India
Will ‘The Seeker’ find the truth about the Covid lab leaks?
At the Royal Calcutta Turf Club, where ghosts of British nabobs look out over the racecourse, my neuroscientist wife spoke…
The Coromandel coast under threat
The rich biodiversity of Chennai’s littoral is in imminent danger from toxic petrochemical industries, warns the ardent naturalist and activist Yuvan Aves
An excellent sixth-form drama project: Santi & Naz, at Soho Theatre, reviewed
Santi & Naz is a drama set in the Punjab in 1947 that uses an ancient and thrilling storyline about…
A dreamy, if overly ambitious show: Silk Roads, at the British Museum, reviewed
Towards the end of the British Museum’s Silk Roads show, there is a selection of treasures found in England. Among…
In Mumbai, everyone asks about Rishi and Boris
Mumbai is my kind of town, a party town. In my first weeks living here, I was out most nights…
South Asia in a time of the breaking of nations
Avinash Paliwal’s gripping tale of espionage opens in 1949, with newly independent India, Pakistan and Burma racked by rivalries in one of the most intricately partitioned areas on Earth
India will never join China’s anti-western alliance
On the 15 November Xi Jinping will mark the 12th anniversary of his becoming general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party…
What prompted Vivien Leigh’s dark journey into madness?
Did her many miscarriages so unhinge the beautiful actress that she ended up a sex-crazed harridan, screaming obscenities at those she loved?
Forget Eton. This Mumbai team should play Harrow at Lord’s
The first thing I do is turn my watch upside down. India is five-and-a-half hours ahead of the UK, so…
The complexities of our colonial legacy
Weighing the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ effects of British imperialism is a futile exercise, says Sathnam Sanghera. But he comes perilously close to doing just that
The greed and hypocrisy of the opium trade continue to shock
Amitav Ghosh admits he found writing his history difficult because of the obscene profiteering and suffering he had to cover
Has Bazball rescued — or ruined — cricket?
Thanks to Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum, English Test cricket has been revolutionised – at the expense of the gentle, contemplative game
Why Sunak’s prayers in Delhi matter
Ever since Alastair Campbell’s declaration that ‘we don’t do God’, no prime minister – and almost no politician – has…
Britain should not be nervous of India
Britain should not be nervous of India
India’s century: Sunak’s plan for a new Indo-Pacific alliance
The PM’s visit to New Delhi could be a defining moment
The phoney mystics who fooled the West
Many suspect mystics have exploited naive westerners in search of spiritual enlightenment over the past century, Philip Hensher discovers
Would we welcome bears in Britain again?
With rewilding projects multiplying worldwide, brown, black and grizzly bears are making a bold comeback. But how much bear can we bear?
Travellers’ tales
In the absence of their own written records, they have been ‘invented’ and misrepresented in Europe ever since their arrival in the Middle Ages, says Klaus-Michael Bogdal
Proud to be British
Sunder Katwala, of Indian-Irish heritage, analyses the whiteness of the Remain vote, seeing Britain’s pro-European movement as a case of cosmopolitanism without diversity
Adrift in Berlin: Sojourn, by Amit Chaudhuri, reviewed
Feelings of dislocation are at the heart of Amit Chaudhuri’s award-winning novels. Friend of My Youth (2017) followed a writer’s…
Seize the moment: Undercurrent, by Barney Norris, reviewed
Barney Norris’s third novel opens with a wedding in April. The couple tying the knot don’t matter; it’s the occasion…
The man who changed Indian cinema
Tanjil Rashid on the polymathic Bengali filmmaker Satyajit Ray, who spearheaded a new school of Indian cinema
Gandhi’s killer is more loveable than his victim: The Father and the Assassin reviewed
Dictating to the Estate is a piece of community theatre that explains why Grenfell Tower went up in flames on…
Why does India get a free pass for supporting Russia?
When Russia invaded Ukraine the Indian government rapidly launched ‘Operation Ganga’. This was not a military operation, nor did it…
Could the Ukraine war save Taiwan?
What the Ukraine war means for China — and Taiwan
