Gods Guns and Missionaries 7 Reasons Manu S. Pillai’s Chronicle Will Rewrite Your Sense of India Gods, Guns and Missionaries & the Malabar Dawn The coast wakes first. Pale nets rise like lace, church bells parry temple gongs, and a musk duck drifts beneath a Portuguese fort still redolent of cinnamon and spent gunpowder. Between … Read more
7 Reasons The Courtesan, the Mahatma and the Italian Brahmin Is the History Book India Deserves The Courtesan, the Mahatma and the Italian Brahmin 1. The Courtesan, the Mahatma and the Italian Brahmin Begins with a Whisper, Not a War Cry History, in most Indian classrooms, wears a grey Nehru coat and carries a pointer. … Read more
In the palaces and paradoxes of colonial India, history sheds its powdered wigs and princely turbans, and dons a human face. In a quiet room lined with books, I first opened Manu S. Pillai’s False Allies: India’s Maharajahs in the Age of Ravi Varma expecting a stroll through opulent corridors and gilded anecdotes. What I … Read more