Choking the corals

How to find enemies and influence people

Your adversary can be your strongest ally if only you can show the real depths of his capacity for evil.

The expressway to doom

The latest IPCC report paints a grim picture: Earth is warming faster than anticipated, and even a 1.5C rise in temperatures by 2030-2052 will end up drowning small island nations.

‘Memories are creative, but history is not’

The genius of Indian literature is narrative not reflection, according to Chandrasekhar Kambar who feels trying to emulate the west alienates us from our own world of lived experience.

Wrestle mania in Kutch

The Maaldharis take part in their annual games in the Banni grasslands.

The one tongue for tea

It is a language that grew out of necessity but Sadri is an indispensable link between the linguistic groups that live and work in the tea gardens of the northeast.

New riffs in movie land

Behind the tocsin of faith

A register most flawed

The foreigner debate in Assam is devoid of reason, with unreliable data, a tie-up with Ahom history that is more fiction than reality leading to an exercise that divides rather than clarifies.

The Bhagat Singh of letters

Historian S. Irfan Habib on the intellectual legacy of the revolutionary, the many shades of the freedom movement, and the nationalism of history writers.

China's belt loses its charm

The world’s biggest ever infrastructure initiative is attracting increasing flak but its author, China, seems undeterred by the controversy.

The unknown Indian

No one knew of Sanjay Pradhan’s death. He was just one of the millions who traverse the country, working where they can, building a nation and dying alone.

The Mahua story

Modern times and an iconic brew.

The road downhill

The Telangana and Andhra road transport corporations rake up losses and cut corners on passenger and crew safety.

The importance of being Baloch

Balochistan is Pakistan’s most restive province For India it is a constant temptation. While military intervention is off the table there are opportunities to neutralise Pakistan's terror threat.

The complex business of predicting a flood

It happens every year during the monsoon but there’s precious little planning for the kind of deluge that hit Kerala.

In the black hole

India has four million drug addicts, one million hooked to heroin. One in five of the latter is a minor. The story of Arman, an 11-year-old who can’t do without his fix.