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Inside Nehru’s 1927 USSR Trip: How Soviet Ideas Shaped India’s Democratic Socialism
In November 1927, Jawaharlal Nehru visited the USSR as a state guest during the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution, encountering a society in rapid transition. This historically grounded analysis explains how the tour refined, rather than transformed, his thinking: it deepened a commitment to planning and scientific modernity while reinforcing democratic and pluralist guardrails.…
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From Temple of Learning to Cattle-shed: How Politics Unmade Mysore’s Maharaja’s College
B.G.L. Swamy’s unforgettable scene of a donkey and two cows in Maharaja’s College is more than shock value; it crystallises a wider institutional decline at the University of Mysore. Drawing on S.L. Bhyrappa’s Bhitti and the memory-portraits of A.N. Murthy Rao, this essay traces how identity blocs, party patronage, and faculty “private durbars” displaced scholarly…
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Why is the Complete History of the Communists Still not Part of our School Textbooks?
The history of Communism in India is a contentious and complex one. The rise and influence of Communist parties in India have had significant consequences on the country’s political and social landscape. From its early days to the present, Communism has played a prominent role in Indian politics, often polarizing opinions and leading to intense…