Grand Tamasha is gifting listeners a bonus episode to close out season 12! Listen as Milan shares the top books of 2024 on Indian politics and policy, whose authors have also appeared on this season of the podcast.
Grand Tamasha is Carnegie’s weekly podcast on Indian politics and policy co-produced with the Hindustan Times, a leading Indian media house. For five years (and counting), Milan has interviewed authors, journalists, policymakers, and practitioners working on contemporary India to give listeners across the globe a glimpse into life in the world’s most populous country.
For the past two years, in anticipation of the show’s holiday hiatus, we’ve published an annual list of our favorite books featured on the podcast over the previous twelve months.
In keeping with this tradition, here—in no particular order—are Grand Tamasha’s top books of 2024.
Savarkar and the Making of Hindutva
By Janaki Bakhle. Published by Princeton University Press.
Accelerating India's Development: A State-Led Roadmap for Effective Governance
By Karthik Muralidharan. Published by Penguin Viking India.
The Identity Project: The Unmaking of a Democracy (published in the United States and the UK as The New India: The Unmaking of the World’s Largest Democracy)
By Rahul Bhatia. Published by Context (South Asia); Little, Brown (UK); and PublicAffairs (United States).
In this special bonus episode, Milan talks about why he loved each of these books and includes short clips from his conversations with Janaki, Karthik, and Rahul.
This is the final episode of our twelfth season. Thanks to our listeners to being such loyal followers of the show. We’re excited to kick off our thirteenth season in mid-January after taking a short holiday break.
Episode notes:
1. Milan Vaishnav, “Grand Tamasha’s Best Books of 2023,” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, December 19, 2023.
2. Milan Vaishnav, “Grand Tamasha’s Best Books of the Year,” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, December 20, 2022.
3. “Identifying the New India (with Rahul Bhatia),” Grand Tamasha, September 25, 2024.
4. “A Blueprint for India’s State Capacity Revolution (with Karthik Muralidharan),” Grand Tamasha, May 22, 2024.
5. “Savarkar, In His Own Words (with Janaki Bakhle),” Grand Tamasha, March 27, 2024.
Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.
This week, Rahul Sagar join Milan to discuss his new book The Birth of Indian Liberalism: Mama Parmanand’s Letters to an Indian Raja, which uncovers an older tradition of Indian liberal thought through a remarkable work first published in 1891 and then largely forgotten for more than a century.
Milan Vaishnav, Rahul Sagar
This week, Rohit De and Ornit Shani join Milan to discuss their new book Assembling India’s Constitution: A New Democratic History. Drawing on a remarkable range of archival material, the book shows that constitution-making was not confined to the halls of the Constituent Assembly alone.
Milan Vaishnav, Ornit Shani, Rohit De
Milan Vaishnav and Tanul Thakur discuss Tanul's new book "Wild Wild East: Exiled Americans, Enslaved Indians and the Systemic Abuse of the H-1B Visa Programme."
Milan Vaishnav, Tanul Thakur
Discussing their new short book, Indian Public Opinion toward the Major Powers, Paul Staniland, and Aidan Milliff join Milan Vaishnav to discuss the treasure trove of data on Indian public opinion they stumbled upon, the characteristics of India’s “foreign policy public,” and the variation in Indian attitudes toward the United States, China, and Russia/the Soviet Union. Plus, the discuss why a respondent’s region emerges as a strong predictor of one’s foreign policy views.
Milan Vaishnav, Paul Staniland, Aidan Milliff
Host Milan Vaishnav and Ambassador May-Elin Stener discuss the outcomes of the India-Nordic summit, the Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA), and the green technology partnership Norway envisions with India.
Milan Vaishnav, May-Elin Stener
