Grand Tamasha

How do non-state armed groups act when the state seeks not to crush them but to tolerate their activities? This is the central question of a new book by the political scientist Kolby Hanson titled, Ordinary Rebels: Rank-and-File Militants between War and Peace. Kolby is an assistant professor of government at Wesleyan University, and his new book looks at how state toleration fundamentally transforms armed groups by shaping who takes up arms—and which leaders they follow. The book draws on a range of innovative surveys and in-depth interviews tracing four armed movements over time in Northeast India and Sri Lanka. The book looks not so much at what armed groups do when they fight, but what they do when they don’t. To talk more about his new book, Kolby joins Milan on the show this week. They discuss what it means to be a “likely” recruit of an armed group, the complex political economy of India’s northeast, and the way in which state toleration operates on a spectrum. Plus, the two discuss the prospects for long-term peacebuilding in South Asia and how Kolby’s new book sheds light on the troubling January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Episode notes: 1. Paul Staniland, Ordering Violence: Explaining Armed Group-State Relations from Conflict to Cooperation (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2021). 2. “The Past, Present, and Future of India’s Near East (with Avinash Paliwal),” Grand Tamasha, November 20, 2024. 3. “Paul Staniland on the Surprising Decline in Political Violence in South Asia,” Grand Tamasha, October 7, 2020. 4. “Binalakshmi Nepram on the Realities of India’s Oft-Forgotten Northeast,” Grand Tamasha, June 3, 2020.

For much of India’s democratic history, the woman voter has either been invisible or ignored at times she has been spoken for, but very rarely listened to. A new book by the journalist Ruhi Tewari argues that this is no longer the case and seeks to understand why women have emerged from the political shadows. What Women Want: Understanding the Female Voter in Modern India draws on years of journalism and field reportage to trace the rise of the woman voter from 1947 to the present day. Ruhi is a journalist with nearly two decades of experience covering politics, policy and their intersection for leading Indian media organizations. She’s developed a reputation for being a savvy political reporter who spends quality time in the field understanding what makes voters, politicians, and parties tick. Ruhi joins Milan on the show this to talk more about her new book. They discuss the “subtle but steady shift” in how women voters are perceived, the narrowing gender gap in voter turnout, and the distinctive voter behaviour of India’s women. Plus, Ruhi and Milan discuss the proliferation of “pro-women” welfare schemes and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s unique ability to connect with the woman voter. Episode notes:1. Milan Vaishnav, ed. How Indian Voters Decide (Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2025). 2. Anirvan Chowdhury, “How the BJP Wins Over Women,” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, April 26, 2024.3. Rithika Kumar, “What Lies Behind India’s Rising Female Voter Turnout,” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, April 5, 2024. 4.Milan Vaishnav, “Indian Women Are Voting More Than Ever. Will They Change Indian Society?” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, November 8, 2018. 5. Milan Vaishnav and Jamie Hintson, “Will Women Decide India’s 2019 Elections?” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, November 12, 2018. 6. “Taking On India's Patriarchal Political Order (with Soledad Artiz Prillaman),” Grand Tamasha, October 22, 2024.

As recently as 1928, a vast swathe of Asia—India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma, Nepal, Bhutan, Yemen, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait—were bound together under a single imperial banner, an entity known officially as the “Indian Empire,” or more simply as the British Raj. And then, in just fifty years, the Indian Empire shattered. Five partitions tore it apart, carving out new nations, redrawing maps, and leaving behind a legacy of war, exile and division. A new book the author Sam Dalrymple, Shattered Lands: Five Partitions and the Making of Modern Asia, presents the unknown back story of how the Indian Empire was unmade. Sam is a historian and award-winning filmmaker who grew up in Delhi. He graduated from Oxford University as a Persian and Sanskrit scholar. In 2018, he co-founded Project Dastaan, a peace-building initiative that reconnects refugees displaced by the 1947 Partition of India. His debut film, Child of Empire, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2022, and he runs the history Substack @ travelsofsamwise. To talk more about his new book, Sam joins Milan on the podcast this week. They discuss Sam’s personal journey with the Partition of the subcontinent, the forgotten separation of Burma from the Indian Empire, and Delhi’s dismissiveness of its Gulf outposts. Plus, the two talk about the creation of Pakistan, the twin genocides of 1971, and the special resonance of the princely state of Junagadh in modern-day Gujarat. Episode notes: 1. Sam Dalrymple, “The Gujarati Kingdom That Almost Joined Pakistan,” Travels of Samwise (Substack), July 5, 2025. 2. Nishad Sanzagiri, “Shattered Lands by Sam Dalrymple review – the many partitions of southern Asia,” The Guardian, July 1, 2025. 3. “Ramachandra Guha Revisits India After Gandhi,” Grand Tamasha, April 19, 2023. 4. Preeti Zacharia, “Interview with historian Sam Dalrymple, author of Shattered Lands,” Hindu, July 8, 2025. 5. Sam Dalrymple, “The Lingering Shadow of India’s Painful Partition,” TIME, July 14, 2025.

A Sixth of Humanity: Independent India's Development Odyssey is a landmark new book by the scholars Devesh Kapur and Arvind Subramanian. The book is an audacious attempt to trace how India uniquely and daringly attempted four concurrent transformations—building a state, creating an economy, changing society, and forging a sense of nationhood under conditions of universal suffrage. It is the joint product of one of India’s most respected political scientists and one of its best-known economists. The book includes insights from politics, economics, history, and literature and provides a developmental history of India that is big, bold, engaging, and utterly unique. To talk more about their book and the lessons it holds for India’s next 75 years, Arvind and Devesh return to Grand Tamasha to speak with Milan. Devesh Kapur is the Starr Foundation Professor of South Asia Studies at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. Arvind Subramanian is a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, DC. He previously served as the former chief economic adviser to the government of India. The trio discuss the vision for the book, India’s checkered history of upholding the rule of law, and what we get wrong about India’s tryst with central planning. Plus, they discuss India’s stellar record as an export powerhouse, the long shadow of vested interests, the pressures on India’s model of fiscal federalism, and ongoing challenges with nation-building. Episode notes:1. Arvind Subramanian, “Can India reverse its manufacturing failure?” Financial Times, November 10, 2024. 2. Josh Felman and Arvind Subramanian, “Is India Really the Next China?” Foreign Policy, April 8, 2024. 3. “The Future of India's Fiscal Federalism (with Arvind Subramanian),” Grand Tamasha, October 16, 2024. 4. Amit Ahuja and Devesh Kapur, eds., Internal Security in India: Violence, Order, and the State (New York: Oxford University Press, 2023). 5. “Opening the Black Box of India’s Internal Security State (with Amit Ahuja and Devesh Kapur),” Grand Tamasha, May 10, 2023. 6. Devesh Kapur, “Why Does the Indian State Both Fail and Succeed?” Journal of Economic Perspectives 34, no. 1 (Winter 2020): 31-54. 7. Rohit Lamba and Arvind Subramanian, “Dynamism with Incommensurate Development: The Distinctive Indian Model,” Journal of Economic Perspectives 34, no. 1 (Winter 2020): 3-30. 8. Yamini Aiyar, “New GST regime: A grand bargain reduced to imperfect compromise,” Hindustan Times, October 7, 2025. 9. “A Blueprint for India’s State Capacity Revolution (with Karthik Muralidharan),” Grand Tamasha, May 23, 2024.

Justice Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud, former Chief Justice of India and esteemed Harvard Law alumnus, chats about his new book, Why the Constitution Matters. He sheds light on the Supreme Court's critical role amidst India's shifting political landscape, discussing judicial review, and the delicate balance with the executive branch. Chandrachud also tackles the controversial electoral bonds ruling, advocates for court transparency through tech reforms, and emphasizes the necessity of judicial administrative support in enhancing public trust and expeditious trials.

Earlier this month, the Trump administration announced a stunning $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas, the main channel through which U.S. employers hire foreign professionals in technology, engineering, and research.The move has sent shockwaves through America’s innovation ecosystem, prompting fears that companies will either look abroad or scale back their ambitions at home.Few countries will be as impacted by this change as India, whose citizens account for nearly three-quarters of annual H-1B visa petitions. So, what happens when the world’s largest economy makes it harder for global talent to come in?To answer this question, Milan is joined on the show this by Britta Glennon. Britta is an assistant professor of management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Her research focuses on immigration and cross-border innovation. Much of her work dispels long-held myths about immigrants and how they influence the U.S. economy.Milan and Britta discuss the pluses and minuses of America’s “demand-driven” skilled immigration system, the impact on Indians of the Trump administration’s massive new fee on H-1B visas, and how the availability of skilled worker visas impact offshoring decisions. Plus, the two discuss how America’s competitors are poaching U.S. talent, the complex connection between immigration and innovation, and the economic costs of the green card backlog. To watch this episode, click here. Episode notes: 1. Britta Glennon, “Skilled Immigrants, Firms, and the Global Geography of Innovation,” Journal of Economic Perspectives 38, no. 1 (Winter 2024): 3-26. 2. Britta Glennon, “How Do Restrictions on High-Skilled Immigration Affect Offshoring? Evidence from the H-1B Program​,” Management Science 70, no. 2 (February 2024): 907-930. 3. Saerom (Ronnie) Lee and Britta Glennon, “The Effect of Immigration Policy on Founding Location Choice: Evidence from Canada’s Start-up Visa Program,” NBER Working Paper 31634 (August 2023). 4. Robert Flynn, Britta Glennon, Raviv Murciano-Goroff, and Jiusi Xiao, “Building a Wall Around Science: The Effect of U.S.-China Tensions on International Scientific Research,” NBER Working Paper 32622 (May 2025). 5. Vox, “$100,000 for a visa,” Today, Explained (podcast), September 25, 2025.

One of the most surprising developments in Washington, if you’re a South Asia-watcher, is the surprising turn in U.S.-Pakistan relations. Having largely sidelined Pakistan over the past decade or more, the current U.S. administration has courted Pakistan with an enthusiasm that has caught many analysts off-guard.In June, Trump hosted Pakistan’s army chief, Asim Munir, in the White House. A few weeks later, the White House struck a trade deal with Pakistan that kept the tariff rate at 19 percent, lower even than the 25 percent rate slapped on India. Finally, officials from both sides have been discussing joint ventures in cryptocurrency and critical minerals.To talk more about the sudden thaw in U.S.-Pakistan ties, Milan is joined on the show this week by Uzair Younus. Uzair is Chief Product Officer at TAG AI, the artificial intelligence-enabled platform developed by The Asia Group.Prior to joining The Asia Group, Uzair served as Director of the Pakistan Initiative at the Atlantic Council. He’s the host of the podcast, Pakistonomy, a show which gives listeners an accessible way of understanding developments related to the politics, economics, and foreign policy of Pakistan. Uzair is also the author of a new book, Future Ready: Innovation, Abundance And The Global South. On this week’s show, the two discuss Washington’s quiet reassessment of Pakistan, the Trump administration’s interest in Pakistan’s critical minerals, and the military lessons of Operation Sindoor. Plus, the two discuss the prospects for India-Pakistan rapprochement and the Trump administration’s interest in mediation.  Episode notes: 1. Uzair Younus, “The US Is Rethinking the India-Pakistan Dynamic,” The Diplomat, September 3, 2025. 2. Moeed Yusuf, “Why America Should Bet on Pakistan,” Foreign Affairs, September 11, 2025. 3. “How This India-Pakistan Conflict Will Shape the Next One (with Joshua T. White),” Grand Tamasha, May 21, 2025. 4. “Operation Sindoor and South Asia’s Uncertain Future (with Christopher Clary),” Grand Tamasha, May 14, 2025. 5. “Pakistan's Political Earthquake (with Zoha Waseem),” Grand Tamasha, February 14, 2024.

For a quarter century, Washington policymakers made a strategic bet on India premised on the belief that shared values, shared interests, and a shared strategic convergence in Asia would bind these two countries together as ‘natural allies’ in the twenty-first century. All of this optimistic talk came crashing down to Earth a few months ago with the Trump administration’s decision to slap 25 percent tariffs on Indian exports. This was exacerbated by a second decision to add an additional 25 percent tariff on India for its import of Russia oil. Taken together, these policy measures plunged U.S.-India relations into their most significant crisis since the late 1990s and the era of U.S. sanctions on India in the wake of the latter’s nuclear tests.How did we get here? Where are we now? And where might we be going? These are the questions Milan takes up on this week’s show with guest Ashley J. Tellis. Tellis is the Tata Chair for Strategic Affairs at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and is well-known to Grand Tamasha listeners as one of the sanest, wisest voices on South Asia and U.S.-India relations, more specifically. Milan and Ashley discuss the policy of U.S. “strategic altruism” toward India, the ongoing trade negotiations between the United States and India, and Modi’s recent visit to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) meeting in China. Plus, the two discuss the latest turn in U.S.-Pakistan relations and whether the thaw in China-India relations is sustainable.  Episode notes: 1. Robert D. Blackwill and Ashley J. Tellis, “The India Dividend: New Delhi Remains Washington’s Best Hope in Asia,” Foreign Affairs 98, no. 5 (September/October 2019): 173-183. 2. Ashley J. Tellis, “India’s Great-Power Delusions: How New Delhi’s Grand Strategy Thwarts Its Grand Ambitions,” Foreign Affairs 104, no. 4 (July/August 2025): 52-67. 3. Lisa Curtis, Dhruva Jaishankar, Nirupama Rao, and Ashley J. Tellis, “What Kind of Great Power Will India Be? Debating New Delhi’s Grand Strategy,” Foreign Affairs 104, no. 5 (September/October 2025): 186-195. 4. Ashley J. Tellis, “America’s Bad Bet on India: New Delhi Won’t Side With Washington Against Beijing,” Foreign Affairs, May 1, 2023. 5. Milan Vaishnav, “How India Can Placate America,” Foreign Affairs, July 16, 2025. 6. “Trade Wars: Trump Targets India (with Sadanand Dhume and Tanvi Madan),” Grand Tamasha, August 12, 2025. 7. “What Kind of Great Power Will India Become? (with Ashley J. Tellis),” Grand Tamasha, July 2, 2025.

India’s once-flourishing ties with Washington have soured in Trump’s second term, marked by punishing tariffs and penalties over Russian oil. This turbulence reinforces New Delhi’s instinct for “multi-alignment,” and the desire to hedge between great powers rather than bet on any single partner.Against this backdrop, a new paper by the journalist and analyst James Crabtree argues that now is the time for Europe to shine and to make the case that it is India’s most promising alternative in a shifting global order. The paper is called, “Pivot to Europe: India’s Back-Up Plan in Trump’s World,” and it has just been published by the European Council on Foreign Relations, where James is a distinguished visiting fellow. James spent ten years as a journalist and foreign correspondent, notably for the Financial Times, where he served as the Mumbai bureau chief. He is the author of the much-celebrated book, The Billionaire Raj: A Journey Through India’s New Gilded Age, published in 2018. He is currently a columnist for Foreign Policy and hard at work on a second book on the United States in Asia.James joins Milan on the show this week to discuss the turmoil in U.S.-India relations, the historical underperformance of Europe-India relations, the looming China challenge, and the factors which have made Europe a more “geopolitically serious” actor. Plus, the two discuss the nascent thaw in China-India ties and how Europe can avoid short-termism to forge stronger bonds with India over the long haul. Episode notes: 1. James Crabtree, “Why India Should Not Walk Into the China-Russia Trap,” Foreign Policy, August 27, 2025. 2. “India and the Reordering of Transatlantic Relations (with Tara Varma),” Grand Tamasha, March 11, 2025.

A Man for All Seasons: The Life of K.M. Panikkar is the new book by the author Narayani Basu. It documents the life and times of one of modern India’s most fascinating characters. Panikkar defies simple description. He was a journalist who founded the Hindustan Times; a bureaucrat who advised India’s princely states; a poet, a philosopher, and an international relations scholar. He served as India’s ambassador to China and to Egypt. And he helped develop a critical plan to reorganize India’s states on linguistic linesBasu’s book brings Panikkar out of the shadows and, in so doing, sheds as much light on this enigmatic figure as it does on India’s quest to find its place in the world.Basu is the bestselling author of V.P. Menon: The Unsung Architect of Modern India and Allegiance: Azaadi & the End of Empire. She is a historian and foreign policy analyst, who specializes in spotlighting lesser known—but nevertheless key players—in the story of Indian independence.She joins Milan on the podcast this week to discuss the incredible personal and professional journey of K.M. Panikkar. They discuss his family circumstances, his surprising path to Oxford and his formative years in Paris, his prolific writings, and his lifelong relationships with Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. Plus, the two discuss his intimate relations with India’s princely states and his prescient vision of Indian federalism. Episode notes: 1. Shubhangi Misra, “KM Panikkar was a scapegoat. It was easier to blame him for China than Nehru,” ThePrint, August 1, 2025. 2. Narayani Basu, “How K.M. Panikkar became India’s first ambassador to China,” Mint Lounge, July 13, 2025. 3. “Jairam Ramesh on the Many Lives of V.K. Krishna Menon,” Grand Tamasha, March 24, 2021.