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Ramachandra Guha

Ramachandra Guha was recently named as one of the 100 most influential public intellectuals in the world. He is the author of India After Gandhi: The History of the World’s Largest Democracy.
  • Ramachandra Guha

    Noted historian Ramachandra Guha being detained by police during a protest against an amended Citizenship Bill, at Town Hall in Bengaluru.

    PTI Photo
  • Ramachandra Guha

    Desk-Bound

    Ramachandra Guha has written an excellent narrative biography, not digressing much from his subject

    Photograph by Tribhuvan Tiwari
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    Ram Guha with his wife

  • Ramachandra Guha

    Photograph by Tribhuvan Tiwari
  • Ramachandra Guha

    Photograph by Tribhuvan Tiwari
  • Ramachandra Guha

    Through The Lens Roundly

    Guha at the launch of the book The Long Revolution in Bangalore, August 2009

    Photograph by Getty Images
  • Ramachandra Guha

    Illustration by Sajith Kumar
  • Ramachandra Guha

    Illustration by Sajith Kumar
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    Illustration by Sajith Kumar
  • Ramachandra Guha

    Illustration by Sajith Kumar
  • Ramachandra Guha

    GAME-CHANGERS?

    (clockwise from top left) Vinod Rai, Ramchandra Guha, Diana Edulji, Vikram Limaye

  • Ramachandra Guha

    Ramachandra Guha

    Photograph by Narendra Bisht
  • Ramachandra Guha

    Ramachandra Guha

    Photograph by Narendra Bisht
  • Ramachandra Guha

    Vikram Seth reads out from 'A Suitable Boy' at 'Polls Apart', with Mark Tully & Ramachandra Guha at Kalam 2014, the Kolkata Lit Meet.

    Courtesy - valueabled on Twitter
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    Ramachandra Guha

    Narendra Bisht
  • Ramachandra Guha

    History man Guha has got people talking

    Sanjay Rawat
  • Ramachandra Guha

    sandeep adhwaryu
  • Ramachandra Guha

    sandeep adhwaryu
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Website
  • Cricket Boss Sourav Ganguly 'Greedy', 'Unethical', Running After 'Extra Money', Says Ram Guha In New Book
    Ramachandra Guha has lashed out at BCCI officials for conflict of interest. He has singled out Ganguly for endorsing fantasy cricket
    Nov 22, 2020
    | Outlook Web Bureau
  • 'Economy In Safe Hands, Worry Not, Mr. Guha': Nirmala Sitharaman's Jibe At Ramachandra Guha
    In the war of words, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani also responded to Ramachandra Guha's tweet saying that Indians would not fall for 'tricks' of dividing them.
    Jun 12, 2020
    | PTI
  • Section 144 Imposed By Bengaluru Police On Dec 18 Was Illegal: Karnataka HC
    Many prominent persons, including historian Ramachandra Guha, had participated in the protest defying section 144 of the CrPC.
    Feb 14, 2020
    | Outlook Web Bureau
  • 5th-Generation Dynast Rahul Gandhi Stands No Chance Against Self-Made Narendra Modi: Ramachandra Guha
    The historian said Kerala did a disastrous thing by electing Gandhi to Parliament.
    Jan 18, 2020
    | Outlook Web Bureau
  • Three Killed As Protests Against Citizenship Law Erupt Across India; Hundreds Detained
    The day witnessed massive protest rallies, violence in parts of Uttar Pradesh and detention of hundreds of protesters.
    Dec 19, 2019
    | Outlook Web Bureau
  • Rahul Gandhi Attacks Govt, Says Anyone Who Says Anything Against PM Modi Is Put In Jail
    An FIR was filed at Muzaffarpur in Bihar on Thursday against nearly 50 celebrities, including Ramchandra Guha, Mani Ratnam, Adoor Gopalakrishnan and Aparna Sen, who had written an open letter to Prime Minister Modi, raising their concern over growing incidents of mob lynching.
    Oct 04, 2019
    | Outlook Web Bureau
  • On Open Letter To PM On Lynchings, Kangana Ranaut, Prasoon Joshi, 59 Others Question 'Selective Outrage'
    The signatories to the new letter include Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) chairman Prasoon Joshi, actor Kangana Ranaut, classical dancer and Member of Parliament Sonal Mansingh, and filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar among others.
    Jul 26, 2019
    | Outlook Web Bureau
  • Mamata Banerjee Backs 49 Personalities' Letter To PM Modi On 'Identity-Based Hate Crimes'
    Whenever the country is in a problem, whenever there is a need for social enlightenment, these prominent personalities come to the fore and inspire people, Mamata Banerjee said.
    Jul 25, 2019
    | Outlook Web Bureau
  • Ramachandra Guha Removes Beef Tweet After Threat Calls
    Ramachandra Guha said, "I have received threatening calls from a man calling himself Sanjay from Delhi. He threatened my wife as well as me."
    Dec 09, 2018
    | Outlook Web Bureau
  • Amit Shah Similar To Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Says Ramachandra Guha
    Guha admitted that his narrative of Jinnah in his new book, "Gandhi: The Years That Changed The World, 1914-1948", is "not sympathetic".
    Sep 15, 2018
    | Outlook Web Bureau
more>>>
Magazine
  • Ram Guha: A Radical Progressive
    As a youngster, Guha was a person with a very broad range of interests. He was also a talented cricket player and had played alongside Kirti Azad and Arun Lal on the St. Stephen’s College cricket team.
    Mar 31, 2018
    | Madhav Gadgil
  • The Bat And Beetle Flew
    Guha liberated Indian cricket writing from its pedantic rut. He visits the game with empathy, amid its socio-cultural moorings.
    Mar 29, 2018
    | Suresh Menon
  • Burqa Is Not Trishul
    However uncalled for the comparison is, Guha has triggered a debate that hits at the community’s core deficiencies
    Mar 29, 2018
    | Shajahan Madampat
  • The RG Who Wrote off Rahul Gandhi
    Biographer, chronicler, equal-opportunity critic and ­sincere friend are but a few of Ram Guha’s avatars
    Mar 29, 2018
    | David Gilmour
  • Editing A Writing Machine
    The academic can complicate what seems simple even while simplifying the seemingly complex­—that’s what made Ram Guha a pioneer of sorts as a writer of history
    Mar 29, 2018
    | Rukun Advani
  • That Chink In The Wall
    No point delivering liberal homilies to a hierarchical society. But Guha has discarded the questions of power.
    Mar 29, 2018
    | Sanjay Joshi
  • Eugene’s Hubby, If I May Say
    In our times when fact is stranger than fiction, here’s one who can take honest criticism as happily as he can dispense it
    Mar 29, 2018
    | Gopalkrishna Gandhi
  • Scholar, Sui Generis
    The mercurial devourer of knowledge—and giver of care and affection—in youth has crafted his own, unique path. Ram Guha is a category- defying scholar who takes on bhakts and mullahs.
    Mar 29, 2018
    | Arvind Subramanian
  • My Patriot Versus Yours
    Guha’s ‘constitutional patriotism’ is not Gandhian nationalism. Instead of the Left’s dead, white men, he has savarnas.
    Feb 08, 2018
    | Sanjay Joshi
  • Patriotism Vs Jingoism
    Gandhian nationalism, enshrined in the Constitution, is based on ideals of equality and diversity. As a new pretender, with its hate-filled credo, tries to supplant it, our duty is to put up a dogged fight.
    Jan 24, 2018
    | Ramachandra Guha
more>>>
Blog
  • Is India Different From Pakistan?
    Is India Different From Pakistan?
    In India, the Hindu right wing is hounding writer Ramachandra Guha calling him anti-national. In Pakistan, people are objecting to the Supreme Court decision that freed a poor Christian woman who was jailed for many years on the false charge of defaming Islam.
    Nov 04, 2018
  • Re-evaluating Man
    Re-evaluating Man
    Jan 12, 2012
  • An Unworkable Jugalbandi
    An Unworkable Jugalbandi
    Jul 03, 2011
  • Never Called Arundhati Roy A 'Joke': Ram Guha
    Never Called Arundhati Roy A 'Joke': Ram Guha
    Oct 30, 2010
  • 'Arundhati Roy Has Become A Joke': Ram Guha
    'Arundhati Roy Has Become A Joke': Ram Guha
    Oct 29, 2010
  • 10 Reasons Why India Will Not Become A Superpower
    10 Reasons Why India Will Not Become A Superpower

    Writing in the Telegraph, Ramachandra Guha revists his 2008 Outlook essay:

    The seven structural problems I identified in my 2008 essay remain —six in full force, the seventh marginally attenuated (for, as the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s extraction of profitable ministries demonstrates, the Congress is by no means immune to blackmail by coalition partners this time around). On reflection, I would add three more problems — the disturbed neighbourhood (with Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka all mired in internal conflicts of their own); the unreconciled borderlands (consider the discontent in Manipur, Nagaland, and Kashmir); and the shocking incapacity of our public institutions, as manifest in the malfunctioning of our universities, our law courts, our hospitals, and our civil services.

    There are therefore 10, not seven, reasons why India will not become a superpower anytime soon. But I would call into question the ambition itself. Should not nations judge themselves by their own standards, rather than seek to participate in some kind of global 100-metre race, the winner to be judged by number of billionaires in the Forbes list or size of nuclear arsenal? Rather than seek to dominate or tower above other nations, the republic of India must seek to be less discontented and less divided within

    Read the full piece: Superpower fantasies

    Sep 12, 2009
  • Natha Singh, Prem Singh...
    Natha Singh, Prem Singh...

    No, not one and the same thing, says Ram Guha in the Telegraph:

    The act of attaching the name of one or other of India’s most powerful political family to schemes, colleges, museums, stadia, and so on, is not merely, or even principally, a means of acknowledging their contributions to the nation. As often as not, it is a shrewd attempt at career advancement. When a new airport was built in Hyderabad some years ago, the logical — and best — decision would have been to name it after some great icon of the Andhra country. An inspired chief minister might even have held a poll among his constituents, with each Andhra-ite asked to offer his choice of person whose name was to be attached to the new airport. The more literary-minded might have suggested the poet Sri Sri; the music-minded the composer Thyagaraja. History-minded Andhras would have voted for a medieval king or kingdom. Members or supporters of the Telugu Desam Party would have voted for N.T. Rama Rao (as would have very many apolitical film buffs), whereas Congressmen (and Reddys) might have voted for K. Brahmananda Reddy or N. Sanjiva Reddy. The parliamentary communists would have chosen P. Sundarayya, the Naxalites T. Nagi Reddy.

    Read the full article: The Calling Game

    Aug 29, 2009
  • The Missing Bilingual Intellectual
    The Missing Bilingual Intellectual

    With all these BJP budhhijeevis, who seem to be able to speak in many tongues, hogging all the media and mind-space, I seem to have slipped up on blogging about this full text of a wonderful lecture (that I did not attend but enjoyed reading thoroughly) Ram Guha delivered at the India International Centre, New Delhi, on 15 May 2009, to mark the birth centenary of B S Kesavan:

    This essay is inspired by an argument between the scholar-librarian B S Kesavan and his son Mukul that I was once privy to. I forget what they were fighting about. But I recall that the father, then past 90 years of age, was giving as good as he got. At periodic intervals he would turn to me, otherwise a silent spectator, and pointing to his son, say: “makku!”, “paithyam”! Those were words that Mukul, born in Delhi of a Hindispeaking mother, did not himself understand.  But I did. They meant, roughly and respectively, “imbecile” and “lunatic”.

    B S Kesavan knew that I lived in Bangalore, that both my parents were Tamil, and that one of my great-uncles had been a Tamil scholar. Thus, when his son’s stupidity (real or alleged) could not be adequately conveyed in their shared language, namely, English, he took recourse to his mother tongue, which was also theoretically mine. The emphasis must be on theoretically”. My great-uncle the Tamil scholar used to write postcards asking me to “learn Tamil and lead a simple life”. I failed him wholly in the second respect, but have down the years managed to pick up a few dozen words of Tamil, among them makku and paithyam.

    More here

    It would be fascinating to find out how many of our readers here regularly read anything other than English. Ram Guha goes on to name three contemporary  scholars in their 40s --  A R Venkatachalapathy, Tridip Suhrud, and Yogendra Yadav. Do you know of any more?

    Aug 21, 2009
  • NMML: Individuals V/s An Institution
    NMML: Individuals V/s An Institution

    What is happening at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML)? Some time back, there was an acrimonious exchange in the Economic Times between the status quoists and the pro-changers. Now Rudrangshu Mukherjee steps in and elevates the discussion back to the original contention of the "57 eminent historians, social scientists, publishers and scholars — among them India’s best historians, political scientists and sociologists — have written to the prime minister, Manmohan Singh, about the state of affairs in the NMML":

    In their submission, the scholars have put forward what they see as some of the features of the decline and have suggested some steps to arrest it and to revive what is really a unique institution for the study of modern Indian history and culture. It goes without saying that the decline of an institution like the NMML can hardly be the responsibility of any one individual. (An individual can, however, hasten a process of decline or stop it by initiating or not initiating certain steps.)

    More here

    Jul 09, 2009
  • Towards Positive Change
    Towards Positive Change
    It's always heartening to read concrete suggestions rather than incessant whining and hand-wringing. Ram Guha, as usual, comes up with some clear-headed thinking on what might be done to make "the political process more efficient and more sensitive to the needs of the citizens:
    First, promote bipartisanship on issues of national security and foreign policy.

    Second, promote lateral entry into government -- encourage talented professionals to enter government

    Third, restore Parliament as a theatre for reasoned debate

    Fourth, put pressure on political parties to voluntarily adopt a retirement age.

    Fifth, act on the EC’s suggestion and add, to the right to vote, the right not to vote as well.
    Read the full article here.

    Off-hand, I'd like to add one more to the above, something which I have long wished to emphasise:
    Sixth, stop the 'permanent election mode' in the country -- revive the demand to synchronise the Lok Sabha and State Assembly elections".
    Jan 31, 2009
more>>>
News
  • Dravid, Zaheer Being Subjected To 'Public Humiliation' Over Appointments, Says Guha
    Dravid, Zaheer Being Subjected To 'Public Humiliation' Over Appointments, Says Guha
    Jul 16, 2017
  • 'Baffled' Gavaskar Responds To Guha: If There Is Superstar Culture, There's Also 'Jealousy Culture'
    'Baffled' Gavaskar Responds To Guha: If There Is Superstar Culture, There's Also 'Jealousy Culture'
    "MS Dhoni got Grade 'A' contract because he is a superb player. How can you question Dhoni's contribution to Indian cricket?"
    Jun 04, 2017
  • Guha Opens Up Indian Cricket's Pandora's Box, Spares No One In Resignation Letter
    Guha Opens Up Indian Cricket's Pandora's Box, Spares No One In Resignation Letter
    Jun 02, 2017
  • Is Kumble Episode Behind Guha's Resignation From BCCI's CoA?
    Is Kumble Episode Behind Guha's Resignation From BCCI's CoA?
    Jun 01, 2017
  • Getting Threats for Criticising BJP, Modi, Alleges Historian Ramachandra Guha
    Getting Threats for Criticising BJP, Modi, Alleges Historian Ramachandra Guha
    Mar 29, 2017
  • Guha Flays 'Unpatriotic' Left Parties For Rise Of RSS
    Guha Flays 'Unpatriotic' Left Parties For Rise Of RSS
    Nov 19, 2016
  • Caste And Elections Define Contemporary India: Guha
    Caste And Elections Define Contemporary India: Guha
    Mar 16, 2016
  • BJP the Most 'Anti-Intellectual' Party: Ramchandra Guha
    BJP the Most 'Anti-Intellectual' Party: Ramchandra Guha
    Mar 15, 2016
  • Stephen's Alumni Stopped From Attending Prayer Meet on Campus
    Stephen's Alumni Stopped From Attending Prayer Meet on Campus
    Feb 07, 2016
  • Modi Govt Most Anti-Intellectual Dispensation: Ramchandra Guha
    Modi Govt Most Anti-Intellectual Dispensation: Ramchandra Guha
    Jan 22, 2016
more>>>
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