Grand Tamasha

On Saturday, India and Pakistan announced a ceasefire, ending—at least for now—the latest bout of armed conflict between the two South Asian rivals. The announcement followed the launch of “Operation Sindoor”—India's response to the April 22nd terrorist attack in Kashmir, which claimed the lives of 26 innocent civilians.India's strike prompted a worrying tit-for-tat standoff which quickly escalated into the worst conflict between the two nuclear-armed nations in a quarter-century. The fighting has stopped for now, leaving policymakers, scholars, and analysts the task of deciphering the longer-term consequences of the recent crisis.To break things down, Milan is joined on the show this week by Christopher Clary. Chris is an associate professor of political science at the University of Albany. He's also a non-resident fellow at the Henry L. Stimson Center in Washington, D.C.Listeners may remember Chris from his 2022 appearance on Grand Tamasha, when he discussed his book, The Difficult Politics of Peace: Rivalry in Modern South Asia.Milan and Chris discuss why the Pahalgam episode marked a new chapter in India-Pakistan relations, how the recent conflict will serve as a template for the next crisis, and the possible motivations for U.S. intervention. Plus, the two discuss what the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the Middle East can teach us about India and Pakistan's likely future.Episode notes:1. Christopher Clary, “India-Pakistan rivalry is old, but Pahalgam marked a new chapter,” Times of India, May 11, 2025.2. Sudhi Ranjan Sen et al., “Trump Truce Leaves India Furious, Pakistan Elated as Risks Loom,” Bloomberg, May 11, 2025.3. Karishma Mehrotra et al., “The U.S. helped deliver an India-Pakistan ceasefire. But can it hold?” Washington Post, May 10, 2025.4. “When and Why Do India and Pakistan Fight (with Christopher Clary),” Grand Tamasha, September 14, 2022. 

The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World is the new book by the celebrated historian William Dalrymple. For listeners of Grand Tamasha, Dalrymple surely needs no introduction. He is the bestselling author of nine books, including The Last Mughal, The Anarchy, and City of Djinns. He is cofounder of the Jaipur Literature Festival and cohost of the wildly popular podcast, “Empire,” with Anita Anand.His new book, The Golden Road, highlights India's often forgotten role as a crucial economic fulcrum, and civilizational engine, at the heart of the ancient and early medieval worlds. It tells the story of the forgotten Indosphere and its multiple legacies.To talk more about his new book, William joins Milan from our studio in Washington, D.C. They discuss the reasons the Indosphere has been obscured from history, the alluring narrative of the Sinocentric “Silk Road,” and Buddhism's extraordinary journey around the world. Plus, the two discuss the deep penetration of the Hindu epics into Asia, India's scientific and mathematical discoveries, and whether an Indian mindset of cultural absorption and synthesis can be recovered.Episode notes:1. Abhrajyoti Chakraborty, “The Golden Road by William Dalrymple review – the rational case for ancient India's ingenuity,” The Guardian, September 15, 2024.2. William Dalrymple, “‘In Britain, we are still astonishingly ignorant': the hidden story of how ancient India shaped the west,” The Guardian, September 1, 2024.3. Willaim Dalrymple, “Vibrant, Cacophonous Buddhism,” New York Review of Books, September 21, 2023.

It's been a typically busy few months in the world of Indian politics and policy.To roundup all the latest developments from India, Milan is joined on the show this week by Grand Tamasha regulars Sadanand Dhume of the American Enterprise Institute and the Wall Street Journal and Tanvi Madan of the Brookings Institution.The trio discuss the recent terrorist attack which killed 26 civilians in Jammu and Kashmir, U.S. Vice President JD Vance's recent whirlwind trip to India, and Trump's tariff threats and India's calibrated response.Plus, they review the first 100 days of the Trump administration and discuss what, if anything, has surprised them about the early months of Trump 2.0.Episode notes:1. Sadanand Dhume, “JD Vance's India Visit Highlights Closer U.S. Relations,” Wall Street Journal, April 23, 2025.2. Sadanand Dhume, “Trump's Tariffs Are Modi's Greatest Economic Test,” Wall Street Journal, April 9, 2025.3. Tanvi Madan, “Top Gun & Scattershot,” Times of India, January 20, 2025.4. “Modi Meets Trump, With Tanvi Madan,” The President's Inbox (podcast), February 18, 2025.5. “Trump & Modi: Part Deux (with Sadanand Dhume and Tanvi Madan),” Grand Tamasha, February 19, 2025.

In India today, so many political debates are focused on welfare and welfarism. It seems that state after state is competing to offer the most electorally attractive benefits to its voters. The central government, for its part, has pioneered a new model of social welfare built around digital ID and direct cash transfers to needy households.Making India Work: The Development of Welfare in a Multi-Level Democracy is a new book by the scholar Louise Tillin. It examines the development of India's welfare state over the last century from the early decades of the twentieth century to the present. In so doing, it recovers a history previously relegated to the margins of scholarship on the political economy of development.Louise is a Professor of Politics in the King's India Institute at King's College London. She is one of the world's leading experts on Indian federalism, subnational comparative politics, and social policy. She is the author or editor of several previous books, including Remapping India: New States and their Political Origins.Louise joins Milan on the show this week to discuss India's “precocious” welfare regime, the late colonial debates over social insurance in India, and the pros and cons of the Nehruvian development model. Plus, the two discuss inter-state variation in modes of social protection and the current debate over welfare in India circa 2025.Episode notes:1. “Understanding the Delhi Education Experiment (with Yamini Aiyar),” Grand Tamasha, January 22, 2025.2. Louise Tillin, “This is the moment for a new federal compact,” Indian Express, June 16, 2024.3. Rohan Venkataramakrishnan, “Interview: How has Indian federalism evolved under the BJP?” Scroll.in, April 13, 2024.4. Louise Tillin and Sandhya Venkateswaran, “Democracy and Health in India| Is Health an Electoral Priority?” (New Delhi: Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, 2023)

On April 2nd, the U.S. government announced a host of sweeping tariff hikes with every single one of America's trading partners. The aim of the so-called “Liberation Day” tariffs was ostensibly to “rebalance” the global trading system, as some Trump advisors have put it.However, the drastic measure roiled markets and eventually resulted in the President imposing a 90-day pause on most tariffs, with the exception of strategic sectors and imports from China. India, for its part, was slapped with a 26% tariff even as top officials were negotiating a bilateral trade agreement with their American counterparts.While the fate of future tariffs and any side agreements are unknown, the episode raises serious questions about India's global economic strategy. To talk about where India goes from here, Milan is joined on the show this week by Shoumitro Chatterjee. Shoumitro is an Assistant Professor of International Economics at Johns Hopkins-SAIS. His research lies at the intersection of development economics, trade, and macroeconomics, but he has also done seminal work on the role of agriculture in development.Milan and Shoumitro discuss India's surprising export-led success, its underperformance in low-skilled manufacturing, and the country's inward turn post-2017. Plus, the two discuss how India can take advantage of the current global uncertainty and where the politically sensitive agricultural sector fits in.Episode notes:1. Shoumitro Chatterjee, “In Trump's tariff world, India must say: We are open for business,” Indian Express, April 4, 2025.2. Abhishek Anand, Shoumitro Chatterjee, Josh Felman, Arvind Subramanian, and Naveen Thomas, “How quality control orders are crippling India's trade competitiveness,” Business Standard, March 4, 2025.3. Shoumitro Chatterjee and Arvind Subramanian, “India's inward (re)turn: is it warranted? Will it work?” Indian Economic Review 58 (2023): 35-59.4. Shoumitro Chatterjee, Devesh Kapur, Pradyut Sekhsaria, and Arvind Subramanian, “Agricultural Federalism: New Facts, Constitutional Vision,” Economic and Political Weekly 62, no. 36 (2022): 39-48.5. Shoumitro Chatterjee and Arvind Subramanian, “India's Export-Led Growth: Exemplar and Exception,” Ashoka Center for Economic Policy Working Paper No. 01, October 2020.6. Shoumitro Chatterjee and Arvind Subramanian, “To embrace atmanirbharta is to choose to condemn Indian economy to mediocrity,” Indian Express, October 15, 2020.7. Shoumitro Chatterjee and Arvind Subramanian, “Has India Occupied the Export Space Vacated by China? 21st Century Export Performance and Policy Implications,” in Euijin Jung, Arvind Subramanian, and Steven R. Weisman, editors, A Wary Partnership: Future of US-India Economic Relations (Washington, D.C.: Peterson Institute for International Economics, 2020).8. Shoumitro Chatterjee and Devesh Kapur, “Six Puzzles in Indian Agriculture,” India Policy Forum 13, no. 1 (2017): 185-229.

Over the last decade, election campaigns in India have undergone a dramatic shift. Political parties increasingly rely on political consulting firms, tech-savvy volunteers, pollsters, data-driven insights, and online battles to mobilize voters. But what exactly is driving these changes in the landscape of electioneering?The Backstage of Democracy: India's Election Campaigns and the People Who Manage Them is a new book by the scholar Amogh Dhar Sharma which tries to locate answers to this question. The book takes readers behind the scenes, where they are introduced to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) IT cell workers, campaign consultants, data strategists and backroom politicians.Amogh is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the  Department of International Development at the University of Oxford. His research explores the interface between politics and technology, political communication, and histories of science and technology.Amogh joins Milan on the show this week to discuss the professionalization of politics in India, how the middle class relates to politics, and the BJP's unexpected embrace of digital technology. Plus, the two discuss enigmatic backroom strategist Prashant Kishor and the rise of political consultants.Episode notes:1. Amogh Dhar Sharma, “The Cautious Rise of Political Consulting in India,” The Wire, September 6, 2024.2. Roshan Kishore, “Terms of Trade: How to look at the rise of electoral consultants in India,” Hindustan Times, February 21, 2025.3. Nilesh Christopher and Varsha Bansal, “How a Secret BJP War Room Mobilized Female Voters to Win the Indian Elections,” WIRED, July 30, 2024.

A reactionary antidemocratic ethos born and bred in America has come to infect democracies around the world. This is the central thesis of a timely new book by the journalist Zack Beauchamp, The Reactionary Spirit: How America's Most Insidious Political Tradition Swept the World.Through a mix of political history and reportage, The Reactionary Spirit reveals how the United States serves the birthplace of a new authoritarian style, and why we're now seeing its evolution in a diverse set of countries ranging from Hungary to Israel to India.Zack is a senior correspondent at Vox, where he covers challenges to democracy in the United States and abroad, right-wing populism, and the world of ideas. He is also the author of “On the Right,” a newsletter about the American conservative movement.To talk more about the book and our current political moment, Zack joins Milan on the show this week. The two discuss the rise of competitive authoritarianism, inequality and democracy, and the strange era of “autocracy without autocrats.” Plus, Zack and Milan discuss transnational linkages between rightwing populists and India's role in the global fight for reclaiming democracy.Episode notes:1. Zack Beauchamp, “Why do US politics affect the rest of the world?” Vox, February 28, 2025.2. Zack Beauchamp, “Their democracy died. They have lessons for America about Trump's power grab,” February 5, 2025.3. Zack Beauchamp, “America's reactionary moment is here,” Vox, November 19, 2024.4. Zack Beauchamp, “The global trend that pushed Donald Trump to victory,” Vox, November 6, 2024.5. Zack Beauchamp, “Why the far right is surging all over the world,” Vox, July 17, 2024.

Kishore Mahbubani is widely regarded as one of Asia's most well-known diplomats, commentators, and strategic analysts. Having grown up in poverty in Singapore in the 1950s, however, there was nothing preordained about Mahbubani's success.But over the course of the second half of the twentieth century, he would go on to become one of the most recognizable and revered diplomats of his generation.Mahbubani served in Cambodia, Malaysia, and the United States. He was Permanent Secretary at the Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs and twice served as the country's Permanent Representative to the United Nations. He later served as founding dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.Mahbubani chronicles his life journey in a new memoir titled, Living the Asian Century: An Undiplomatic Memoir.Mahbubani's journey mirrors Singapore's own metamorphosis and the book sheds equal light on Mahbubani's life as it does the Asian country's own improbable evolution.To talk more about the book, Kishore Mahbubani joins Milan on the podcast this week. They discuss Kishore's childhood poverty, his “Indian soul,” and his lifelong interactions with former Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew. Plus, Milan and Kishore discuss the explosion of cultural self-confidence in Asia and what this means for the emerging world order.Episode notes:1. [open access] Kishore Mahbubani, The Asian 21st Century (Springer, 2022).2. Kishore Mahbubani, “It's Time for Europe to Do the Unthinkable,” Foreign Policy, February 18, 2025.3. Tony Chan et al., “America Can't Stop China's Rise,” Foreign Policy, September 19, 2023.4. Kishore Mahbubani and Lawrence H. Summers, “The Fusion of Civilizations: The Case for Global Optimism,” Foreign Affairs (May/June 2016).

The Indus Valley Annual Report, published by Blume Ventures, is an annual deep-dive into the Indian macroeconomy, the Indian consumer, and the innovation ecosystem in India. The report has become one of the most highly anticipated reports on the economy—pored over by policy wonks, economic analysts, and India watchers.The lead author of the report is Sajith Pai. Sajith is a partner at Blume Ventures, an early stage venture firm with offices in Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi, and San Francisco. Sajith oversees consumer and India B2B investing at Blume. Prior to joining Blume, Sajith had a two-decade career in various corporate strategy roles with the Times of India Group.To talk more about this year's report, Sajith joins Milan from his office in Noida. The two discuss the origins and objectives of the Indus Valley Annual Report, India's post-pandemic recovery trajectory, and India's low (and declining) savings rate. Plus, the two discuss the trials and tribulations of India's manufacturing sector and whether India can become an artificial intelligence (AI) powerhouse.Episode notes:1. Abhishek Anand et al., “How quality control orders are crippling India's trade competitiveness,” Business Standard, March 4, 2025.2. Abhishek Anand et al., “Multiplying multi-plants: A new and consequential phenomenon,” Journal of Development Economics 174 (May 2025).3. “Sajith Pai Unpacks the 2024 Indus Valley Annual Report and the Changing Indian Consumer,” Ides of India (podcast), July 4, 2024.4. “Will India's Budget 2025 Turn the Economic Tide? (with Sukumar Ranganathan),” Grand Tamasha, February 5, 2025.

Europe is not typically the focus of the Grand Tamasha podcast but recent developments involving Europe, the United States, and India raise fresh questions about the future shape of the international order.Last week, a high-level European Commission delegation embarked on a historic trip to New Delhi, where the two sides spoke optimistically of a promising new chapter in their relationship. Across the ocean in Washington, however, there were alarming signs of a breakdown in the Trans-Atlantic relationship, with the unprecedented Oval Office dressing down of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.To discuss where things stand in Europe, India, and the United States, Milan is joined on the show this week by Tara Varma. Tara is a visiting fellow in the Center of the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution. Until December 2022, she was a senior policy fellow and the head of the Paris office of the European Council on Foreign Relations. She has previously worked and lived in Shanghai, London, New Delhi, and Paris.Milan and Tara discuss the growing wedge between the United States and Europe, the significance of the recent EC visit to New Delhi, the prospects of an EU-India trade pact, and the prospects of a “New Yalta” summit between China, Russia, and the United States. Plus, the two discuss the emerging bonhomie among right-wing nationalists and the prospects of the Trump administration engineering a Sino-Russia split.Episode notes:1. Sophia Besch and Tara Varma, “A New Transatlantic Alliance Threatens the EU,” Carnegie Emissary (blog), February 20, 2025.2. Patricia M. Kim et al., " The China-Russia relationship and threats to vital US interests,” Brookings Institution, December 16, 2024.3. Tara Varma and Caroline Grassmuck, “What is going on in France?” Brookings Institution, December 13, 2024.4. C. Raja Mohan, “In Trump's world, India and Europe need each other,” Indian Express, February 27, 2025.

Vishwa Shastra: India and the World is the new book by the scholar and foreign affairs analyst Dhruva Jaishankar. The book provides a comprehensive overview of India's interactions with the world—from ancient times to the present day.The book also serves as a comprehensive resource for those seeking to understand how India might define the emerging world order. In so doing, it rebuts the conventional wisdom that India lacks a strategic culture.Dhruva is Executive Director of the Observer Research Foundation America, which he helped establish in 2020. He has previously worked at Brookings India, the German Marshall Fund of the United States, and the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.Dhruva joins Milan on the podcast this week to talk more about his book and the evolution of Indian foreign policy. The two discuss why India's approach to the world is so poorly understood, misperceptions of India's strategic culture, and the pre-independence drivers of Indian foreign policy. Plus, Dhruva and Milan assess the state of India-Pakistan relations, challenges to India's ability to connect with Southeast Asia, and whether and how Trump 2.0 alters India's strategic picture.Episode notes:1. Dhruva Jaishankar, “Foundation for layered India-America relations,” Hindustan Times, February 17, 2025.2. Gunjan Singh, “Vishwa Shastra: A comprehensive guide to India's evolving foreign policy,” Business Standard, January 9, 2025.3. Dhruva Jaishankar and Tanvi Madan, “The Quad Needs a Harder Edge,” Foreign Affairs, May 19, 2022.

There are two narratives doing the rounds about Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent visit to Washington to break bread with U.S. President Donald Trump.The first narrative, touted by the government and its backers, is that Modi skillfully threaded the needle with Trump, standing up for Indian interests but also giving the president some important early wins that can position India well for the future. The second narrative suggests a more pessimistic vision: that U.S.-India relations are at a precarious juncture, where a volatile and transactional president just might upend bilateral ties at a time when India can scarcely afford it.To discuss where U.S.-India ties sit in the aftermath of the Modi visit, Milan is joined on the show today by Rajesh Rajagopalan. Rajesh is professor of International Politics at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. He is an expert on nuclear policy, Indian foreign policy, and U.S.-India relations. He's also the author of a new article in ThePrint titled, “India-US ties stuck in cute acronyms. Delhi must wait out the chaos.”On this week's show, Milan and Rajesh discuss Joe Biden's foreign policy legacy, India's longstanding demands for technology transfers, and the plateauing in bilateral ties. Plus, the two discuss Delhi's view on Elon Musk and the future of U.S.-China relations.Episode notes:1. “Trump and Modi, Part Deux (with Sadanand Dhume and Tanvi Madan),” Grand Tamasha, February 19, 2025.2. Rajesh Rajagopalan, “India-US ties stuck in cute acronyms. Delhi must wait out the chaos,” ThePrint, February 17, 2025.3. Rajesh Rajagopalan, “Trump's blanket desire to avoid all wars can lead to the same wars he wants to avoid,” ThePrint, November 11, 2024.4. “Dr. S. Jaishankar on the Future of U.S.-India Relations,” Grand Tamasha, October 2, 2024.5. Rajesh Rajagopalan, “India keeps making the same foreign policy mistakes. World doesn't think we're being moral,” ThePrint, September 11, 2024.6. “Looking Back at U.S.-India Relations in the Biden Era (with Ashley J. Tellis),” Grand Tamasha, September 11, 2024.7. Rajesh Rajagopalan, “India-US ties under Modi echo Nehru's reluctance to commit. Hope consequences aren't the same,” ThePrint, July 17, 2024.

The news from India has been coming fast and furious.On February 1, the finance minister revealed the latest Indian budget amidst a backdrop of slowing economic growth. On February 8, a new government in the state of Delhi was elected and, for the first time in a quarter-century, it's headed by the BJP.  And on February 13, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had his first face-to-face sit-down with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House in the Trump 2.0 era.To discuss the latest events and what they mean for India, Milan is joined on the show this week by Grand Tamasha regulars by two Grand Tamasha regulars, Tanvi Madan of the Brookings Institution and Sadanand Dhume of the American Enterprise Institute and the Wall Street Journal.They discuss the BJP's striking political resilience, the fortunes of the Aam Aaadmi Party, and India's current economic malaise. Plus, they discuss Modi's high-stakes meetings with Trump and Elon Musk and the future of the China-India-United States relationship.Episode notes:1. “Will India's Budget 2025 Turn the Economic Tide? (with Sumukar Ranganathan)” Grand Tamasha, February 5, 2025.2. Sadanand Dhume, “Foreign Lessons in the Perils of DEI and Affirmative Action,” Wall Street Journal, January 29, 2025.3. Tanvi Madan, “Top Gun and Scattershot,” Times of India, January 20, 2025.4. Sadanand Dhume, “Manmohan Singh's Mixed Economic Legacy,” Wall Street Journal, January 1, 2025.5. Tanvi Madan, “India is Hoping for a Trump Bump,” Foreign Affairs, December 5, 2024.

On September 5, 2017, the journalist Gauri Lankesh was shot and killed outside of her house in Bangalore by armed assailants traveling on a motorbike. Lankesh, a journalist and social activist, was known for being a fierce critic of right-wing Hindutva politics and her murder has widely been seen as retribution for her outspoken views.A new book by the journalist Rollo Romig, I Am on the Hit List: A Journalist's Murder and the Rise of Autocracy in India, recounts the extraordinary life and tragic death of Gauri Lankesh. Rollo is a journalist, essayist, and critic. He has been reporting on South India since 2013, most often for The New York Times Magazine.To talk more about his new book and his years reporting from South India, Rollo joins Milan on the show this week. They discuss Rollo's love affair with Bangalore, Lankesh's complex character, the shadowy rightwing organization Sanatan Sanstha implicated in her killing, and the police investigation into her death. Plus, the two discuss Gauri Lankesh's legacy and what her murder tells us about the state of contemporary India.Episode notes:1. Nitish Pahwa, “A Reporter Who Risked and Lost Her Life in Modi's India,” New York Times, August 6, 2024.2. Rollo Romig, “How to Steal a River,” The New York Times Magazine, March 1, 2017.3. Rollo Romig, “What Happens When a State Is Run by Movie Stars?” The New York Times Magazine, July 1, 2014. Rollo Romig, “Masala Dosa to Die For,” The New York Times Magazine, May 7, 2014.

On February 1st, India's finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented her eighth Budget of the Modi era. This year's budget was tabled at a precarious economic juncture, for India and for the world. India has been challenged by slowing growth, persistent inflation, and global uncertainties motivated in part by the return of Donald Trump to the White House just a few weeks ago.So, how has the finance minister approached this delicate moment? What are the government's priorities for the coming fiscal year? And has it made the tough decisions that could revive underlying animal spirits?To discuss these and many other questions, Milan is joined on the podcast this week by Sukumar Ranganathan, editor-in-chief of the Hindustan Times.Long-time listeners will know that Sukumar has regularly appeared on the show to share his insights on India's political economy with us. On this week's show, Milan and Sukumar discuss India's worrying growth slowdown, the government's pitch for deregulation, and a generous tax cut for the middle class. Plus, the two discuss the potential impacts of Trump's tariffs on the Indian economy.Episode notes:1. “Anticipating the Unintended,” issue 287, February 2, 2025.2. Roshan Kishore, “What the budget does for politics,” Hindustan Times, February 2, 2025.3. Roshan Kishore, “What the budget does for demand,” Hindustan Times, February 2, 2025.4. Roshan Kishore, “What the budget does for the fisc,” Hindustan Times, February 2, 2025.5. Roshan Kishore, “What the budget 2025 means for economic reforms,” Hindustan Times, February 2, 2025.6. “Previewing India's 2024 General Election (with Sukumar Ranganathan),” Grand Tamasha, April 17, 2024.

2024 was widely hailed as the year of elections with 73 countries holding elections in and more than 1.5 billion voters exercising their franchise. On Grand Tamasha, we've discussed the 2024 Indian general election as well as the recent U.S. presidential election at some length. But there was another important election in South Asia which has important ramifications both for India and the wider Indo-Pacific. In September 2024, for the first time in Sri Lanka's history, a third-party candidate was elected president.According to Neil DeVotta, our guest on the show this week, the election was nothing short of a peaceful revolution that represents a dramatic political realignment in the island nation.Neil DeVotta is a professor of politics and international affairs at Wake Forest University, where he works on South Asian security and politics, ethnicity and nationalism, conflict resolution, and democratic transitions. And he's also the author of a recent essay in the January 2025 issue of the Journal of Democracy, called “Sri Lanka's Peaceful Revolution.”To kick off the thirteenth season of the podcast, Milan sits down with Neil to discuss the tumultuous political history of Sri Lanka, its charismatic new president Anura Kumara Dissanayake, and the state of the Sri Lankan economy. Plus, the two discuss how Dissanayake will delicately balance relations with both India and China.Episode notes:1. Neil DeVotta, “Sri Lanka's Peaceful Revolution,” Journal of Democracy 36.1 (January 2025): 79-92.2. Neil DeVotta, “Colombo's Controversial New President,” East Asia Forum, 24 July 2022.3. Neil DeVotta, “A Win for Democracy in Sri Lanka,” Journal of Democracy 27.1 (January 2016): 152–66.4. “South Asia's Economic Turmoil (with Ben Parkin),” Grand Tamasha, September 21, 2022.5. “Inside Sri Lanka's Economic Meltdown (with Ahilan Kadirgamar),” Grand Tamasha, May 18, 2022.

One of the most talked about policy experiments in India in recent memory is the reform of government schools in the city-state of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. Under the leadership of the Aam Aadmi Party, the Delhi government has implemented an innovative program to equip students with foundational literacy and numeracy. But while these reforms are much discussed, they have been surprisingly under-studied. A new book by the scholar Yamini Aiyar tries to remedy this gap.Yamini's new book, Lessons in State Capacity from Delhi's Schools, draws on three years of ethnographic research where she and a team of colleagues were embedded in a cluster of schools across the national capital.Yamini is currently Visiting Senior Fellow at the Saxena Center for Contemporary South Asia and the Watson Institute at Brown University. Many of our listeners will know her from her work with the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi, where she served as President from 2017 to 2024.To kick off season thirteen of Grand Tamasha, Yamini joins Milan on the show this week. They discuss Yamini's decade-long adventure studying India's public schools, the core elements of the Delhi education model, and the mysterious ways in which the India bureaucracy operates. Plus, they discuss whether the Delhi experiment can travel beyond the national capital.Episode notes:1. “How Bureaucracy Can Work for the Poor (with Akshay Mangla),” Grand Tamasha, March 29, 2023.2. Yamini Aiyar and Shrayana Bhattacharya, “The Post Office Paradox: A Case Study of the Block Level Education Bureaucracy,” Economic & Political Weekly 51, no. 11 (2016).3. Lant Pritchett, “Is India a Flailing State?: Detours on the Four Lane Highway to Modernization,” HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP09-013, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, 2009.4. Devesh Kapur, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, and Milan Vaishnav, Rethinking Public Institutions in India (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2017).

Grand Tamasha is Carnegie's weekly podcast on Indian politics and policy co-produced with the Hindustan Times, a leading Indian media house. For five years (and counting), Milan has interviewed authors, journalists, policymakers, and practitioners working on contemporary India to give listeners across the globe a glimpse into life in the world's most populous country.For the past two years, in anticipation of the show's holiday hiatus, we've published an annual list of our favorite books featured on the podcast over the previous twelve months.In keeping with this tradition, here—in no particular order—are Grand Tamasha's top books of 2024.Savarkar and the Making of HindutvaBy Janaki Bakhle. Published by Princeton University Press.Accelerating India's Development: A State-Led Roadmap for Effective GovernanceBy Karthik Muralidharan. Published by Penguin Viking India.The Identity Project: The Unmaking of a Democracy (published in the United States and the UK as The New India: The Unmaking of the World's Largest Democracy)By Rahul Bhatia. Published by Context (South Asia); Little, Brown (UK); and PublicAffairs (United States).In this special bonus episode, Milan talks about why he loved each of these books and includes short clips from his conversations with Janaki, Karthik, and Rahul.This is the final episode of our twelfth season. Thanks to our listeners to being such loyal followers of the show. We're excited to kick off our thirteenth season in mid-January after taking a short holiday break.Episode notes:1. Milan Vaishnav, “Grand Tamasha's Best Books of 2023,” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, December 19, 2023.2. Milan Vaishnav, “Grand Tamasha's Best Books of the Year,” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, December 20, 2022.3. “Identifying the New India (with Rahul Bhatia),” Grand Tamasha, September 25, 2024.4. “A Blueprint for India's State Capacity Revolution (with Karthik Muralidharan),” Grand Tamasha, May 22, 2024.5. “Savarkar, In His Own Words (with Janaki Bakhle),” Grand Tamasha, March 27, 2024.

If there is one thing political scientists can agree on, it is that we live in an era of populism. With the recent election of Donald Trump, populism has returned to the United States, raising questions about what changes we might see in upcoming elections in 2025.South Asia has been no stranger to populism and a new book, Righteous Demagogues: Populist Politics in South Asia and Beyond, provides a framework for understanding its origins, its evolution, and its prospects. The authors of this new book are the scholars Dann Naseemullah and Pradeep Chhibber and they join Milan on the show this week to discuss their new book.Dann is a Reader in International Politics at King's College London. And Pradeep is currently Professor of Political Science and the Indo-American Community Chair in India Studies at the University of California, Berkeley.The three discuss the COVID-era origins of the book, definitions of populism, and the ways in which populism has played out across the subcontinent over the last seven decades. Plus, they talk about the future of ousted Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, the current turmoil in Bangladesh, and what exactly is new in the “New India” under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.Episode notes:1. “The Lessons of Gujarat Under Modi (with Christophe Jaffrelot),” Grand Tamasha, May 29, 2024.2. Pradeep Chhibber and Adnan Naseemullah, “This is how Modi is different from other Right-wing populists like Trump, Erdogan & Duterte,” ThePrint, August 21, 2019.

Where and when ethnic violence breaks out is a question of longstanding concern to the India policy community.Previous work in political science has pointed to a diverse array of factors—ranging from civil society bonds to elite networks and coalition politics as potential explanations. A new book by the scholar Aditi Malik highlights political parties, specifically party instability, as the principal culprit.In Playing with Fire: Parties and Political Violence in Kenya and India, Aditi highlights how the levels of party instability informs the decisions of political elites to organize or support violence. Settings marked by unstable parties are more vulnerable to recurring and major episodes of party violence than those populated by durable parties. This is because transient parties enable politicians to disregard voters' future negative reactions to conflict.Aditi is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the College of the Holy Cross. She studies political violence, gender-based violence, social movements, and contentious politics.She joins Milan on the show this week to talk about her book and the implications of her research findings. They discuss the role of elites in fomenting violence, when voters sanction violent politicians, and the similarities and differences in ethnic violence in Kenya and India. Plus, they discuss what Aditi's book tells us about the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.Episode notes:1. “Paul Staniland on the Surprising Decline in Political Violence in South Asia,” Grand Tamasha, October 7, 2020.2. Aditi Malik, “Playing with Fire: Parties and Political Violence in Kenya and India,” Fifteen Eighty Four (CUP) Blog, August 14, 2024.3. Zack Beauchamp, “Narendra Modi is Celebrating his Scary Vision for India's Future,” Vox, January 27, 2024.4. Aditi Malik. “Hindu-Muslim Violence in Unexpected Places: Theory and Evidence from Rural India,” Politics, Groups, & Identities, Vol. 9, No. 1 (2021): 40-58.

The discourse in India today on the issue of the Muslim community seems to swing between two contrary positions.According to the Hindu nationalist narrative, Muslims are a monolithic religious category whose presence justifies the need for greater Hindu solidarity. On the other hand, there is the narrative offered by liberals, who claim to protect Muslims as a religious minority to defend Indian democracy.A new book by the scholar Hilal Ahmed, A Brief History of the Present: Muslims in New India, departs from these unidimensional notions of Muslim identity. It applies concepts from political science, history, and political theory to provide a much more nuanced view of India's Muslim community.Ahmed is an associate professor at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), where he is also associated with the Lokniti Programme for Comparative Democracy. He is an authority on political Islam, electoral behavior, and Indian democracy.Ahmed joins Milan on the show this week to talk about “substantive Muslimness,” the meaning of Hindutva, and what exactly is new if the “new India.” Plus, the two discuss the state of the political opposition and the BJP's vulnerabilities.Episode notes:             1. “Identifying the New India (with Rahul Bhatia),” Grand Tamasha, September 25, 2024.2. “What Really Happened in India's 2024 General Election? (with Sanjay Kumar),” Grand Tamasha, September 18, 2024.3. Hilal Ahmed, “CSDS-Lokniti post-poll survey: The three main takeaways,” Hindu, June 7, 2024.4. “Decoding the 2024 Indian General Elections (with Sunetra Choudhury and Rahul Verma),” Grand Tamasha, June 6, 2024.5. “Neha Sahgal on Religion and Identity in Contemporary India,” Grand Tamasha, June 30, 2021.

Over the past twelve months, tales of spies and spycraft have complicated India's relationships with key Western partners.In recent months, both Canada and the United States have alleged that India's foreign intelligence agency was involved in a complex plot to identify and target Khalistani separatists who were citizens of those countries.In India, these allegations have, in turn, revealed deep skepticism about the actions of western spy agencies and the negative role they've played in India and across the Global South.A new book, Spying in South Asia: Britain, the United States, and India's Secret Cold War, offers the first comprehensive history of US and UK intelligence operations in the Indian subcontinent. The author of this book is Paul McGarr, a lecturer in Intelligence Studies at King's College London.To talk more about his new book—and the West's 50-year battle to win the hearts and minds of Indians—Paul joins Milan on the show this week.The two discuss India's tradition of spycraft, the long shadow of the British Raj, and secret collaboration between the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and its Indian counterparts. Plus, the two discuss why the covert efforts of British and American intelligence agencies in 20th century India largely proved to be misguided and self-defeating.Episode notes:1. VIDEO: “Indira Gandhi Overdid the ‘Foreign Hand' but Some of Her Fears About the CIA were real ,” The Wire, November 21, 2024.2. “Inside the Secret World of South Asia's Spies (with Adrian Levy),” Grand Tamasha, October 27, 2021.

India's Near East: A New History is an important new book by the scholar Avinash Paliwal.The book traces the history of how New Delhi has grappled with the twin challenges of forging productive ties with its eastern neighbors—namely, Bangladesh and Myanmar—while building a robust administrative state in India's Northeastern states.It is the story of a state's struggle to overcome war, displacement and interventionism, but which exposes the limits of independent India's influence both inside and outside its borders.Avinash joins Milan on the show to talk more about his new book. Avinash is a Reader in International Relations at SOAS University of London, where he specializes in South Asian strategic affairs.Avinash and Milan discuss India's state-building experience in the northeast, the fate of the “Look East” and “Act East” policies, and India's often contentious relations with both Burma and Bangladesh. Plus, the two discuss how two factors—China and Hindutva— are remaking India's approach to the near east.Episode notes:1. “What the Taliban Takeover Means for India (with Avinash Paliwal),” Grand Tamasha, September 15, 2021.2. “Binalakshmi Nepram on the Realities of India's Oft-Forgotten Northeast,” Grand Tamasha, June 3, 2020.3. Avinash Paliwal, “Bangladesh on razor's edge: Why India must wake up to the looming economic crisis and political instability to its east,” Indian Express, December 13, 2022.

The never-ending U.S. election has finally ended and Republican nominee Donald Trump has clinched a decisive victory. Trump is on track to win 312 electoral college votes and, for the first time, a majority of the popular vote.Kamala Harris, a surprise entrant in the race, lost a closely contested election, marking the second time in three elections that a female Democratic presidential nominee failed to topple Trump.The election has implications for Indian Americans, for India, and for U.S.-India relations.To discuss these topics and more, Milan is joined on the show this week by Grand Tamasha news roundup regulars, Sadanand Dhume of the Wall Street Journal and the American Enterprise Institute and Tanvi Madan of the Brookings Institution.The trio discuss the election results, the voting patterns of Indian Americans, what a Trump 2.0 might look like, and the implications of the elections for U.S.-India relationsEpisode notes:1. Tanvi Madan, “India will need to adapt to a new White House,” Indian Express, November 4, 2024.2. Sadanand Dhume, “Indian-Americans and the ‘Racial Depolarization,'” Wall Street Journal, November 6, 2024.3. Sumitra Badrinathan, Devesh Kapur, and Milan Vaishnav, “Indian Americans at the Ballot Box: Results From the 2024 Indian American Attitudes Survey,” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, October 28, 2024.4. VIDEO: “Deciphering the Indian American Vote,” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, October 31, 2024.5. Milan Vaishnav, “With Trump, it's back to the future for the US,” Hindustan Times, November 6, 2024.6. Sumitra Badrinathan, Devesh Kapur, and Milan Vaishnav, “How Will Indian Americans Vote? Results From the 2020 Indian American Attitudes Survey,” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, October 14, 2020.7. AAPI Data tweet on exit poll data on Asian American voters, November 8, 2024.8. Tanvi Madan, “Has India made friends with China after the Modi-Xi agreement?” Brookings Institution, October 29, 2024.

As American voters go to the polls, all indications point to a statistical dead-heat between vice president and Democratic Party nominee Kamala Harris and former Republican president Donald Trump. The outcome will likely turn on tens of thousands of voters in a handful of key swing states. According to leading pollsters and polling aggregators, the race in these states is too close to call.In this hotly contested race, one demographic whose political preferences are much discussed, though less studied, is Indian Americans. A new study, the 2024 Indian American Attitudes Survey (IAAS), tries to fill this gap. The IAAS is a nationally representative online survey conducted by the Carnegie Endowment in conjunction with data and analytics firm YouGov. The report is authored by Sumitra Badrinathan of American University, Devesh Kapur of Johns Hopkins-SAIS, and Grand Tamasha host Milan Vaishnav.This week on the show, Milan speaks with Sumitra and Devesh about the main findings of their new report and what they portend for the election as well as future political trends in the United States.Episode notes:1. Sumitra Badrinathan, Devesh Kapur, and Milan Vaishnav, “Indian Americans at the Ballot Box: Results From the 2024 Indian American Attitudes Survey,” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, October 28, 2024.2. VIDEO: “Deciphering the Indian American Vote,” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, October 31, 2024.3. Sumitra Badrinathan, Devesh Kapur, and Milan Vaishnav, “How Will Indian Americans Vote? Results From the 2020 Indian American Attitudes Survey,” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, October 14, 2020.4. Christopher H. Achen and Larry M. Bartels, Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2016).5. Sara Sadhwani, “Asian American Mobilization: The Effect of Candidates and Districts on Asian American Voting Behavior,” Political Behavior 44 (2022):105–131.6. Devesh Kapur, Nirvikar Singh, and Sanjoy Chakravorty, The Other One Percent: Indians in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016).7. “Sumitra Badrinathan and Devesh Kapur Decode the 2020 Indian American Vote,” Grand Tamasha, October 14, 2020.

The United States is fast approaching the end of a lengthy presidential campaign in which the issue of immigration has taken center stage.Former President Donald Trump has repeatedly attacked President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for failing to protect America's borders, with Trump's misleading claims that immigrants in Ohio are eating people's pets emerging as one of the defining moments of the race so far. Harris, on the other hand, has gone on the offensive, blaming Trump for sabotaging a bipartisan Senate bill that would have beefed up border protection.Amidst this back-and-forth, there's been relatively little attention paid to the changing composition of who exactly is trying to enter the United States without prior authorization. Since 2020, India has emerged as the country of origin for the largest number of migrants attempting to enter the U.S. outside of the Western Hemisphere.A new analysis by the Niskanen Center, “Indian migrants at the U.S. border: What the data reveals,” digs into what we know—and what we don't—about this surge from India. The authors of this new analysis, Gil Guerra and Sneha Puri, join Milan on the show this week to talk about their new research.Gil is an Immigration Policy Analyst at the Niskanen Center, where he focuses on immigration and foreign policy, migrant integration, and demographic trends at the U.S.-Mexico border. And Sneha is an Immigration Policy Fellow at the Niskanen Center, focusing on a wide range of immigration policy issues such as legal migration pathways, employment-based visas, and irregular migration.The three discuss the data on irregular migration, the surge in Indian “encounters” at the border, and the reasons behind the spike. Plus, the trio discuss the similarities and differences between Chinese and Indian migration, the recent controversies around Khalistani separatists in the diaspora, and the policy options facing the next U.S. president.Episode notes:1. Gil Guerra and Sneha Puri, “Indian migrants at the U.S. border: What the data reveals,” Niskanen Center, September 16, 2024.2. Gil Guerra, “Four countries that will shape migration in 2024 – and beyond,” Niskanen Center, April 1, 2024.3. Sergio Martinez-Beltran, “Indian migrants drive surge in northern U.S. border crossings,” NPR, September 10, 2024.4. Sanjoy Chakravorty, Devesh Kapur, and Nirvikar Singh, The Other One Percent: Indians in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016).5. Devesh Kapur and Milan Vaishnav, “Industrial Policy Needs an Immigration Policy,” Foreign Affairs, August 22, 2024.6. Terry Milewski, Blood for Blood: Fifty Years of the Global Khalistan Project (New York: Harper Collins, 2021).7. Aparna Pande, From Chanakya to Modi: Evolution of India's Foreign Policy (New Delhi: Harper Collins India, 2017).8. “Dr. S. Jaishankar on the Future of U.S.-India Relations,” Grand Tamasha, October 2, 2024.9. “The India-Canada Conundrum (with Sanjay Ruparelia),” Grand Tamasha, November 8, 2023.

One of the most remarkable developments in Indian politics in recent years is the surge in female voter turnout. For the first several decades after Independence, women's participation on Election Day lagged men's by between 8 to 12 percentage points. In recent years, however, that gender gap has completely disappeared. In most state elections today, women turn out to vote with greater frequency than men.But this good news story obscures a puzzling fact: while Indian women vote at high rates, they are markedly less involved than men in politics between elections. A new book by the political scientist Soledad Artiz Prillaman gives us an explanation of why.Soledad is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Stanford University and the author of an award-winning new book, The Patriarchal Political Order: The Making and Unraveling of the Gendered Participation Gap in India.She joins Milan on the show this week to talk about gender and politics and what can be done to ensure women have a seat at the table even when the electoral spotlight is off. The two debate the nature of coercive political power, the importance of social norms, and the ubiquity of patriarchy. Plus, the two discuss the backlash to women's empowerment.Episode notes:1. Soledad Artiz Prillaman, “Strength in numbers: how women's groups close India's political gender gap,” American Journal of Political Science 67, no. 2 (2023): 390-410.2. Gabi Kruks-Wisner, Claiming the State: Active Citizenship and Rural Welfare in India (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2018).3. “What the Women's Reservation Bill Means for Women (with Carole Spary),” Grand Tamasha, October 25, 2023.4. “Making the Indian Economy Work for Women (with Shaili Chopra,” Grand Tamasha, October 19, 2022.

Indian federalism is encountering some of its biggest challenges since the early years of the republic. Relations between the union government in Delhi and the states are rocky, to put it mildly.India's better-off states are growing increasingly agitated about a system of fiscal federalism in which richer states end up subsidizing poorer, more backward ones.The new Goods and Services Tax (GST) has attracted fresh criticism because its benefits have not been shared equally by all states.And the coming fight over how parliamentary seats will be allocated across states has only added fuel to the fire.To discuss the brewing crisis in Indian federalism, Milan is joined today on the show this week by the economist Arvind Subramanian. Arvind is a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. He also served as the chief economic advisor to the government of India between 2014 and 2018. He recently co-authored a new essay in Economic and Political Weekly, “GST Revenue Performance: Gainers and Losers after Seven Years.”Milan and Arvind discuss the foundations of the GST, its implications for India's federal design, and its revenue implications. Plus, the two discuss growing resentment among India's prosperous states over fiscal transfers, questions about political representation, and the prospects of a new grand federal bargain.Episode notes:1. Varun Agarwal et al., “GST Revenue Performance: Gainers and Losers after Seven Years,” Economic and Political Weekly 59, no. 37 (September 14, 2024): 35-49.2. Varun Agarwal et al., “GST revenues: The fate of the compensation cess amid Centre-state row,” Business Standard, July 3, 2024.3. Varun Agarwal et al., “GST's revenue performance: Centre's sacrifice for cooperative federalism,” Business Standard, July 3, 2024.4. Josh Felman and Arvind Subramanian, “Is India Really the Next China?” Foreign Policy, April 8, 2024.5. Arvind Subramanian et al., “Understanding GST revenue performance,” Business Standard, January 1, 2024.6. Arvind Subramanian and Josh Felman, “Why India Can't Replace China,” Foreign Affairs, December 9, 2022.

There is hardly a day that goes by when the subject of India's demographics is not front and center in the news.Whether it is India surpassing China as the world's most populous country, questions about how the Indian economy can provide enough jobs for a growing workforce, or how population should be used to allocate everything from legislative seats to fiscal transfers, demographics are at the heart of many debates surrounding India's political economy.To talk about India's demographics and its demographic transition, Milan is joined on the show this week by Poonam Muttreja, who serves as the Executive Director of the Population Foundation of India.For over 40 years, she has been a strong advocate for women's health, reproductive and sexual rights, and rural livelihoods. Before joining PFI, she served as the India Country Director of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation for 15 years.Poonam and Milan discuss the myths of overpopulation, India's fertility decline, and conspiracy theories around India's changing religious demographics. Plus, the two discuss male participation in family planning and what government should (and should not) do to manage India's demographics.Episode notes:1. Poonam Muttreja and Martand Kaushik, “Dispelling population myths triggered by a working paper,” Hindu, May 30, 2024.2. Sanghamitra Singh, “We're worried about population explosion. So let's talk brass tacks,” Hindustan Times, July 27, 2023.3. Zubeda Hamid, “Education remains the most effective contraceptive: experts,” Hindu, July 5, 2024.4. Poonam Muttreja, “Centering women and marginalized communities in India's population policy,” Times of India, July 17, 2024.5. Poonam Muttreja, Sanghamitra Singh, and Martand Kaushik, “Busting myths about India's population growth,” IDR, August 14, 2024.6. Nirmala Buch, “Reservation for Women in Panchayats: A Sop in Disguise?” Economic and Political Weekly 44, no. 40 (October 3, 2009): 8–10.

On this week's show, we're doing something a little different.This week, India's External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar paid a visit to our Carnegie Endowment office in Washington to take part in a fireside chat with Carnegie's President Mariano-Florentino (Tino) Cuéllar.Dr. Jaishankar's visit to Washington comes on the heels of last week's Quad Summit and a spate of high-level meetings coinciding with the United Nations General Assembly in New York.This week, in place of our usual programming, we're bringing you Dr. Jaishankar's hour-long engagement at Carnegie. In the conversation, and the Q&A that followed, the Minister discussed the state of U.S.-India ties, the prospect of an “Asian NATO,” the war in Ukraine, and the future of Taiwan. Plus, he fielded questions on India's neighborhood policy and the government's relationship with the Indian diaspora.We found this conversation insightful and illuminating, and we think you will too. Milan will be back in the host's chair for next week's show.Episode notes:1. “Looking Back at U.S.-India Relations in the Biden Era (with Ashley J. Tellis),” Grand Tamasha, September 11, 2024.2. “EAM Jaishankar on India's Pluralism, Jammu and Kashmir, and Globalization,” Grand Tamasha, October 1, 2019.

The Identity Project: The Unmaking of a Democracy is a new book by the journalist Rahul Bhatia. Many Grand Tamasha listeners will recognize Rahul's byline in revered publications like the New Yorker, the Guardian, and Caravan. He's written celebrated profiles of everyone from Arnab Goswami to cricket chief N. Srinivasan. And his reporting has taken on subjects from Baba Ramdev's business empire to the COVID-19 pandemic.His new book is based on six years of research and reportage from across India, where he set out on a quest to understand the ideological moorings of what we have come to call “the New India.” To talk more about his book and the state of democracy in India, Rahul joins Milan on the podcast this week.The two discuss Rahul's reporting on Aadhaar—India's unique biometric identification program—and its precursors, the Hindu nationalist push for a new national citizenship regime, and the inner workings of the Indian state's coercive power. Plus, the two discuss whether and how the results of India's 2024 election have been a setback to the cause of Hindu nationalism.Episode notes:1. Rahul Bhatia, “The trials of an Indian witness: how a Muslim man was caught in a legal nightmare,” The Guardian, March 2, 2023.2. Rahul Bhatia, “How India's Welfare Revolution Is Starving Citizens,” The New Yorker, May 16, 2018.3. Rahul Bhatia, “The Year of Love Jihad in India,” The New Yorker, December 31, 2017.4. Rahul Bhatia, “India Loves Data but Fails to Protect It,” New York Times, April 3, 2018.5. “Governing India's Digital Revolution (with Rahul Matthan),” Grand Tamasha, January 24, 2024.

It has been more than three months since the conclusion of India's massive 2024 general elections. And it is no exaggeration to say that the results of the election caught many, if not most, election observers by surprise.To many, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) appeared invincible in national elections especially given the widespread popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. And yet, the party suffered a significant setback, emerging as the single largest party but well short of a parliamentary majority.So, what actually happened in these elections? How can we understand the BJP's surprising showing? Has the Modi magic dissipated? And is Rahul Gandhi the new standard bearer of change?To discuss these and many other questions, Milan is joined on the show this week by Sanjay Kumar. Sanjay is Professor at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies in New Delhi and co-director of Lokniti, India's premier public opinion research organization. Since 1996, Lokniti has carried out a National Election Study after every general election, creating a unique repository of knowledge on the political and social attitudes of the Indian citizen.On the show, Milan and Sanjay discuss the key findings from this year's National Election Study. They talk about the resonance of the INDIA alliance's campaign, divergent outcomes in the Hindi belt, Modi's declining popularity, and the emerging realignment in southern politics. Plus, the two discuss the reasons for India's exit poll debacle.Episode notes:1. Suhas Palshikar, Sandeep Shastri, and Sanjay Kumar, “CSDS-Lokniti 2024 pre-poll survey: There is no clear and close challenger to the BJP this time. ‘Ifs and buts' apply,” Hindu, April 13, 2024.2. Sandeep Shastri, Sanjay Kumar, and Suhas Palshikar, “CSDS-Lokniti post-poll survey: A return to an era of genuine coalitions,” Hindu, June 6, 2024.3. Lokniti Team, “Post-poll survey: Methodology,” Hindu, June 6, 2024.4. Sandeep Shastri, “CSDS-Lokniti post-poll survey: Modi factor seems to have stagnated over a decade,” Hindu, June 6, 2024.5. Sanjay Kumar and Fuhaar Bandhu, “CSDS-Lokniti post-poll survey: BJP maintains advantage among young voters,” June 7, 2024.6. Lokniti Team, “CSDS-Lokniti post-poll survey: Clearing misconceptions about the post-poll survey,” Hindu, June 9, 2024.7. “Decoding the 2024 Indian General Elections (with Sunetra Choudhury and Rahul Verma),” Grand Tamasha, June 6, 2024.8. “Why India's Modi Underperformed (with Ravi Agrawal, Yamini Aiyar, and Milan Vaishnav),” FP Live, June 7, 2024.9. “India's 2024 Election—and its Aftermath (with Sadanand Dhume and Tanvi Madan),” Grand Tamasha, June 19, 2024.

After a short summer break, Grand Tamasha is back with its twelfth season!As we head into the U.S. presidential elections and bid farewell to the Biden administration, it seems like an opportune time to discuss the last four years of U.S.-India ties under President Biden and to take stock of where we are at this particular moment in history.To do so, Milan is joined by one of the show's most popular guests, Ashley J. Tellis. Ashley holds the Tata Chair for Strategic Affairs at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he specializes in international security and U.S. foreign and defense policy. He has a special focus on Asia and the Indian subcontinent and is widely considered one of the world's most respected voices on Indian foreign policy and U.S.-India relations.Ashley and Milan talk about the Trump inheritance, the Biden administration's handling of the explosive “murder-for-hire” plot,” and the unfinished business of the U.S.-India civil nuclear deal.Plus, the two discuss India's relations with Russia and China and how the U.S. has managed tensions and opportunities in each.  Finally, the duo debate how the outcome of the U.S. election might shape the trajectory of bilateral ties.Episode notes:1. Ashley J. Tellis, “Inevitable Fractures: The Ukraine War and the Global System,” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, May 13, 2024.2. Ashley J. Tellis, “Completing the U.S.-India Civil Nuclear Agreement: Fulfilling the Promises of a Summer Long Past,” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, November 27, 2023.3. “Reexamining America's Bet on India (with Ashley J. Tellis),” Grand Tamasha, June 21, 2023.4. Ashley J. Tellis, “America's Bad Bet on India,” Foreign Affairs, May 1, 2023.5. Ashley J. Tellis, Bibek Debroy, and C. Raja Mohan, Grasping Greatness: Making India a Leading Power (New Delhi: Penguin, 2022).

Gurcharan Das is one of India's best-known authors and thinkers. He had a celebrated career in business, most notably as the CEO of Procter and Gamble in India, before devoting his full attention to writing. He is the author of numerous best-selling books, including India Unbound, The Difficulty of Being Good, and India Grows at Night.Most recently, Das has written a new book called The Dilemma of the Indian Liberal, in which he recounts his own professional and intellectual journey and traces how and why he became a liberal. In telling his own story, he also narrates the story of an India that continues to struggle in its own quest to become a successful liberal democracy.To close out the eleventh season of Grand Tamasha, Milan welcomes Gurcharan Das to the show for the very first time. They discuss Das' reactions to the 2024 Indian general election, the Indian variant of liberalism, and Das' journey with liberalism. Plus, the two discuss Das' ill-fated foray into politics and why community is so important to preserving liberal values.With this episode, Grand Tamasha officially begins its summer vacation. Stay tuned for more information on Season 12 of the show, which will get kick off in September. Happy summer!Episode notes:1. “Gurcharan Das on why it's lonely being an Indian liberal,” The Economist, March 19, 2024.2. Suresh Seshadri, “Review of The Dilemma of an Indian Liberal by Gurcharan Das: Keeping the faith,” Hindu, May 3, 2024.3. Gurcharan Das, “There's good & bad nationalism. One cherishes power, the other the nation,” ThePrint, April 8, 2024.4. “India's 2024 Election—and its Aftermath (with Sadanand Dhume and Tanvi Madan,” Grand Tamasha, June 19, 2024.5. “Decoding the 2024 Indian General Elections (with Sunetra Choudhury and Rahul Verma),” Grand Tamasha, June 6, 2024.

This week on Grand Tamasha, Milan is joined by Grand Tamasha's India news roundup regulars: Sadanand Dhume of the Wall Street Journal and the American Enterprise Institute and Tanvi Madan of the Brookings Institution.On the show this week, the trio discusses the 2024 Indian general election and its aftermath. They debate the politics, as well as the economic and foreign policy implications of the result. Did Rahul Gandhi rehabilitate himself? Will coalition politics derail economic reforms? How are foreign capitals reacting to the surprise result? Milan, Tanvi, and Sadanand discuss these questions and much more.Episode notes:Sadanand Dhume, “India's Election Humbles Narendra Modi,” Wall Street Journal, June 5, 2024.Sadanand Dhume, “India Could Become Venezuela on the Ganges,” Wall Street Journal, May 22.“India's Modi Looks to Retain Power (with Tanvi Madan),” Bloomberg Daybreak Asia (podcast), June 5, 2024.“Two years into the Biden administration's Indo-Pacific Strategy: A conversation with Assistant Secretary Daniel Kritenbrink,” Brookings Institution, May 14, 2024.“Decoding the 2024 Indian General Elections (with Sunetra Choudhury and Rahul Verma),” Grand Tamasha, June 6, 2024.

On Sunday night, India's new National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government was sworn into office, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at its helm once more.We have a new group of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) allies, a new group of ministers, and a new look in terms of how the Modi government will function in its third term. However, the economic challenges the new government faces are quite old.Many experts believe that concerns about inflation, jobs, and lack of upward mobility dented the BJP's electoral prospects in the recent general election. To talk about the Indian economy and the steps the new government must take, Milan is joined on the show this week by Trinh Nguyen.Trinh is a senior economist covering emerging Asia at Natixis, based in Hong Kong, where she surveys economic trends across Asia, including in India. She previously worked at HSBC as an ASEAN economist from 2011 to 2015. She is also a nonresident scholar in the Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.Trinh and Milan discuss the market reaction to the surprise 2024 election result, the key vulnerabilities for the Indian economy, and how India is performing relative to its Asian peers. Plus, the two discuss India's ability to leverage the “China+1” moment, the recent slump in foreign direct investment (FDI), and whether coalition government spells doom for reforms.Episode notes:“Political Earthquakes: Key 2024 Elections in Emerging Markets and What it Means for Growth and Reforms,” Natixis, June 4, 2024.Trinh Nguyen, Kelly Wang, and Diana Zhao, “Lower current account deficit shields India from external shocks and future success hinges on sustaining it,” Natixis, May 29, 2024.Trinh Nyugen and Kelly Wang, “Modi Drove Growth with Public Investment, Supported by Higher Fiscal Revenue; Foreign Inflows Should Help with Funding Pressure,” Natixis, April 12, 2024.Trinh Nguyen and Kelly Wang, “India's Womenomics? Modi's Decade of Formalisation of Jobs Marches Forward,” Natixis, March 8, 2024.“How India's Economy Can Break the Mold (with Rohit Lamba),” Grand Tamasha, May 15, 2024.“The Great Indian Poverty—and Inequality—​Debate (with Maitreesh Ghatak),” Grand Tamasha, April 24, 2024.“Decoding the Indian Economy (with Pranjul Bhandari),” Grand Tamasha, April 3, 2024.

We've finally come to the end of the 46-day Indian general election. And we have a surprising result which many experts did not see coming. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi failed to secure a single-party majority in the Lok Sabha in what is being interpreted as a major setback.The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) did, however, win a majority and is set to form a new government on June 8th under Modi's leadership. The opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) grouping, in turn, performed much better than expected, winning 233 seats—a massive increase from 2019.On today's podcast, we bring you a conversation that Milan recorded with two of India's leading political experts: Sunetra Choudhury, national political editor of the Hindustan Times, and Rahul Verma, Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi.The trio spend an hour digging into the nitty gritty of these election results. They discuss the BJP's stumbles, the INDIA alliance's keys to success, and what the election tells us about national issues like the economy and Hindu nationalism. Plus, the three discuss what the we can expect from the new NDA government.If you're interested in the video of the conversation, you can find it on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/live/JfhZEAclHv4Episode notes:1. Milan Vaishnav, “Looking back before looking ahead in 2024,” Hindustan Times, June 5, 2024.2. Sunetra Choudhury, “As Cong nears 100 seats, Kharge makes overtures to NDA parties, works the phone,” Hindustan Times, June 4, 2024.3. Rahul Verma, “Elections that reminded netas, people are the boss,” Times of India, June 5, 2024.4. “India Elects 2024,” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Gujarat Under Modi: Laboratory of Today's India is a new book by the scholar Christophe Jaffrelot but one that has an old backstory.It is the definitive account of Narendra Modi's tenure as chief minister of the state of Gujarat. And it helps place into context the changes we've seen in national politics, economic policy, and society over the past ten years under Prime Minister Modi. It is a book that the author started researching twenty years ago and is finally out in the world.To talk more about the book, Christophe joins Milan on the show this week. He is the Avantha Chair and Professor of Indian Politics and Sociology at the King's India Institute. He teaches at Sciences Po and is also a non-resident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International PeaceMilan and Christophe discuss the tortuous backstory to the book, what attracted Christophe to the Gujarat story in 2001, and how the BJP established total hegemony in the western state. Plus, the two discuss the “Gujarat model” under Modi, the idea of a “deeper state,” and the often-tense relations between Modi and the Sangh Parivar.Episode notes:1. “Christophe Jaffrelot on India's First Dictatorship,” Grand Tamasha, April 14, 2021.2. Sudha Ramachandran, “Christophe Jaffrelot on What Makes Brand Modi Successful,” The Diplomat, April 8, 2024.3. Christophe Jaffrelot, “A Deeper State,” The Caravan, February 13, 2024.4. Christophe Jaffrelot, “The enduring personality cult of Narendra Modi,” February 13, 2024.

Over the last five years, Milan has interviewed authors of big books, that have brought innovative new ideas to the India policy debate.  And he's also interviewed authors of lengthy books. On the show this week, he sits down with an author who's written a big book in every sense of the term.It is no stretch to say that Accelerating India's Development: A State-Led Roadmap for Effective Governance is one of the most important books written about the political economy of India's development. Over 600 pages and 200 pages of notes, it takes readers on an exhaustive deep dive of India's governance challenges, especially in delivering essential public services. The book draws on a wealth of research and practical insights to offer actionable, evidence-based strategies for reforms.The author of this new book is the economist Karthik Muralidharan. Karthik is the Tata Chancellor's Professor of Economics at the University of California San Diego.He is one of the most prolific economists of his generation and his works spans public finance and development economics, with a focus on education, health, welfare, and public service delivery.Milan and Karthik discuss the book's origin story, Karthik's framework for thinking about state capacity, and how to change the incentives of politicians and bureaucrats. Plus, the two discuss some of the book's big ideas, ranging from data collection to public sector contracting and cash transfers.Episode notes:1. Karthik Muralidharan, Niehaus, Paul, and Sandip Sukhtankar, "General Equilibrium Effects of (Improving) Public Employment Programs: Experimental Evidence from India," Econometrica 91, no. 4 (2023): 1261-1295.2. Karthik Muralidharan, Paul Niehaus, and Sandip Sukhtankar, "Integrating Biometric Authentication in India's Welfare Programs: Lessons from a Decade of Reforms," Center for Effective Global Action Working Papers, University of California, 2022.3. Karthik Muralidharan, Paul Niehaus, Sandip Sukhtankar, and Jeffrey Weaver, "Improving Last-Mile Service Delivery Using Phone-Based Monitoring," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 13, no. 2 (2021): 52-82.4. Karthik Muralidharan, Paul Niehaus, and Sandip Sukhtankar, "Building State Capacity: Evidence from Biometric Smartcards in India," American Economic Review 106, no. 10 (2016): 2895-2929.5. Karthik Muralidharan, “A New Approach to Public Sector Hiring in India for Improved Service Delivery,” India Policy Forum 12, no. 1 (2016): 187-236.

Breaking the Mould: India's Untraveled Path to Prosperity is a big new book by the economists Raghuram Rajan and Rohit Lamba. The book is both a critique of India's development model as well as a manifesto for reform.Most notably, it challenges the conventional wisdom that India's primary goal should be to transform the country into a blue-collar manufacturing powerhouse. Rajan and Lamba argue that India cannot duplicate China's development model, but it has the opportunity to leapfrog by focusing higher up the value chain.To discuss the book's ideas and its policy implications, Milan is joined on the show this week by Rohit Lamba. Rohit is an economist at New York University-Abu Dhabi and will soon be joining the Economics Department at Cornell University. He's twice worked in the chief economic advisor's office in the Indian Ministry of Finance.The two discuss what the critics get right about the Indian economy, why India cannot blindly follow the Chinese model, and how India can pivot “from brawn to brain.” Plus, Rohit and Milan discuss the manufacturing versus services debate, India's inward economic turn, and what India must do to upgrade its human capital.Episode notes:1. W. Arthur Lewis, “Economic Development with Unlimited Supplies of Labour,” The Manchester School 22 (1954): 139-191.2. Rohit Lamba and Arvind Subramanian, “Dynamism with Incommensurate Development: The Distinctive Indian Model,” Journal of Economic Perspectives 34, no. 1 (2020): 3-30.3. Devesh Kapur, “Why Does the Indian State Both Fail and Succeed?" Journal of Economic Perspectives 34, no. 1 (2020): 31-54.4. Devesh Kapur, “Exit,” Seminar 677 (2015).

The third phase of India's 44-day long polls took place this week with voting held in 94 constituencies across 12 states. Thus far, the elections have been marked by lower-than-expected turnout, intensifying communal rhetoric, and a sharp debate about inequality and redistribution.Against this backdrop, the New York Times Magazine recently published an essay by the journalist Samanth Subramanian titled, “Time Is Running Out for Rahul Gandhi's Vision for India.” The essay was based on a reporting trip in February of this year in which Samanth traveled Uttar Pradesh with Rahul Gandhi, the former president of the Congress Party who remains its most promising face. Samanth is the author of several award-winning books, This Divided Island: Life, Death and the Sri Lankan War and A Dominant Character: The Radical Science and Restless Politics of J.B.S. Haldane. He has also long reported on India and Indian politics.To talk more about his recent essay, Samanth joins Milan on the podcast this week. On the show, he and Milan discuss Rahul Gandhi's political vision, the tensions within the Congress Party, and Gandhi's strengths and weaknesses as a politician. Plus, the two debate the party's fortunes, its relationship with Muslims, and the Gandhi family legacy.Episode notes:1. Rahul Bhattacharya, “Rahul Gandhi is on the march. But where is he heading?” 1843 Magazine, May 2, 2024.2. Samanth Subramanian, “multi-storied,” Substack newsletter.3. Bhagi Siva and Samanth Subramanian, “What it takes to live near an elephant herd,” Washington Post, January 21, 2024.4. Samanth Subramanian, “When the Hindu Right Came for Bollywood,” New Yorker, October 10, 2022.5. Samanth Subramanian, “How Hindu supremacists are tearing India apart,” Guardian, February 20, 2020.

The incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi entered this election as the clear favorite with every single pre-election survey pointing a decisive victory. However, the party is leaving no stone unturned in its effort to notch a third consecutive parliamentary majority.To discuss the BJP's campaign, Milan is joined on the show this week by Smriti Kak Ramachandran, a veteran journalist who covers the BJP for the Hindustan Times. Smriti has spent over a decade in journalism combining old fashioned leg work with modern story telling tools.Milan and Smriti discuss how the BJP is responding to lower-than-expected turnout in the first phase of voting, Modi's communally-tinged speech in Rajasthan, and the surprising omission from the BJP's manifesto. Plus, the two discuss the states the BJP is keeping a close eye on, from Odisha in the east to Tamil Nadu in the south.Episode notes:1. Smriti Kak Ramachandran, “Lok Sabha polls: BJP announces new candidate for Ladakh,” Hindustan Times, April 23, 2024.2. Smriti Kak Ramachandran, “No changes to constitution, assures PM,” Hindustan Times, April 22, 2024.3. Smriti Kak Ramachandran, “Odisha gives BJP sleepless nights,” Hindustan Times, April 18, 2024.4. Smriti Kak Ramachandran, “Lok Sabha election manifestos: Modi's Guarantee, Congress's NYAY,” Hindustan Times, April 16, 2024.5. Smriti Kak Ramachandran, “String of new BJP entrants puts focus on headhunter,” Hindustan Times, April 16, 2024.6. Smriti Kak Ramachandran, “BJP Lok Sabha poll manifesto: A mix of welfare politics, ideological causes,” Hindustan Times, April 14, 2024.7. “Previewing India's 2024 General Election (with Sukumar Ranganathan),” Grand Tamasha, April 17, 2024.8. Pratap Bhanu Mehta, “Why voters' silence is making the BJP nervous,” Indian Express, April 24, 2024.

As India heads to the polls, a new chapter is being written in a very old debate about poverty and inequality in India. This debate has been stirred up by the release of new data from a government-sponsored consumption survey, which some have argued shows a massive decline in poverty in India. Others believe that this data are not so unequivocal and point to a widening gap between top income-earners and ordinary Indians. To make sense of this debate, Milan is joined on the show this week by Maitreesh Ghatak. Maitreesh is a professor of economics at the London School of Economics, where he has been the director of the Development Economics Group at the research centre, STICERD, since 2005. He is a widely respected voice on India's economic development and has been especially focused, in recent years, on questions of growth, poverty, and inequality.Milan and Maitreesh discuss the government's recent consumption survey, contested claims that India has eliminated extreme poverty, and recent inequality trends. Plus, the two discuss the overall health of the macro-economy and the state of India's statistical system.Episode notes:1. Maitreesh Ghatak and Rishabh Kumar, “Poverty in India Over the Last Decade: Data, Debates, and Doubts,” The India Forum, April 10, 2024.2. Maitreesh Ghatak, “The rise of the affluent is the real India growth story,” Hindustan Times, February 29, 2024.3. Maitreesh Ghatak, “The simmering debate over poverty rate,” Mint, May 4, 2023.4. Maitreesh Ghatak, Ramya Raghavan, and Linchuan Xu, “Trends in Economic Inequality in India,” The India Forum, September 19, 2022.5. Maitreesh Ghatak, “India's Inequality Problem,” The India Forum, June 23, 2021.6. “The Crisis in India's Economic Data (with Pramit Bhattacharya),” Grand Tamasha, February 12, 2020.7. “Decoding the Indian Economy (with Pranjul Bhandari),” Grand Tamasha, April 3, 2024.

In just a few days, India's eighteenth general elections will get underway with voting in the first phase kicking off on April 19. Between April 19 and June 1, India will have seven separate polling days culminating in a final counting of votes on June 4.Every single pre-election survey to date shows the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi winning a comfortable majority of seats in the Lok Sabha. If these predictions come to fruition, it would be the first time that a party has won three consecutive elections under the same leader since Congress during the Nehru period.To preview these elections—and what they mean for India's future—Milan is joined on the show this week by Sukumar Ranganathan, editor-in-chief of the Hindustan Times. Few people in India have observed and analyzed politics, economics, and social change as comprehensively as Sukumar.Milan and Sukumar discuss the issues animating voters this election, the state of the economy, and the significant expansion of the BJP coalition. Plus, the two discuss the opposition's struggles, the BJP's big push in the southern states, and what we know about the agenda for Modi 3.0.Episode notes:1. Milan Vaishnav, “On electoral bonds, a short-lived celebration,” Hindustan Times, February 17, 2024.2. “Decoding the Indian Economy (with Pranjul Bhandari)” Grand Tamasha, April 3, 2024.3. Sukumar Ranganathan, “Five Things with @HT_Ed,” Hindustan Times (newsletter).4. Hindustan Times, General Elections Retrospective (accessed via the HT app).

On March 11, the Indian Defense Research and Development Organization conducted the maiden test of its Agni-V MIRV (Multiple Independently Targetable Re-Entry Vehicle) missile. MIRV capability is a complex technology and there are only a handful of countries that have developed it.The test represents a breakthrough for India's missile program but it's also prompted warnings of a new arms race in the Indo-Pacific, a region already marked by sharpening geopolitical rivalries. To discuss India's missile program, its defense posture, and its emerging space policy, Milan is joined on the show this week by Ankit Panda. Ankit is the Stanton Senior Fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He's an expert on the Asia-Pacific region and his work encompasses nuclear strategy, arms control, missile defense, nonproliferation, and emerging technologies.Ankit and Milan discuss the significance of India's MIRV test and the new “missile age” in the Indo-Pacific. Plus, the two discuss the China-India-Pakistan triangle, the importance of India's 2019 anti-satellite test, and the future of India's space policy.Episode notes:1. Ankit Panda, Indo-Pacific Missile Arsenals: Avoiding Spirals and Mitigating Escalation Risks (Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2023).2. “Southern Asia's Nuclear Future with Ashley J. Tellis,” Grand Tamasha, October 26, 2022.3. Ankit Panda, “The Indo-Pacific's new missile age demands Washington's attention,” Breaking Defense, November 16, 2023.4. Ankit Panda, “How India's breakthrough as an ‘elite space power' devalues discovery and innovation,” South China Morning Post, April 7, 2019.5. Alex Travelli, “The Surprising Striver in the World's Space Business,” New York Times, July 4, 2023.6. Toby Dalton et al., “Dimming Prospects for U.S.-Russia Nonproliferation Cooperation,” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, March 14, 2024.

It seems wherever you turn these days, there are stories about India's status as the fastest growing major economy in the world. Its growth rates remain the envy of both the developed—and the developing—world. But what is really happening under the hood? What are the opportunities for India in a world riven by conflict and technological disruptions? And what challenges might it face as it tries to navigate these choppy waters?To talk about the nuts and bolts of the Indian economy, Milan is joined on this week's show by the economist Pranjul Bhandari. Pranjul is chief India and Indonesia economist and managing director for global research at HSBC. Whether it's breaking down the latest GDP print, forecasting India's inflation dynamics, or dissecting India's annual budget, Pranjul is one of the sharpest and most prolific observers of the Indian economy.Milan and Pranjul discuss the latest growth figures from India, the stickiness of inflation, and underwhelming consumption growth. Plus, the two discuss the puzzle of India's foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows and what it will take for the “Make in India” program to succeed. The duo conclude with a discussion about the reforms India must prioritize if it is to achieve sustained rapid growth.Episode notes:1. Mohamed El-Erian and Michael Spence, “The Indian Giant Has Arrived,” Project Syndicate, March 22, 2024.2. Pranjul Bhandari, “Beyond the budget: what happened when no one was really looking?” Mint, January 30, 2024.3. Pranjul Bhandari, “India's fiscal future: Lots done, more to do,” Mint, November 22, 2023.4. Pranjul Bhandari, “India's growth prospects are on the up. What changed?” Indian Express, December 19, 2023.5. Pranjul Bhandari, “Building an India for manufacturers,” Indian Express, October 9, 2023.

In today's India, there are few historical figures whose writing and thinking help explain the current ideological zeitgeist more than Vinayak Damodar Savarkar.Despite this newfound attention, Savarkar is often viewed in black and white—as a staunch Hindu nationalist who devoted his life to expounding the virtues of conservative, Hindu majority rule.A new book by the Berkeley historian Janaki Bakhle, Savarkar and the Making of Hindutva, paints a much more nuanced picture of the Hindutva ideologue. Savarkar was certainly a Hindu champion, but he was also an anti-caste progressive, a pioneering advocate for women's rights, and a patriotic poet.To talk more about Savarkar's multiple identities—and his legacy in today's India—Janaki joins Milan on the podcast this week. They discuss Savarkar's life under surveillance, shifts in his views on Muslims, and his desire to jettison caste in order to strengthen Hindu identity. Plus, the two discuss Savarkar's Marathi poetry and his ideas about the nation-state.Episode notes:1. Janaki Bakhle, “Savarkar accepted intercaste marriages for one reason—it kept Hindus within the community,” ThePrint, February 24, 2024.2. Janaki Bakhle, Two Men and Music: Nationalism in the Making of an Indian Classical Tradition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005).

A few weeks ago, the Indian government formally notified the rules implementing the controversial 2019 Citizenship Amendment Act, or CAA. The law provides persecuted religious minorities hailing from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan an expedited pathway to Indian citizenship, provided they belong to the Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jain, Parsi, or Sikh communities. Notably, the law does not provide such a pathway to those who belong to the Muslim faith.The notification of the CAA rules—on the eve of India's 2024 general election—has kicked off a fresh debate over the law, its implementing provisions, and the resulting implications for the future of secularism in India.To discuss all of this and more, Milan is joined on the show this week by legal scholar M. Mohsin Alam Bhat. Mohsin is a Lecturer in Law at Queen Mary University of London, where he specializes in constitutional law and human rights. Mohsin has written extensively about law and citizenship in India.Milan and Mohsin discuss the origins of the CAA, its constitutionality, and the fine print of the CAA rules. Plus, the two discuss the situation in Assam, that state's National Register of Citizens (NRC), and the prospects of an all-India NRC exercise.Episode notes:1. “What's Happening to India's Rohingya Refugees? (with Priyali Sur and Daniel Sullivan),” Grand Tamasha, May 24, 2023.2. Mohsin Alam Bhat and Aashish Yadav, “CAA will not help persecuted Hindus, Sikhs from neighbouring countries,” Indian Express, March 19, 2024.3. “The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019,” PRS Legislative Research.4. Madhav Khosla and Milan Vaishnav, “The Three Faces of the Indian State,” Journal of Democracy 32, no. 1 (2021): 111-125.5. Mohsin Alam Bhat, “The Constitutional Case Against the Citizenship Amendment Bill,” Economic and Political Weekly 54, no.3 (2019): 12-14.6. Mohsin Alam Bhat, “‘The Irregular' and the Unmaking of Minority Citizenship: The Rules of Law in Majoritarian India,” Queen Mary Law Research Paper No. 395/2022.7. Niraja Gopal Jayal, “Faith-based Citizenship,” The India Forum, October 31, 2019. 

Zac O'Yeah is a Swedish novelist, rock musician, and author of the Majestic Trilogy—a trio of detective stories set in his adopted home of Bengaluru. And if that were not enough, he's also the author of the brand-new book, The Great Indian Food Trip: Around a Subcontinent à la Carte.In the book, O'Yeah catalogues his travels crisscrossing India on a gluttonous search for the best food and drink—from the pickled mussels of Kerala to the goat's brain of Mumbai's Irani cafes and the signature masala dosas of Mysore. The book offers readers a mouth-watering, whirlwind tour of Indian cuisine.On this week's show, O'Yeah joins Milan to talk about the culinary wonders of India. They discuss the simple pleasure of Koshy's in Bengaluru, where to eat proper “club” food, and the surprising “pizza-lovers' paradise” that is Puducherry. Plus, O'Yeah dishes about his boozy night drinking caju in Goa with writers Orhan Pamuk and Amitav Ghosh and reveals what Indian dishes are on his list of essentials.Episode notes:1. Sidharth Bhatia, “An Eating and Drinking Tour of India, With Some Misadventures Along the Way,” The Wire, July 8, 2023.2. Zac O'Yeah, “A culinary trip across Southeast Asia,” Indian Express, January 6, 2024.

Over the last several decades, there have been monumental changes in the social, economic, and political lives of Dalits, who have historically been one of the most oppressed groups in all of South Asia.A new volume edited by three leading scholars of India—Dalits in the New Millennium—examines these changes, interrogates their impacts on Dalit lives, and traces the shift in Dalit politics from a focus on social justice—to a focus on development and socio-economic mobility.D. Shyam Babu, who along with Sudhai Pai and Rahul Verma, is one of the co-editors of this important new book joined Milan on the show this week to talk more about their findings. Shyam Babu is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi. His research focuses on how economic changes in India have been shaping social change and transformation for the benefit of marginalized sections, especially Dalits.The two discuss Dalits' shift toward the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the decline of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) of Mayawati, and what “Ambedkarization” has done for the Dalit community. Plus, the two discuss the shortcomings Dalits experience in their “social citizenship” and the successes and challenges of Dalit capitalism.Episode notes:1. Devesh Kapur, Chandra Bhan Prasad, Lant Pritchett, and D. Shyam Babu, “Rethinking Inequality: Dalits in Uttar Pradesh in the Market Reform Era,” Economic and Political Weekly 45, no. 35 (August 28-September 3, 2010): 39-49.2. Devesh Kapur, Chandra Bhan Prasad, and D. Shyam Babu, Defying the Odds: The Rise of Dalit Entrepreneurs (New Delhi: Vintage, 2014).3. D. Shyam Babu, “From empowerment to disenfranchisement: Lower caste mobilisation appears to have run its course,” Times of India, August 28, 2019.4. Chandra Bhan Prasad, “Fellow Dalits, open your own bank: If no one else, Dalit middle class can fund Dalit capitalism to produce Dalit billionaires,” Times of India, November 25, 2019.5. Devesh Kapur, “Fraternity in the making of the Indian nation,” Seminar 701 (2017).

Two weeks ago, a five-judge bench of India's Supreme Court ruled that electoral bonds—a controversial instrument of political giving introduced by the Narendra Modi government—violated the Constitution and would immediately cease operating.Under the court's ruling, the State Bank of India will immediately stop issuing bonds; the Election Commission of India must disclose details of all transactions since April 2019; and any bonds which have not yet been encashed are to be refunded.On this week's podcast, Grand Tamasha host Milan Vaishnav—who has written extensively about campaign finance in India—takes a turn in the hot seat. In a special collaboration with DAKSH, a Bangalore-based non-profit working on judicial reforms and access to justice, Leah Verghese (host of the DAKSH Podcast) interviews Milan about the Court's ruling and what it means for the future of political funding in India.The two discuss the history of campaign finance in India, the controversy around electoral bonds, and the controversy around foreign funding of elections. Plus, Milan and Leah discuss why ordinary Indians should care about the dynamics of election funding.Episode notes:1. Milan Vaishnav, “On electoral bonds, a short-lived celebration,” Hindustan Times, February 17, 2024.2. Crime and Politics with Milan Vaishnav,” The DAKSH Podcast, September 2022.3. Devesh Kapur and Milan Vaishnav, eds., Costs of Democracy: Political Finance in India (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2018).4. Milan Vaishnav, When Crime Pays: Money and Muscle in Indian Politics (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017).