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India’s Nuclear Posturing
India’s former foreign secretary and current member of the National Security Advisory Board, Shyam Saran, declared a few days ago that even the smallest of nuclear attacks by Pakistan on India would be met with a massive response. This statement is interesting for multiple reasons, not the least of which is from...
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Book review: Le miasme et la jonquille
Le miasme et la jonquille: L’odorat et l’imaginaire social, XVIIIe-XIXe siècles by Alain Corbin. Alain Corbin nobly wants to rescue the sense of smell from its ignored position as a baser and less important sense, and put it in its rightful place in the narrative of modern French history....
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China – The nature of the dragon
On April 15, Chinese troops of about a platoon’s strength crossed the Line of Actual Control that separates India from Tibet and penetrated 10 kms into India with helicopter support and set up a frontier post. Not surprisingly, China has denied the entire incident, accusing India instead of “aggressive patrolling.” The pattern...
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The Prodigal State: India’s New Nuclear Clothes
E debbasi considerare come non è cosa più difficile a trattare, né più dubia a riuscire, né più pericolosa a maneggiare, che farsi capo ad introdurre nuovi ordini – Niccolò Machiavelli1 …when these matters are discussed by practical people, the standard of justice depends on the equality of power to...
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The Price of Failure
Early this week, news broke that China would provide Pakistan with Chashma-5, a 1000-MW Pressurised Water Reactor. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei, not surprisingly, rejected the notion that Beijing stood in violation of several Nuclear Suppliers Group and International Atomic Energy Agency norms, claiming that Sino-Pakistani nuclear cooperation was only for peaceful purposes. The Chashma Nuclear Power...
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Lamb Biryani
The biryani has its origins in Persia, now Iran, and was brought to India by the Mughals in the sixteenth century. The etymology of the name for the dish comes from the Persian word, بریان (biryani), which means “fried.” Apparently, chefs in Safavid Iran used to fry rice in clarified butter and...
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Diplomatic Immunity or Impunity?
In the latest development of the Italian Marines case, the Supreme Court of India ordered the Italian Ambassador, Daniele Mancini, not to leave the country. This order, which is supposed to be in effect until March 18, is probably to give the SCI time to decide whether it wants to...
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The Italian Job
The perfidy of the Italian government in the case of two of its marines detained in India for the charge of murder has stunned most observers. Under the pretext of exercising their suffrage, the Supreme Court of India allowed Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone to return to Italy for a period of...
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The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (in India)
<SPOOF – OR IS IT?> Do you want fame and success in India? It is not that hard if you know what to do. Here are seven simple techniques that can make your career more fulfilling and make you more popular than ever before! 1. Become a socialist If you...
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The Jewel and the Crown
The visit of Prime Minister David Cameron of the United Kingdom to India in the immediate footsteps of French President François Hollande generated less excitement. Part of it was certainly the more glamorous recent French sales of high-tech weaponry and nuclear reactors, but there was the palpable sense that the South Asia behemoth had...
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Group Identities in Liberal Democracies
The Indian Express carried a series of articles recently about group identities and rights in a liberal democracy. Ignoring the by now familiar inanities about a much-analysed politician from western India, it was interesting to note that no author had bothered to address a most important construct: the nation. Fashionably considered archaic in some circles, the...
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A Candle for Indo-French Relations
Thomas Jefferson, the third US president, is supposed to have remarked that France is every man’s second country. India’s tryst with France has had to wait much past the late 18th century, but now, the two states seem to want to make up for lost time, and with gusto. In...
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In the Dragon’s Shadow
The notion of a string of pearls (SOP) – strategic assets cultivated by China around India’s peripheries – was first put forward by a team of Booz Allen consultants to the Pentagon in 2003. One has come to expect any strategic vision about South Asia, accurate or otherwise, to emanate...
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The Hot Air Industry
My recent post on India’s allodoxaphobia highlighted a critical failure of the Indian government to create, nurture, and profit from think tanks and the disastrous consequences therefrom. The lack of trustworthy information and failure to declassify government records certainly has a disproportionately large impact on development. However, that should not be an...