maharaj
Kathak exponent Saswati Sen on her memoir on Pandit Birju Maharaj and how the maestro gave the dance form a lyrical beauty
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Book Review | Manoj and Babli: A Hate Story
chilling account of an ‘honour killing’ exposes some brutal truths about contemporary India
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Omair Ahmad | ‘Objectivity is a dream’
The author balances myths, history and politics in his new book on Bhutan
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Book Review | A Matter of Rats
Unruly rats, all-pervasive filth and old myths in an engaging biography of Patna
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True Stories: Reconstructing Sonali Mukherjee
She has undergone 25 surgeries in 10 years and excruciating pain just to look human again. The acid attack survivor still walks a tightrope between life and death
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#Elections2019: How two Delhi constituencies voted
Everyone loves Sunday mornings. In this part of the national capital, young men and women find time for fitness. Their morning runs on this day have become early noon jogs on tree-lined streets; the tree branches mask their sweaty faces from the blistering summer sun. A few cyclists compete with cars driving out of the…
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INS Viraat controversy: how the Indian media kept discrediting itself
The only way to tackle the intrusion of the past in the political debate of today is to discuss it—to explain the myths or facts that exist and to confront them with the right questions and a dogged pursuit of the truth. Journalists are primary witnesses of history when it’s made. There are enormous dangers…
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