Grand Tamasha

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Grand Tamasha Unveils the Best Books of 2022 Dec 21, 2022

Show notes

One of the blessings (though it sometimes feels like a curse) of hosting Grand Tamasha, Carnegie’s weekly podcast on Indian politics and policy, is that our host Milan Vaishnav ends up reading a ton of books and interviewing many authors. In what we hope will become an annual holiday tradition, Milan has made a list of his top three India reads of the year, based on some of the books we’ve highlighted on the show’s recently wrapped eighth season.

Our Grand Tamasha top three books of 2022 (drumroll, please):

Desperately Seeking Shah Rukh: India’s Lonely Young Women and the Search for Intimacy and Independence

By Shrayana Bhattacharya. Published by HarperCollins India.

The Progressive Maharaja: Sir Madhava Rao’s Hints on the Art and Science of Government

By Rahul Sagar. Published by Hurst/HarperCollins India.

The Newlyweds: Rearranging Marriage in Modern India

By Mansi Choksi. Published by Atria/Icon/Penguin Viking.

In this episode, Milan talks about why he loved each of these books and includes short clips from his conversations with Shrayana, Rahul, and Mansi. Think of this bonus episode as our little holiday present to you, our listeners. We'll see you in January.

G20, State Elections, and the Future of the Congress Party Dec 14, 2022

Show notes

To commemorate the season finale of Season Eight of Grand Tamasha, Milan welcomes back show regulars Sadanand Dhume (American Enterprise Institute and the Wall Street Journal) and Tanvi Madan (Brookings Institution) to discuss the latest developments in the world of Indian politics and policy.

The trio discusses the recent elections in Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, and Delhi, and what, if anything, they tell us about the political landscape heading into the 2024 general election. They also review Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra and debate the future of the Congress Party. Finally, they discuss the significance of India’s G20 presidency and its domestic political salience.

Milan, Tanvi, and Sadanand wrap up the show by highlighting one India-related trend they’ll be keeping their eye on in 2023.

“A Test of the BJP’s Dominance in Gujarat (with Mahesh Langa),” Grand Tamasha, December 6, 2022.
“Previewing India’s G20 Agenda (with Karthik Nachiappan),” Grand Tamasha, November 30, 2022.
“Congress Drama, Indian Diplomacy, and the Diaspora (with Sadanand Dhume and Tanvi Madan),” Grand Tamasha, October 12, 2022.

A Test of the BJP’s Dominance in Gujarat Dec 07, 2022

Show notes

This past week, voters in the state of Gujarat went to the polls to select the 182 newest members of the state assembly. While the votes will be counted on December 8, there is an aura of inevitability around the result; journalists, pundits, and polls all point toward a decisive victory by the incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Narendra Modi.

But this year’s contest is not without its fair share of intrigue. In what has traditionally been a two-party contest between the BJP and the Congress Party, this year Gujarat features an ambitious new entrant in the form of the Aam Aadmi Party.

To talk more about this year’s election and what it signifies, Milan is joined on the show this week by the journalist Mahesh Langa. Mahesh is a veteran journalist who currently serves as the Gujarat correspondent for the Hindu. He previously covered the state for the Hindustan Times.

The two discuss the significance of the 2022 race, AAP’s pitch to voters, and the Congress’ listless campaign. Plus, the two discuss the enduring legacy of the 2002 riots and the salience of the “Gujarat Model.”

Mahesh Langa, “Modest turnout of 59.11% registered in the second phase of Gujarat Assembly elections,” Hindu, December 5, 2022.
Mahesh Langa, “Congress views terrorism from prism of vote bank, says PM Modi,” Hindu, November 27, 2022.
Nistula Hebbar and Mahesh Langa, “With two Opposition firebrands of 2017 now in BJP camp, election loses its spark,” Hindu, November 23, 2022.

Previewing India’s G20 Agenda Nov 30, 2022

Show notes

In December, India will assume the presidency of the G20, an international forum comprising the world’s twenty largest economies. It’s India’s first time chairing the group, and it represents a major diplomatic and political opportunity for the government to shape perceptions around India’s role in the world and to make headway on some of its key priorities heading into 2024, a general election year.

To discuss India’s agenda at the G20 and its approach to multilateralism more generally, Milan is joined on the show this week by the scholar Karthik Nachiappan. Karthik is a research fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore and a nonresident senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute in Ottawa. Karthik is the author of the book, Does India Negotiate?, which revises the conventional narrative that India’s multilateral behavior is prickly, obstructionist, and defensive.

Milan and Karthik discuss India’s emerging G20 agenda, its attitude toward existing multilateral institutions, and what its behavior at the recent COP27 climate summit tells us about its evolving approach. Plus, the two discuss India’s digital soft power ambitions and how those aims could conflict with international concerns about data localization.

Karthik Nachiappan, Does India Negotiate? (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2020)
Karthik Nachiappan, “The international politics of data: When control trumps protection,” Observer Research Foundation, October 26, 2022.
Arindrajit Basu and Karthik Nachiappan, “Data opportunity at the G20,” Hindu, August 18, 2022.
“How Rising Powers Can Make—Or Break—International Order” (with Rohan Mukherjee), Grand Tamasha, November 16, 2022.

Indian Media's Moment of Reckoning Nov 23, 2022

Show notes

A recent controversy involving the online news site the Wire and the tech giant Meta has sparked a new debate on the media in India. The recent controversy has been something of a Rorschach test with some critics castigating digital media for playing fast and loose with the truth and others defending the media from further intrusion by the state. The debate is far from academic as its consequences have implications for freedom of expression, government regulation, and democratic accountability.

To discuss the state of the Indian media in the year 2022, Milan is joined on the show this week by the journalist Manisha Pande. Manisha is the executive editor of Newslaundry, a well-regarded digital news site that is dedicated to covering the media ecosystem in India today. She is the host and producer of the Newslaundry show, TV Newsance, which offers a satirical look at television news in India.

In addition to discussing the media controversy involving the Wire, Milan and Manisha discuss the business-media nexus, shrinking space for anti-government criticism, and the dangers of self-censorship. Plus, the duo discuss why the sorry state of prime-time news television refuses to change.

“Mehrauli Murder Case and 'sansani' reporting,” TV Newsance 193, November 19, 2022.
Manisha Pande, “Why we report on the media,” Newslaundry, June 25, 2022.
Manisha Pande, “‘It’s not a newsroom, it’s a durbar’: Inside the Republic of Arnab Goswami,” Newslaundry, September 7, 2020.

How Rising Powers Can Make—Or Break—International Order Nov 16, 2022

Show notes

Why do rising powers on the global stage sometimes challenge an international order that enables their growth, yet at other times support an order that constrains them? This is the core question motivating a big, new book on international order by political scientist Rohan Mukherjee.

The book is titled, Ascending Order: Rising Powers and the Politics of Status in International Institutions, and it is a comprehensive study of conflict and cooperation as new powers join the global arena. The book focuses on how international institutions shape the choices of rising states as they pursue equal status with established powers.

Rohan is an assistant professor of international relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science. To talk more about his new book, Rohan joins Milan on the show this week from his office in London.

The two discuss China’s surprisingly cooperative behavior in the post-Cold War era, India’s grievances with the liberal international order, and the importance of status concerns in international relations. Plus, Milan and Rohan discuss India’s approach to the nuclear nonproliferation regime during the Cold War, U.S. policies to restrain China, and the implications of a more isolationist U.S. foreign policy for rising powers.

Inside the COP27 Showdown Nov 09, 2022

Show notes

This week, climate negotiators and world leaders from around 200 countries are descending on the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el Sheikh for COP27—the twenty-seventh gathering of the 197 nations that signed up to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change back in 1992.

As proceedings get underway, a huge question mark hangs over this year’s climate summit. Rich nations are pushing for poor countries to announce greater cuts to carbon emissions, but developing countries claim that their developed counterparts have stiffed them when it comes to climate finance.

To make sense of this dynamic at this year’s gathering and to explore the unique role India plays, journalist Bill Spindle joins Milan on the show this week.

Bill is the climate and energy editor at the new journalism start-up, Semafor. He’s also a ten-year veteran of the Wall Street Journal, where he served as South Asia Bureau Chief from 2016 to 2020. Bill has spent the last year crisscrossing the length and breadth of India reporting on the transformation of India’s energy sector—a journey he documented on Substack.

Bill and Milan discuss the developed vs. developing country deadlock that imperils the COP27 proceedings, India’s opportunity to play a leadership role, and the continuing uncertainty over U.S.-China relations. Plus, the two discuss Bill’s year-long adventure traveling 8,000 kilometers across India by train.

Semafor “Climate” newsletter by Bill Spindle.
Bill Spindle, “Energy: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly,” The Energy Adventure(r) newsletter, June 14, 2022.
Bill Spindle, “The Free Power Flywheel,” The Energy Adventure(r) newsletter, August 29, 2022.
Bill Spindle, “Global climate conference threatens to be a bust,” Semafor, October 22, 2022.
“How India Can Get to Net Zero Emissions (with Jayant Sinha),” Grand Tamasha, October 13, 2021.
“What COP26 Means for India—and the World (with Navroz Dubash),” Grand Tamasha, November 17, 2021.

India’s Hidden Treatise on Statecraft Nov 02, 2022

Show notes

Regular Grand Tamasha listeners will recall that Milan had the scholar Rahul Sagar on the podcast several months ago to talk about his new book, To Raise a Fallen People: How Nineteenth Century Indians Saw Their World and Shaped Ours.

That book was a look at the nineteenth-century intellectual roots of India’s foreign policy strategy and its approach to great power politics. And now Rahul has another book out—this one is called, The Progressive Maharaja: Sir Madhava Rao’s Hints on the Art and Science of Government.

Rahul returns to the podcast this week to talk to Milan about an important but largely forgotten set of lectures that represented the first treatise on statecraft produced in modern India. Plus. Milan and Rahul talk about the legacy of India’s princely states, the unique historical figure of Madhava Rao, and why the latter’s treatise has been largely ignored—until today.

“What Kind of World Power Does India Want to Be (with Rahul Sagar),” Grand Tamasha, June 1, 2022.
Rahul Sagar, To Raise a Fallen People: How Nineteenth-Century Indians Saw Their World and Shaped Ours (Juggernaut, 2022).
Ideas of India, online database curated by Rahul Sagar

Southern Asia's Nuclear Future With Ashley J. Tellis Oct 26, 2022

Show notes

The competitive and often antagonistic relationships between China, India, and Pakistan have roots that predate their possession of nuclear weaponry. Yet the significant transformation of the nuclear capabilities that is now underway in all three countries simultaneously complicates and mitigates their geopolitical rivalries.

This is one of the central arguments advanced by a new report authored by Ashley J. Tellis, the Tata Chair for Strategic Affairs at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The report, Striking Asymmetries: Nuclear Transitions in Southern Asia, is an authoritative account of the transitions in the nuclear weapons programs in China, India, and Pakistan over the last two decades.

Ashley joins Milan on the show this week to discuss his new report and its implications. Milan and Ashley discuss China’s post-Cold War shift to its conservative nuclear posture, the developmental underpinnings of India’s nuclear program, and Pakistan’s diverse, burgeoning nuclear weapons arsenal. Plus, the two discuss U.S. policy options to manage China’s nuclear modernization and the logic of an India-France-United States nuclear partnership.

“How China Sees India With Ambassador Shyam Saran,” Grand Tamasha, September 7, 2022.
“When and Why Do India and Pakistan Fight (with Christopher Clary),” Grand Tamasha, September 14, 2022.
Ashley J. Tellis, India's Emerging Nuclear Posture: Between Recessed Deterrent and Ready Arsenal (RAND Corporation, 2001).
Ashley J. Tellis, Alison Szalwinski, and Michael Wills, eds. Strategic Asia 2019: China’s Expanding Strategic Ambitions(Washington, D.C.: National Bureau of Asian Research, 2019).

Making the Indian Economy Work for Women Oct 19, 2022

Show notes

Shaili Chopra was a well-known business journalist, working for outlets such as NDTV Profit and ET Now, before she decided to leave prime-time journalism and become an entrepreneur, launching a new digital media platform—SheThePeople—dedicated to telling the untold stories of women in India and around the world.

She has a new book out called, Sisterhood Economy: Of, By, For Wo(men), which distills some of the many lessons that she has learned over the years. The book is based on conversations with more than 500 women—and men—across India and touches on questions from love and marriage to livelihoods and the economy to business and Bollywood.

Shaili joins Milan on the show this week to talk about the book’s key messages. The two discuss her radical decision to quit her high-profile job in journalism, the vexing question of women’s labor force participation, and the social norms and conventions governing Indian marriage. Plus, Shaili and Milan talk about the catalytic role technology can play in a woman’s life and why mothers-in-law often get a bad rap.

Lamat R. Hasan, “Review: Sisterhood Economy Of, By, For Wo(men) by Shaili Chopra,” Hindustan Times, October 6, 2022.
Arunima Mazumdar, “Interview: Shaili Chopra, author, Sisterhood Economy: Of, By, For Wo(Men) - “Caste and gender inequality go hand in hand,” Hindustan Times, September 30, 2022.
“How Shah Rukh Khan Inspires Female Empowerment (with Shrayana Bhattacharya),” Grand Tamasha, December 15, 2021.

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