Grand Tamasha

Regular Grand Tamasha listeners will recall that Milan had the scholar Rahul Sagar on the podcast several months ago to talk about his new book, To Raise a Fallen People: How Nineteenth Century Indians Saw Their World and Shaped Ours. 

That book was a look at the nineteenth-century intellectual roots of India’s foreign policy strategy and its approach to great power politics. And now Rahul has another book out—this one is called, The Progressive Maharaja: Sir Madhava Rao’s Hints on the Art and Science of Government. 

Rahul returns to the podcast this week to talk to Milan about an important but largely forgotten set of lectures that represented the first treatise on statecraft produced in modern India. Plus. Milan and Rahul talk about the legacy of India’s princely states, the unique historical figure of Madhava Rao, and why the latter’s treatise has been largely ignored—until today.

1. “What Kind of World Power Does India Want to Be (with Rahul Sagar),” Grand Tamasha, June 1, 2022.
2. Rahul Sagar, To Raise a Fallen People: How Nineteenth-Century Indians Saw Their World and Shaped Ours (Juggernaut, 2022).
3. Ideas of India, online database curated by Rahul Sagar

The competitive and often antagonistic relationships between China, India, and Pakistan have roots that predate their possession of nuclear weaponry. Yet the significant transformation of the nuclear capabilities that is now underway in all three countries simultaneously complicates and mitigates their geopolitical rivalries.

This is one of the central arguments advanced by a new report authored by Ashley J. Tellis, the Tata Chair for Strategic Affairs at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The report, Striking Asymmetries: Nuclear Transitions in Southern Asia, is an authoritative account of the transitions in the nuclear weapons programs in China, India, and Pakistan over the last two decades.

Ashley joins Milan on the show this week to discuss his new report and its implications. Milan and Ashley discuss China’s post-Cold War shift to its conservative nuclear posture, the developmental underpinnings of India’s nuclear program, and Pakistan’s diverse, burgeoning nuclear weapons arsenal. Plus, the two discuss U.S. policy options to manage China’s nuclear modernization and the logic of an India-France-United States nuclear partnership. 

1. “How China Sees India With Ambassador Shyam Saran,” Grand Tamasha, September 7, 2022.
2. “When and Why Do India and Pakistan Fight (with Christopher Clary),” Grand Tamasha, September 14, 2022.
3. Ashley J. Tellis, India's Emerging Nuclear Posture: Between Recessed Deterrent and Ready Arsenal (RAND Corporation, 2001).
4. Ashley J. Tellis, Alison Szalwinski, and Michael Wills, eds. Strategic Asia 2019: China’s Expanding Strategic Ambitions(Washington, D.C.: National Bureau of Asian Research, 2019).

Shaili Chopra was a well-known business journalist, working for outlets such as NDTV Profit and ET Now, before she decided to leave prime-time journalism and become an entrepreneur, launching a new digital media platform—SheThePeople—dedicated to telling the untold stories of women in India and around the world.

She has a new book out called, Sisterhood Economy: Of, By, For Wo(men), which distills some of the many lessons that she has learned over the years. The book is based on conversations with more than 500 women—and men—across India and touches on questions from love and marriage to livelihoods and the economy to business and Bollywood.

Shaili joins Milan on the show this week to talk about the book’s key messages. The two discuss her radical decision to quit her high-profile job in journalism, the vexing question of women’s labor force participation, and the social norms and conventions governing Indian marriage. Plus, Shaili and Milan talk about the catalytic role technology can play in a woman’s life and why mothers-in-law often get a bad rap.

1. Lamat R. Hasan, “Review: Sisterhood Economy Of, By, For Wo(men) by Shaili Chopra,” Hindustan Times, October 6, 2022.
2. Arunima Mazumdar, “Interview: Shaili Chopra, author, Sisterhood Economy: Of, By, For Wo(Men) - “Caste and gender inequality go hand in hand,” Hindustan Times, September 30, 2022.
3. “How Shah Rukh Khan Inspires Female Empowerment (with Shrayana Bhattacharya),” Grand Tamasha, December 15, 2021.

These days, the world of Indian politics and policy appears to be moving at warp speed—even by Indian standards. To make sense of all the latest developments out of India, this week Milan is joined 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 discusses three topics. First, they examine the latest drama coming out of the Indian National Congress and discuss the race to take over India’s Grand Old Party. Second, Milan, Sadanand, and Tanvi discuss the key takeaways and controversies from External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar’s lengthy visit to the United States. And finally, the group unpacks the creeping signs of religious polarization in the Indian diaspora, stretching from Canada to the United Kingdom and to the United States. 

Plus, the three share the best thing on India they’ve read in the past six months.

1. Tanvi Madan, “China Has Lost India: How Beijing’s Aggression Pushed New Delhi to the West,” Foreign Affairs, October 4, 2022.
2. Sadanand Dhume, “Hindu Nationalism Threatens India’s Rise as a Nation,” Wall Street Journal, June 10, 2022.
3. Prashant Jha, “A story of friendship: The underlying theme of Jaishankar’s Washington DC visit,” Hindustan Times, September 30, 2022.
4. “Rearranging Marriage in Modern India (with Mansi Choksi),” Grand Tamasha, September 28, 2022.
5. Jayita Sarkar, Ploughshares and Swords: India's Nuclear Program in the Global Cold War (Cornell University Press, 2022).

Rohini Nilekani is an author and philanthropist who has worked for over three decades in India’s social sectors. She is the founder of Arghyam, a foundation for sustainable water and sanitation, and she also co-founded Pratham Books, a nonprofit which aims to enable access to reading for millions of children. With her husband Nandan, she is the co-founder and director of EkStep, a nonprofit education platform.

Her latest book, Samaaj, Sarkaar, Bazaar (Society, State, and Markets): A Citizen-First Approach, encapsulates many of the lessons she has learned in her years working in the civil society and philanthropic sectors. 

To talk more about these lessons, Rohini joins Milan on the show this week from Bangalore. The two discuss Rohini’s unlikely start in the world of civic activism, the role technology can play in bringing the state, society, and market into better alignment, and what works to reform urban governance. Plus, the two discuss the state of philanthropy in India and growing concerns about closing space for civil society in India.

1. Rohini Nilekani, Samaaj, Sarkaar, Bazaar: A Citizen-First Approach (available open-access).
2. “Off-the-Cuff with Rohini Nilekani,” ThePrint, September 9, 2022.
3. “How to Fix India’s Water Crisis (with Mridula Ramesh),” Grand Tamasha, March 23, 2022.

The Newlyweds: Rearranging Marriage in Modern India is a moving account of love in contemporary India. The book’s author, Mansi Choksi, follows three couples across the heartland of India as they navigate boundaries—of caste, class, religion, and traditional gender norms. What follows is a tale of romance, endurance, violence, and occasionally heartbreak. The Newlyweds does what most social science texts simply cannot—it brings us into the private lives of young people in love in India.

Mansi’s writing has appeared in Harper’s, the New York Times, the New Yorker, National Geographic, Slate and the Atlantic. This week, she joins Milan on the podcast to talk about modern love in a changing India, how love and politics intersect, and what her book tells us about India’s social fault lines. Plus, Milan and Mansi discuss life in “Tier Two” India.

1. Mansi Choksi, “How ‘Love Commandos’ Help Young Lovers Cross Caste Lines,” Literary Hub, September 6, 2022.
2. Mansi Choksi, “‘Did You Feel a Fire Between Us?’” Slate, August 30, 2022.
3. “How Shah Rukh Khan Inspires Female Empowerment,” (with Shrayana Bhattacharya), Grand Tamasha, December 15, 2021.
4. “Neha Sahgal on Religion and Identity in Contemporary India,” Grand Tamasha, June 30, 2021.
5. “Rachel Brulé on Gender Quotas and Gender Inequality in India,” Grand Tamasha, May 26, 2021.
6. Snigdha Poonam, Dreamers: How Young Indians Are Changing the World (Harvard University Press, 2018).

In country after country in South Asia, we are seeing worrying signs of economic turmoil and political upheaval. Earlier this year, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan lost a bruising no-confidence vote, resulting in his abrupt ouster. But now the new coalition government that took over from Khan is struggling under the weight of a rising debt burden. 

Sri Lanka has experienced a full-blown crisis, resulting in Asia’s first default in decades and the collapse of the Rajapaksa government. 

While India’s economic prospects remain relatively positive, there too there are concerns about how widely the gains of recent economic growth are being shared.

To discuss South Asia’s economic outlook, journalist Benjamin Parkin joins Milan on the show this week. Ben is the South Asia correspondent for the Financial Times based in New Delhi and has previously worked with Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal.

The two discuss the external headwinds, domestic policy missteps, and continued uncertainty plaguing South Asian economies from Afghanistan to Bangladesh. They also discuss how China is using the present moment to press its advantage and how the West is responding. Plus, the two talk about India’s economic trajectory and the sharply divided views on its recovery.

1. “Pakistan After Imran Khan,” (with Aqil Shah) Grand Tamasha, May 4, 2022.  
2. “Inside Sri Lanka’s Meltdown,” (with Ahilan Kadirgamar) Grand Tamasha, May 18, 2022.
3. Benjamin Parkin and Farhan Bokhari, “Man of the People or Agent of Chaos? Imran Khan Divides Pakistan,” Financial Times, September 5, 2022.
4. Benjamin Parkin, “Sri Lanka Raises Taxes in Effort to Secure IMF Bailout,” Financial Times, August 30, 2022.
5. Benjamin Parkin and John Reed, “Bangladesh is ‘Being Killed by Economic Conditions Elsewhere in the World,’” Financial Times, August 24, 2022.

Since their mutual independence in 1947, India and Pakistan have been locked into a fierce rivalry that shows no signs of abating anytime soon. 

But a new book by the political scientist Christopher Clary, The Difficult Politics of Peace: Rivalry in Modern South Asia, suggests that our traditional narrative of doom and gloom glosses over a rich history of cooperation, contestation, conflict, and conciliation that defies easy explanations.

This week on the show, Milan sits down with Chris Clary to discuss why and when rival states pursue conflict or cooperation. Clary is an assistant professor of political science at the University at Albany and a nonresident fellow with the Stimson Center in Washington, D.C. 

The two discuss the primacy of leaders, the surprising cooperation India and Pakistan have often forged, and the South Asian security community’s blind spots. Plus, Chris tells Milan why there is ample evidence for continued pessimism in bilateral peace negotiations.

1. “Pallavi Raghavan on an Alternative History of India-Pakistan Relations,” Grand Tamasha, April 7, 2020.
2. Brian Finlay, “The Passing of Our Co-Founder Michael Krepon,” Henry L. Stimson Center, July 16, 2022.
3. “Myra MacDonald on the India-Pakistan Battle for Siachen,” Grand Tamasha, March 9, 2021.

This week we kick off the eighth season of Grand Tamasha with a very special guest. On the season premiere, Milan sits down with Ambassador Shyam Saran, former Indian foreign secretary and one of the most decorated Indian diplomats of his generation. Saran, currently a senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi, is the author of a new book, How China Sees India and the World. This new volume is a companion to his highly acclaimed 2018 book, How India Sees the World.

Milan speaks with Shyam Saran about his lengthy career studying China and learning Mandarin, India’s relative ignorance of Chinese politics and society, and the sources of China’s unique model of social order. Plus, the two discuss the current border standoff between India and China and the prospects of a China-centric world.

1. Shyam Saran, “Signs of Twin Troubles in China,” Business Standard, August 17, 2022.
2. Shyam Saran, “Why India@75 Must Pay Attention to Fault Lines,” Mint, August 15, 2022.
3. “India’s Future in a Changing Global Order (with Shivshankar Menon),” Grand Tamasha, February 2, 2022.

This season, in twenty episodes, Grand Tamasha has covered a lot of ground—from the war in Ukraine, to the UP elections, and India’s water crisis. We will be taking a little break to recharge our batteries, but we will be back in August with all-new Grand Tamasha content.

To bring the curtains down on the seventh season of Grand Tamasha, Milan is joined on the podcast by podcast regulars, Sadanand Dhume of the American Enterprise Institute and Wall Street Journal and Tanvi Madan of the Brookings Institution. 

The trio discusses the foreign policy crisis which engulfed India last week after two BJP spokespersons made statements criticizing the Prophet Mohammed; the 180-degree turn in popular perceptions of India’s stance on the Russian invasion of Ukraine; and how India was received at the annual Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.

Plus, the three offer their summer reading recommendations for India policy enthusiasts.

1. Sadanand Dhume, “Hindu Nationalism Threatens India’s Rise as a Nation,” Wall Street Journal, June 9, 2022. 
2. Shoaib Daniyal, “The India Fix,” Scroll.in.
3. Carnegie India, “Ideas and Institutions,” Carnegie India.
4. Ananth Krishnan, “The India-China Newsletter.”
5. Suyash Desai, “The PLA Bulletin.”
6. Manoj Kewalramani, “Eye on China,” Takshashila Institution.