A tale of two cities: What made Calcutta’s sex workers escape to a French colony in 19th century

A British law meant to protect its soldiers from venereal diseases inadvertently changed the landscape of Chandannagar for a while.

Devarsi Ghosh

· Oct 02, 2019 · 11:30 am

A British merchant’s journey from Madras to England gives a glimpse into early days of colonialism

Showing the punctiliousness of an ethnographer, George Forster documented every detail of his two-year trek.

Anu Kumar

· Jul 24, 2019 · 11:30 am

The India of acceptance: What RSS backers could learn from 19th-century thinker Francisco Luis Gomes

Representing Goa in the Portuguese parliament, he argued in 1861 for the equality of the vote and fair representation. What would he make of this week’s mess?

Peter Ronald deSouza

· Jul 13, 2019 · 06:30 am

Catch me if you can: The American smuggler who left Indian police red-faced twice in the 1960s

A charming figure, Daniel Hailey Walcott Jr. hoodwinked a lot of people in his life, but none more so than the Indian authorities.

Abeer Kapoor

· Jun 14, 2019 · 11:30 am

The unlikely connection between Mahatma Gandhi and the Brazilian Carnival

In 1949, a few dockworkers in Brazil proclaimed themselves ‘Sons of Gandhi’, or Filhos de Gandhy. The name carries on – but what about the Mahatma’s ideals?

Nikhil Ninguém Pandhi

· Jun 05, 2019 · 11:30 am

The Indian woman who braved World War II bombing to chart an unconventional life for herself

Venu Chitale’s was a life of prodigious work: she joined the BBC around the Battle of Britain, assisted George Orwell, and spoke for India’s freedom movement.

Anu Kumar

· May 27, 2019 · 11:30 am

The remarkable Begums who defied patriarchal norms to rule Bhopal for more than a century

These women embodied feminism long before it became a part of the zeitgeist.

Priya Naik

· May 21, 2019 · 11:30 am

‘I never felt whole’: How post-war Britain treated the mixed race children left by black US soldiers

Most of them suffered racism, the stigma of illegitimacy and a confused identity.

Lucy Bland, The Conversation

· May 19, 2019 · 09:30 pm

Tawaifs: The unsung heroes of India’s freedom struggle

The word tawaif is today used as a profanity. That wasn’t always the case.

Soumya Rao

· May 14, 2019 · 11:30 am

Mumbai has forgotten the ‘leading historian’ who once highlighted its forgotten past

JRB Jeejeebhoy, who wrote numerous pieces on the city and its heritage from the 1920s to the 1950s, has met the fate of his subjects.

Murali Ranganathan

· May 07, 2019 · 11:30 am

How Sri Lanka’s first woman architect built a lasting legacy in a man’s world

Dismissed for being a woman, Minnette de Silva still paved the way for modern Sri Lankan architecture.

Rashida Badani Tajbhoy

· May 03, 2019 · 03:30 pm

‘Kill all the British sucking Indian blood’: The canny poster propaganda used by Japan in WWII

The Japanese astutely evoked moments of misery under the Raj to exhort Indians to rise up against the British.

Aanchal Malhotra

· Apr 08, 2019 · 11:30 am