It’s been a typically busy few months in the world of Indian politics and policy.
To roundup all the latest developments from India, Milan is joined on the show this week by Grand Tamasha regulars Sadanand Dhume of the American Enterprise Institute and the Wall Street Journal and Tanvi Madan of the Brookings Institution.
The trio discuss the recent terrorist attack which killed 26 civilians in Jammu and Kashmir, U.S. Vice President JD Vance’s recent whirlwind trip to India, and Trump’s tariff threats and India’s calibrated response.
Plus, they review the first 100 days of the Trump administration and discuss what, if anything, has surprised them about the early months of Trump 2.0.
Episode notes:
1. Sadanand Dhume, “JD Vance’s India Visit Highlights Closer U.S. Relations,” Wall Street Journal, April 23, 2025.
2. Sadanand Dhume, “Trump’s Tariffs Are Modi’s Greatest Economic Test,” Wall Street Journal, April 9, 2025.
3. Tanvi Madan, “Top Gun & Scattershot,” Times of India, January 20, 2025.
4. “Modi Meets Trump, With Tanvi Madan,” The President’s Inbox (podcast), February 18, 2025.
5. “Trump & Modi: Part Deux (with Sadanand Dhume and Tanvi Madan),” Grand Tamasha, February 19, 2025.
Scholar Louise Tillin joins Milan to share findings from her new book, "Making India Work: The Development of Welfare in a Multi-Level Democracy," an examination into the evolution of India's welfare state over the last century.
How will India be impacted by U.S. President Trump's tariffs? Economics Professor Shoumitro Chatterjee joins Milan to explain India's model of economic growth and how it might perform in this period of global economic uncertainty.
How has electioneering evolved in India? Scholar Amogh Dhar Sharma joins Milan this week to talk political parties' newest campaign tactics and the changing election landscape, drawing on his new book's findings.
Journalist Zack Beauchamp joins Milan this week to explore the emergence of a new style of authoritarianism in the United States and its global spread, the center of his new book, "The Reactionary Spirit: How America's Most Insidious Political Tradition Swept the World."