Articles

An Agenda for Living Together

Ram Madhav, September 1, 2022

(They article was originally published in the India Foundation Journal on August 31, 2022. Views expressed are personal.) India is a land of extreme diversity – in language, social order, cuisine, customs and religion. Over millennia, it mastered the art of managing that diversity and maintaining unity. “Samaano Mantrah Samitih Samaani Samaanam Manas Saha-Chittamesham” –  […]

RSS and Freedom Movement

Ram Madhav, August 18, 2022

(The article was originally published in Malayala Manorama Magazine on August 15, 2022. Views expressed are personal.) India’s independence movement had many small and big streams flowing parallel to each other. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) too was one such stream. Dr K B Hedgewar, the founder of RSS was a prominent Congress leader in […]

The Seed of Communalis

Ram Madhav, August 10, 2022

(The article was originally published by OPEN Magazine on August 10, 2022. Views expressed are personal.) Jinnah became even more bitter as Gandhi gained in stature India’s freedom and its partition happened at the same time. On that fateful midnight of August 14, 1947, not one but two independent nations were born. It was not […]

Droupadi Murmu, a president for our time

Ram Madhav, July 21, 2022

(The article was originally published by Indian Express on July 21, 2022. Views expressed are personal.) There is much to celebrate in the election of Droupadi Murmu as the 15th President of India in the Amrit Mahotsav year of independence. In Murmu, the country not only has a Santhal tribal woman as the head of […]

How India needs to deal with the Ukraine question

Ram Madhav, July 12, 2022

(The article was originally published in Indian Express on July 12, 2022. Views expressed are personal.) Indians were great warriors. From the epics to history, India’s story is full of wars and conquests. Empire building was seen as a virtue, through concepts like the Rajasuya. Over millennia, the concept of “dharma yuddh” (just war), a […]

Is the die cast for Taliban? | OPINION

Ram Madhav, July 9, 2022

(The article was originally published by India Today on July 9, 2022. Views expressed are personal.) Loya Jirga or Grand Assembly of religious leaders and elders, elected at the local levels, is the Afghan traditional democratic assembly system, in vogue for several centuries. In the Afghan political system, ratification by the Loya Jirga was considered […]

The Battle for Religious Reform

Ram Madhav, June 30, 2022

(The article was originally published in OPEN Magazine on June 30, 2022. Views expressed are personal.) Someone needs to challenge the radical and revisionist interpretations of Islam The horror of Udaipur is a chilling reminder of the deep penetration of Islamist radicalism among the Indian Muslim youth. Hindu–Muslim tensions have a history of more than […]

Modi juggernaut might continue to roll on for many years to come

Ram Madhav, June 7, 2022

(The article was originally published in Times of India on June 7, 2022. Views expressed are personal.) Politics is about leadership and narrative. Jawahar Lal Nehru, the longest serving Prime Minister of India, who held that portfolio for seventeen years – “six thousand days” as Amiya Rao and B G Rao called in their book […]

A Nation-First Narrative

Ram Madhav, April 23, 2022

(The article was originally published by India Today on April 23, 2022. Views expressed are personal.) Access PDF here  In the 1980s, Deng Xiaoping, the then supreme leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), dec­ided to focus exclusively on economic development. He realised that for the China dream to come true, the economy, shattered by […]