Grand Tamasha

K.X. Ronnie, “Interview, Shrayana Bhattacharya, author, Desperately Seeking Shah Rukh – “I’m a loud and proud feminist economist,” Hindustan Times, November 27, 2021. Devesh Kapur, Neelanjan Sircar, and Milan Vaishnav, “Introduction to e-Symposium: Urbanisation, gender, and social change in north India,” Ideas for India, December 6, 2021. Milan Vaishnav, “Women and work: How much does measurement matter?” Ideas for India, May 10, 2021. Ruth Pollard, “What a Bollywood Megastar Means for Women in India,” Bloomberg, December 9, 2021.  

In September 2020, India’s Parliament passed three farm reform bills that the government claimed would radically change the way in which agriculture was practised in the country. Yet, just over twelve months later, the same government announced its intention to repeal those laws—a major concession to large-scale, dogged protests launched by farmers in northern India. The repeal of the farm reform laws, hailed by many observers as a short-term victory for struggling farmers, has also raised complex questions about the future of agriculture in a rapidly urbanizing India. To consider some of these questions, Milan is joined on the podcast this week by Harish Damodaran. Harish is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research in Delhi where he is enjoying a sabbatical from his day job as National Rural Affairs and Agriculture Editor at The Indian Express. Harish and Milan talk about the state of Indian agriculture, the motivations behind the farm reform laws, and the complex reasons the government eventually withdrew them. Plus, the two discuss the next stage of farmers’ demands and what this setback does to the larger push for agrarian reform.

We are nearly done with our sixth season of Grand Tamasha and we have been shamefully overdue in scheduling a news round-up for the Fall. To set things straight and to discuss the latest news coming out of India, Milan is joined on the podcast this week by Grand Tamasha regulars Sadanand Dhume of AEI and the Wall Street Journal and Tanvi Madan of the Brookings Institution. The three discuss the Modi government’s abrupt about-turn on the farm law bills, the perilous state of China-India relations, and new murmurs out of Delhi on the trade policy front. Plus, Tanvi, Sadanand, and Milan discuss three stories coming out of India that podcast regulars should be following.

Jayant Sinha, “How India Can Get to Net Zero Emissions,” Grand Tamasha, October 12, 2021.  Navroz Dubash, “Understanding India’s climate pledges,” Hindustan Times, November 12, 2021.  Navroz Dubash, “Unlocking climate action in Indian federalism,” Hindustan Times, August 11, 2021. 

Mukulika Banerjee, “Elections as Communitas,” Social Research, Spring 2011.  Mukulika Banerjee, “A small ‘feastie’ in a Republic’s anniversary,” Indian Express, January 26, 2020.  Pradeep K. Chhibber and Amit Ahuja, “Why the Poor Vote in India: 'If I Don't Vote, I Am Dead to the State,’” Studies in International Comparative Development, 2012.  Christophe Jaffrelot, “Narendra Modi and India's New Political System,” Grand Tamasha, October 5, 2021. 

“Rahul Pandita on Kashmir: ‘You can leave Kashmir but Kashmir never leaves you,’” Grand Tamasha, August 29, 2021. Adrian Levy, “Inside the Secret World of South Asia's Spies,” Grand Tamasha, October 26, 2021. Rahul Pandita, “Kashmir’s New Insurgency,” Open Magazine, October 22, 2021. Rahul Pandita, “The Usual Suspects,” Open Magazine, September 10, 2021.

“What the Taliban Takeover Means for India,” Grand Tamasha, September 14, 2021. Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark, The Siege: The Attack on the Taj (Penguin, 2013). Aqil Shah, “How Will the Taliban Deal With Other Islamic Extremist Groups?” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, August 31, 2021.  

“Niha Masih on Reporting on India’s COVID-19 Crisis,” Grand Tamasha, June 15, 2021. Joanna Slater and Niha Masih, “The spyware is sold to governments to fight terrorism. In India, it was used to hack journalists and others,” Washington Post, July 19, 2021. Joanna Slater and Shams Irfan, “Inside a Delhi hospital, oxygen runs fatally short as covid cases mount,” Washington Post, April 24, 2021. Niha Masih and Joanna Slater, “They were accused of plotting to overthrow the Modi government. The evidence was planted, a new report says,” Washington Post, February 10, 2021. Joanna Slater, “A young Indian couple married for love. Then the bride’s father hired assassins,” Washington Post, August 19, 2019. Joanna Slater, “In Modi’s move on Kashmir, a road map for his ‘new India,’” Washington Post, August 15, 2019. Joanna Slater, “In the world’s biggest election, India’s Narendra Modi pushes fear over hope,” Washington Post, April 11, 2019.

Chloe Farand, “Indian lawmaker submits private bill to achieve net zero emissions by 2050,” Climate Home News, March 18, 2021.  Jayant Sinha, “India's search for greener pastures should end in a climate change law,” Economic Times, March 10, 2021 Jayant Sinha et al., Getting to the Green Frontier, Observer Research Foundation, 2020. Jayant Sinha and Anshu Bhardwaj, “The many paths to a greener future,” Business Standard, July 22, 2021

Christophe Jaffrelot and Pratinav Anil, India’s First Dictatorship: The Emergency, 1975-77 (Oxford University Press, 2021). Angana P. Chatterji, Thomas Blom Hansen, and Christophe Jaffrelot, eds., Majoritarian State: How Hindu Nationalism is Changing India (Oxford University Press, 2019). “Christophe Jaffrelot on India’s First Dictatorship,” Grand Tamasha, April 13, 2021.