Rohini Nilekani is the guest on Grand Tamasha this week to talk about the importance of civil society in good governance. Rohini Nilekani is an author and philanthropist who has ... Read more
Rohini Nilekani is the guest on Grand Tamasha this week to talk about the importance of civil society in good governance. Rohini Nilekani is an author and philanthropist who has worked for over three decades in India’s social sectors. She is the founder of Arghyam, a foundation for sustainable water and sanitation, and she also co-founded Pratham Books, a nonprofit which aims to enable access to reading for millions of children. With her husband Nandan, she is the co-founder and director of EkStep, a nonprofit education platform. Her latest book, Samaaj, Sarkaar, Bazaar (Society, State, and Markets): A Citizen-First Approach, encapsulates many of the lessons she has learned in her years working in the civil society and philanthropic sectors. To talk more about these lessons, Rohini joins Milan on the show this week from Bangalore. The two discuss Rohini’s unlikely start in the world of civic activism, the role technology can play in bringing the state, society, and market into better alignment, and what works to reform urban governance. Plus, the two discuss the state of philanthropy in India and growing concerns about closing space for civil society in India. Read more
Mansi Choksi is on the podcast this week to talk about modern love in a changing India, how love and politics intersect, and what her book tells us about India’s social fault lines ... Read more
Mansi Choksi is on the podcast this week to talk about modern love in a changing India, how love and politics intersect, and what her book tells us about India’s social fault lines. The Newlyweds: Rearranging Marriage in Modern India is a moving account of love in contemporary India. The book’s author, Mansi Choksi, follows three couples across the heartland of India as they navigate boundaries—of caste, class, religion, and traditional gender norms. What follows is a tale of romance, endurance, violence, and occasionally heartbreak. The Newlyweds does what most social science texts simply cannot—it brings us into the private lives of young people in love in India. Mansi’s writing has appeared in Harper’s, the New York Times, the New Yorker, National Geographic, Slate and the Atlantic. This week, she joins Milan on the podcast to talk about modern love in a changing India, how love and politics intersect, and what her book tells us about India’s social fault lines. Plus, Milan and Mansi discuss life in “Tier Two” India. Read more
In country after country in South Asia, we are seeing worrying signs of economic turmoil and political upheaval. Earlier this year, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan lost a bruis ... Read more
In country after country in South Asia, we are seeing worrying signs of economic turmoil and political upheaval. Earlier this year, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan lost a bruising no-confidence vote, resulting in his abrupt ouster. But now the new coalition government that took over from Khan is struggling under the weight of a rising debt burden. Sri Lanka has experienced a full-blown crisis, resulting in Asia’s first default in decades and the collapse of the Rajapaksa government. While India’s economic prospects remain relatively positive, there too there are concerns about how widely the gains of recent economic growth are being shared. To discuss South Asia’s economic outlook, journalist Benjamin Parkin joins Milan on the show this week. Ben is the South Asia correspondent for the Financial Times based in New Delhi and has previously worked with Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal. The two discuss the external headwinds, domestic policy missteps, and continued uncertainty plaguing South Asian economies from Afghanistan to Bangladesh. They also discuss how China is using the present moment to press its advantage and how the West is responding. Plus, the two talk about India’s economic trajectory and sharply divided views on its recovery. Read more
Christopher Clary joins Milan this week to talk about India-Pakistan relations and the often surprising cooperation between the two South Asian powers. Since their mutual indepen ... Read more
Christopher Clary joins Milan this week to talk about India-Pakistan relations and the often surprising cooperation between the two South Asian powers. Since their mutual independence in 1947, India and Pakistan have been locked into a fierce rivalry that shows no signs of abating anytime soon. But a new book by the political scientist Christopher Clary, The Difficult Politics of Peace: Rivalry in Modern South Asia, suggests that our traditional narrative of doom and gloom glosses over a rich history of cooperation, contestation, conflict, and conciliation that defies easy explanations. This week on the show, Milan sits down with Chris Clary to discuss why and when rival states pursue conflict or cooperation. Clary is an assistant professor of political science at the University at Albany and a nonresident fellow with the Stimson Center in Washington, D.C. The two discuss the primacy of leaders, the surprising cooperation India and Pakistan have often forged, and the South Asian security community’s blind spots. Plus, Chris tells Milan why there is ample evidence for continued pessimism in bilateral peace negotiations. Read more
On the season premiere, Milan sits down with Ambassador Shyam Saran, former Indian foreign secretary and one of the most decorated Indian diplomats of his generation. Saran, curren ... Read more
On the season premiere, Milan sits down with Ambassador Shyam Saran, former Indian foreign secretary and one of the most decorated Indian diplomats of his generation. Saran, currently a senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi, is the author of a new book, How China Sees India and the World. This new volume is a companion to his highly acclaimed 2018 book, How India Sees the World. Milan speaks with Shyam Saran about his lengthy career studying China and learning Mandarin, India’s relative ignorance of Chinese politics and society, and the sources of China’s unique model of social order. Plus, the two discuss the current border standoff between India and China and the prospects of a China-centric world. Read more
In the season finale, Sadanand Dhume and Tanvi Madan join Milan for the Season 7 finale of Grand Tamasha to unpack India's rocky relationship with Muslims amid recent controversial ... Read more
In the season finale, Sadanand Dhume and Tanvi Madan join Milan for the Season 7 finale of Grand Tamasha to unpack India's rocky relationship with Muslims amid recent controversial remarks from the BJP, the government's shifting policy on Russia-Ukraine, and how India was received at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore. Read more
Nikhil Menon joins Milan to talk about the legacy of India’s planning infrastructure, the unique influence of pioneering statistician P.C. Mahalanobis, and the ways in which India’ ... Read more
Nikhil Menon joins Milan to talk about the legacy of India’s planning infrastructure, the unique influence of pioneering statistician P.C. Mahalanobis, and the ways in which India’s statistical architecture was the envy of the world. Read more
Rahul Sagar talks to Milan about his new book on India's intellectual roots of foreign policy strategy and its approach to great power politics. Read more
Rahul Sagar talks to Milan about his new book on India's intellectual roots of foreign policy strategy and its approach to great power politics. Read more
This week, we put Milan in the hot seat to discuss his new study on Indo-Australian political preferences along with Caroline Duckworth, a James C. Gaither Junior Fellow in Carnegi ... Read more
This week, we put Milan in the hot seat to discuss his new study on Indo-Australian political preferences along with Caroline Duckworth, a James C. Gaither Junior Fellow in Carnegie’s South Asia Program. We also wanted to turn the tables on Milan to ask him about his recent trip to Delhi—his first in the COVID era. Read more
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently completed a three-country, whirlwind tour of Europe. The trip began in Germany, where Modi met with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, then ... Read more
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently completed a three-country, whirlwind tour of Europe. The trip began in Germany, where Modi met with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, then continued with a stop in Denmark, where he participated in the India-Nordic Summit and wrapped up in Paris, where he sat down with newly reelected French President Emmanuel Macron. To discuss Modi’s Europe visit and its lasting implications, Milan is joined on the show this week by Garima Mohan. Garima is a senior fellow in the Asia program at the German Marshall Fund based in Berlin. Her research focuses on Europe-India ties, EU foreign policy in Asia, and security in the Indo-Pacific. Milan and Garima discuss how Europe sees India’s evolving stance on Russia-Ukraine, India’s ambitious (and nuanced) European outreach, and the trajectory of defence collaboration. Plus, the two discuss how Europe and India are working together on cross-cutting issues from climate to trade and technology. Read more
