History’s witness
FEW writers can occupy Theodore White’s seat on the balcony of history. White is more famous for his quartet of books, each titled The Making of the President, covering the…
History’s echoes
TWO fateful decisions authored by the British government — the Balfour Declaration of 1917 and the Radcliffe Award of 1947 — involved territory (still in dispute) and millions of displaced…
Buried and forgotten history
FOR the longest time, archaeologists forever in search of lost civilisations used to walk the earth, and map and dig areas where they believed ancient settlements had once existed and…
History’s lessons
“It is a very common device that when anyone has attained the summit of greatness, he kicks away the ladder by which he has climbed up.” ECONOMIC development, particularly in…
One history, two futures
HOW a country is organised as a polity casts a long shadow on its economic development. Egypt and Indonesia offer two contrasting examples from recent history. Both these countries have…
Let’s make history
PAKISTAN marked a historic moment for polio eradication a year ago today. On Jan 27, 2022, for the first time, we clocked in a year without polio paralysing a child.…
A sense of history would help
INDIA’S fabled constitution is struggling with a very Indian flaw. It has too many filters to stop it from choking. The preamble promises a secular socialist democracy. Many are openly…
Wages of history
POPULARITY is the buzz today. It is presumed to hold the key to the future of the country. Partly owing to the musings on social media, the swashbuckling PTI chairman…
Teaching history
“ONE reason so many adults become fanatics is that, as children, they are taught a history distorted by parochial obsession.” This is not an observation made by our Prof K.K.…
