Vinay Lal
The writer is professor of history, University of California, Los Angele.
Articles By Vinay Lal
The deep ties between Gandhi and the American civil rights movement
Mahatma Gandhi 150th Birth Anniversary: How the American civil rights movement adapted Gandhian ideas for their struggle.
M for menstruation
Menstrual politics is at the heart of the Sabarimala entry controversy. By a majority 4-1 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that the prohibition of girls and women between the age of 10 and 50 into the Sabarimala temple was unconstitutional.
A foreign offence
Punjab government doesn’t get it: Idea of blasphemy has no point of reference in Hinduism
Remembering an act of insurrection
The Royal Indian Navy mutiny was overshadowed by the INA trial. Its celebration would have run counter to the logic of the democratic nation-state.
The Homeless Gandhi
To remember Mahatma Gandhi is to reflect on the meanings of home and dispossession
A Republic of Inhospitality
If inclusiveness is the touchstone of a Republic, what is characteristic of India today is how increasingly large constituencies are being excluded from the nation. Muslims and Dalits have been hounded, garroted, and lynched
Open City
Vasudha Dalmia explores the relationship between the city and the development of the modern Hindi novel, but with mixed results.
A time to forget
At the Aga Khan Palace in Pune, a museum dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi, his legacy looks to fade away in decay and neglect.
Book review: From Aryabhata to Vivekananda
Sunil Khilnani threads India's complex and variegated history together through elegant biographies of 50 individuals who made a difference.
Call to freedom
How the INA trial hastened the end of British rule in India.
A Beautiful Mind: Looking back at the life of Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay
She pioneered the cooperative movement in India, but remains lost in the shadows of history. On her 27th death anniversary, looking back at the life of Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay and the nationalist, feminist and socialist ideas she upheld.
The Ghazi of Peace
Shahid Amin, one of India’s most creative and learned historians, explores Indian syncretism through the legend of an 11th century warrior-saint.
Book Review – The Raj At War: A People’s History of India’s Second World War
Rich in detail, Yasmin Khan’s history paves the way for a more complex understanding of WWII as India’s war.
Superpower’s superbomb
Seven decades after Hiroshima, probing fundamental questions of US history still seems off limits in America
Book review The Song of the Spirit: Cheap Clothes Across Continents and Centuries
A cut-price meridian of exploitation connects 19th century Manchester with 21st century Dhaka.
Two cheers for Scottish independence
Scotland’s priorities, argue the proponents of independence, are poorly reflected in the constitution of the British government.