Rajmohan Gandhi gave Keynote Remarks at the IofC Japan Conference, Oct. 23-24, 2021

When not only partition but also carnage accompanied India’s independence in 1947, Winston Churchill, who had never concealed his dislike of the freedom movement, claimed that anarchy would be free India’s fate. “The future,” he prophesied in September 1947, “will witness a vast abridgment of India’s population.”

Will Modi overcome his defeat at the hands of the farmers by staging spectacular shows like the one he just put up at Varanasi? His showmanship is not in doubt, and his skills with costume, make-up, scenery, lights, sound and camera are of a high order. Moreover, what he is marketing through his shows can seem extremely attractive.

Race, guns and Covid - the last in its Omicron incarnation - remain live issues in the US.

Majoritarians and authoritarians, whether native or foreign, may have to reckon with the inner Hind Swaraj of the "ordinary" Indian - in the home, the street, the polling booth, the classroom, the courtroom, wherever.

"Some currently popular notions about what was agreed upon in 1947, and about who accepted or opposed Partition, need demolition," says Rajmohan Gandhi.

What I am enjoying most is the taste of the widening admission that all Indians should be bound to one another in mutual goodwill and equal respect.

A 30 minute interview with Karan Thapar of The Wire.

"Calm, serene, silent faces that avoid looking at cruelty, or wink at it, can only disgrace Hinduism," writes Rajmohan Gandhi.

A review of 'The Great Hindu Civilisation' by Pavan K.Varma, published in India Today. Read it in this PDF