Grand Tamasha

Indian Genius: The Meteoric Rise of Indians in America is a new book by the author and journalist Meenakshi Ahamed. While many immigrant groups have found success in the United States, few have excelled as far and as fast as Indian Americans, reaching heights in a single generation that many thought would take the better part of a century to achieve. Ahamed’s new book offers fascinating portraits of several Indian Americans in three distinct sectors—technology, medicine, and public policy. The book tries to understand what exactly accounts for Indian Americans' ability to break into mainstream American culture and their meteoric rise within its ranks.Listeners may remember our 2021 conversation with Meena on her previous book, A Matter of Trust: India–US Relations from Truman to Trump.To talk about her new book, Meena joins Milan on the show this week. They talk about the “godfather” of the Indian tech community in Silicon Valley, the balance between creativity and execution, and the role of caste. Plus, the two discuss the real (and perceived) influence of Indian Americans in Washington. Episode notes: 1. Sanjoy Chakravorty, Devesh Kapur, and Nirvikar Singh, The Other One Percent: Indians in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016). 2. “Understanding India’s Diaspora,” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. 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. “Meenakshi Ahamed on U.S.-India Relations from Truman to Trump,” Grand Tamasha, February 17, 2021.

Anticolonial movements of the 20th century generated audacious ideas of freedom. After decolonization, however, the challenge was to give an institutional form to those radical ideas.Legalizing the Revolution: India and the Constitution of the Postcolony is a new book by the scholar Sandipto Dasgupta which provides an innovative account of how India ultimately addressed this daunting challenge.It's a fresh, somewhat revisionist look at the making of the postcolonial constitutional order and tries to place the current crisis of liberal democracy in proper historical and conceptual context.Sandipto is an assistant professor of politics at the New School for Social Research, where he works on the history of modern political and social thought, especially the political theory of empire, decolonization, and postcolonial order.To talk more about his book, Sandipto joins Milan on the podcast this week. They discuss the two-way relationship between decolonization and constitution-making, the absence of representation unity between the Congress Party and the masses, and why India’s leaders believed a planned economy would forestall a social revolution. Plus, the two discuss how the absence—rather than the excesses—of democracy have led to rising majoritarianism. Episode notes:1. “Republic Day Episode: Madhav Khosla on India’s Founding Moment,” Grand Tamasha, January 28, 2020. 2. Sandipto Dasgupta, “Gandhi’s Failure: Anticolonial Movements,” Perspectives on Politics 15, no. 3 (2017). 3. Sandipto Dasgupta, “‘A Language Which Is Foreign to Us’: Continuities and Anxieties in the Making of the Indian Constitution,” Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 34, no. 2 (2014): 228–242.

At this point, you’ve probably read 1,001 post-mortem analyses of the India-Pakistan conflict, desperately searching for some new nugget or data point that helps you understand this brief, but intense clash between these two South Asian rivals.In this sea of hot takes, one essay stands out both for its analytical clarity and its wisdom. That piece was written by the scholar Joshua T. White and it’s simply titled, “Lessons for the next India-Pakistan war.”It was published by the Brookings Institution, where Josh is a non-resident fellow with the Foreign Policy program. Josh is also professor of the practice of international affairs at The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, D.C.Josh has served at the White House as senior advisor and director for South Asian affairs at the National Security Council. And he’s also worked at the Pentagon, where he helped get the U.S.-India Defense Technology and Trade Initiative off the ground.To talk more about his piece and the recent conflict, Josh rejoins Milan on the podcast this week. He and Milan discuss how the global debate on “attribution” has tilted decisively in India’s favor, troubling new precedents about military target selection, the depth of Pakistani information operations, and the widespread use of drones and unmanned aerial vehicles in the recent conflict. Plus, the two preview Josh’s forthcoming book, Vigilante Islamists: Religious Parties and Anti-State Violence in Pakistan. Episode notes: 1. Joshua T. White, “Lessons for the next India-Pakistan war,” Brookings Institution, May 14, 2025. 2. “Operation Sindoor and South Asia’s Uncertain Future (with Christopher Clary),” Grand Tamasha, May 14, 2025. 3. “US views of India-China ties and their impact on the US-India partnership (with Lisa Curtis, Joshua T. White, and Tanvi Madan),” Brookings “Global India” podcast, February 7, 2024. 4. “U.S.-India Ties After the ‘2+2’ Summit (with Joshua White),” Grand Tamasha, April 27, 2022.

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: Christopher Clary, “India-Pakistan rivalry is old, but Pahalgam marked a new chapter,” Times of India, May 11, 2025. Sudhi Ranjan Sen et al., “Trump Truce Leaves India Furious, Pakistan Elated as Risks Loom,” Bloomberg, May 11, 2025. Karishma Mehrotra et al., “The U.S. helped deliver an India-Pakistan ceasefire. But can it hold?” Washington Post, May 10, 2025. “When and Why Do India and Pakistan Fight (with Christopher Clary),” Grand Tamasha, September 14, 2022.

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 pre-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: “Understanding the Delhi Education Experiment (with Yamini Aiyar),” Grand Tamasha, January 22, 2025. Louise Tillin, “This is the moment for a new federal compact,” Indian Express, June 16, 2024. Rohan Venkataramakrishnan, “Interview: How has Indian federalism evolved under the BJP?” Scroll.in, April 13, 2024. 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: Shoumitro Chatterjee, “In Trump’s tariff world, India must say: We are open for business,” Indian Express, April 4, 2025. 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. Shoumitro Chatterjee and Arvind Subramanian, “India’s inward (re)turn: is it warranted? Will it work?” Indian Economic Review 58 (2023): 35-59. 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. Shoumitro Chatterjee and Arvind Subramanian, “India’s Export-Led Growth: Exemplar and Exception,” Ashoka Center for Economic Policy Working Paper No. 01, October 2020. Shoumitro Chatterjee and Arvind Subramanian, “To embrace atmanirbharta is to choose to condemn Indian economy to mediocrity,” Indian Express, October 15, 2020. 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). 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: Amogh Dhar Sharma, “The Cautious Rise of Political Consulting in India,” The Wire, September 6, 2024. Roshan Kishore, “Terms of Trade: How to look at the rise of electoral consultants in India,” Hindustan Times, February 21, 2025. 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, a distinguished diplomat and author, shares his inspiring journey from childhood poverty in Singapore to becoming a major diplomatic figure. He discusses the profound influence of his mother and the cultural ties between India and Southeast Asia. Mahbubani reflects on his experiences at the UN, the principles behind Singapore’s success, and his interactions with the influential Lee Kuan Yew. The conversation delves into Asia's cultural renaissance and its implications for the global order, emphasizing the region's rising importance in the 21st century.

Tara Varma, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution and an expert on European foreign policy, delves into the shifting dynamics between Europe, the U.S., and India. The conversation highlights the strategic importance of a recent European Commission visit to New Delhi and the implications for an EU-India trade pact. They also discuss the widening rift between the U.S. and Europe, the rise of right-wing nationalism, and the potential for a new geopolitical realignment involving China and Russia.