‘Despite Gandhi’s obsession with national unity, at the time of her death India was more unstable, more violent and more divided than at any moment since Partition.’
@pratinavanil.bsky.social on Indira Gandhi.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
ако ви е интересен този брутален период от съвременната история на Индия, "Крехко равновесие" от Рохинтън Мистри е безстрашен и много увлекателен роман по темата, преведен абсолютно великолепно от @vilervale.bsky.social
"The steelmaker, hotelier and airline mogul J.R.D. Tata praised Gandhi’s ‘refreshingly pragmatic’ approach: the trains ran on time, strikes ceased, markets rose. Two thousand union leaders were imprisoned and wages were frozen."
‘In the name of “beautification” and “family planning”, during the Emergency Gandhi mère et fils bulldozed thousands of slums and sent eleven million Indians to sterilisation camps. That was one way of getting rid of 𝘨𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘣𝘪.’
@pratinavanil.bsky.social on Indira Gandhi.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
‘For all the admirers who queue at the Indira Gandhi Memorial museum to pay homage to the blood-stained sari she wore on the day of her assassination, the taint of corruption still clings.’
@pratinavanil.bsky.social on Gandhi and her legacy.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
‘Being underestimated was Indira Gandhi’s chief political asset. The Congress elders who helped her become India’s third prime minister imagined that they were installing a pliable cipher. Within a few years she had defenestrated the lot of them.’
Pratinav Anil:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
List of some people who got Third class degrees in Modern History in Oxford in 1976, with the word "Biggar" highlighted in green for some reason.
The Times on Saturday 31st July 1976, printed that year's Oxford Modern History class list on p. 14.
Is it the man himself or someone else w. the same surname? Well, the other details--initials, school, college, & degree subject--match up with what's reported on his Wiki page, so I think it's him.
Read a free extract from ‘A Historian in Gaza’ ➡️ tinyurl.com/tm4vhnsj
French historian of Gaza, Jean-Pierre Filiu offers an ‘An unflinching eyewitness account of the destruction wreaked by Israel, with Anglo-American support. Look no further for an impartial account of the tragedy of the Palestinians.’ @pratinavanil.bsky.social @theguardian.com ‘Book of the Year’
Typically thoughtful review of some of this year’s history books by @pratinavanil.bsky.social
www.theguardian.com/books/2025/d...
Image of the Guardian Best of History and Politics 2025 book featuring A Historian in Gaza. The text reads: The most harrowing chapter in the story of the modern Middle East is narrated by Jean-Pierre Filiu. A slender addition to his definitive, door-stopping Gaza: A History, A Historian in Gaza (Hurst) is an unflinching eyewitness account of the destruction wreaked by Israel, with Anglo-American support. Look no further for an impartial account of the tragedy of the Palestinians, caught between Hamas’s fanaticism and Netanyahu’s ethnic cleansing. A veteran of war zones from Syria to Somalia, Filiu writes: “Now, I understand why Israel is denying the international press access to such a distressing scene.”
Thrilled to see @pratinavanil has highlighted @pratinavanil.bsky.social 'A Historian in Gaza' in the Guardian round-up of 'Best History and Politics Books of 2025'. Get your copy at 50% off during our holiday sale, offer ends December 9th. 🇵🇸
➡️ www.hurstpublishers.com/profile/jean...
“Formidable female novelists, ghastly literary men, a faith-shaken poet, eunuchs, pirates, horny wolves, international terrorists…" It's been great fun to judge this prize ... and here are the six finalists ... www.thebailliegiffordprize.co.uk/inside-the-c...
Forget Wilberforce — violent resistance killed off slavery
I enjoyed Sudhir Hazareesingh’s account of how black resistance led to abolition. My latest for @thetimes.com:
www.thetimes.com/culture/book...
'Welcome to my last four years.' A search for accountability and a full, detailed explanation for Martha's death . . . www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
'Sam Dalrymple’s Gandhi is no saint, but a character who became progressively unhinged.'
Pratinav Anil on the reordering of India and its neighbours
Review of The Story Of CO2 Is The Story Of Everything that is as pithily well written as the book itself : “Like life, death can be viewed unsentimentally as a slow unspooling into water and carbon dioxide” www.thetimes.com/culture/book...
On carbon dioxide, climate change, and capitalism. My latest for @thetimes.com:
www.thetimes.com/culture/book...
Another pan of the book: TCW has "marooned himself on an island of vacuity."
I know a little about publishing industry lag but a "summer of 2020 was CRAZY" book amid the summer of Alligator Alcatraz... yeah man maybe shoulda sent the draft in sooner.
www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j...
I read a superb new history of Carthage by Eve MacDonald - a finer cicerone than Flaubert - for @thetimes.com. My lead review today:
www.thetimes.com/culture/book...
I enjoyed this slogging more than — or perhaps exactly as much as — I should. “Williams’s grand subject being himself, now we have a third memoir. Summer of Our Discontent takes a caustic look at BLM from the lofty vantage point of his Parisian garret.” www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j...
Spot the fuck on: “Fixated on slagging off the left, he has marooned himself on an island of vacuity.” www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j...
what is great about this review is that the author is clearly sympathetic to the premise but can’t get past the basic fact that the author is a vacuous fool www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j...
‘His homeland, he says, is a “society that is frankly more democratic, multi-ethnic, and egalitarian than any other in recorded history”. The Gini coefficient and Democracy Index beg to differ.’
"Fixated on slagging off the left, [Williams] has marooned himself on an island of vacuity."
Ouch.
“Williams’s grand subject being himself, now we have a third memoir. Summer of Our Discontent takes a caustic look at Black Lives Matter from the lofty vantage point of his Parisian garret.”
Damn
the other reason i like this review is it confirms that i’m not the only person who has read this dude’s work and thought, “him? really?”
this made me cackle
I took one for the team...
This is Kendrick Lamar level takedown, good lord.
