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✍️ Written by Saket Suman There is a revealing gap between what Our Living Constitution  by Shashi Tharoor promises and what it delivers. The promise is commentary but the delivery is amateur recital. Over and over again, the book approaches moments of genuine constitutional consequence only to retreat into reverent summary, as though the mere act of repeating what the Constitution says were itself an act of interpretation. Image Source: Tharoorian on X Let us begin by considering the author’s handling of the Preamble. We are told, and correctly so, that it is “ the soul of the Constitution ,” followed by the full ceremonial recitation of “ JUSTICE, social, economic and political; LIBERTY… EQUALITY… FRATERNITY .”  The words are allowed to do all the work but there is really no sustained inquiry into how fraternity was historically the most fragile of these promises, nor how Ambedkar himself warned that political equality without social e...

✍️ Written by Saket Suman Kashi is unlike most other cities of India, even the religious ones, as it rarely impresses you at the first glance. It simply receives you, like an old river receives everything without pretending those things, like flowers and ash or meditation and commerce, are exact opposites. This is why every attempt to “fix” Kashi is bound to culminate into public anxiety. People are defending a feeling, they are defending the right of an ancient place to remain unflattened by modern categories. In the last few days, short videos of heavy redevelopment work around one of the most sacred burning grounds in Kashi have travelled faster than the truth that might explain them. Bulldozers, broken stones, disturbed idols and dust rising where centuries have settled.  Manikarnika Ghat, Kashi by James Prinsep 1832. Via: Yaduvam The images are blunt and therefore effective. They first invited panic, then outrage, then politics. The stat...

✍️ Written by Saket Suman Writing and journalism are always under pressure. Pressure is their natural habitat. The tragedy now is that comfort has begun to cunningly pass off as success. The cushioned chairs, the familiar faces and the reliable applause!  A profession that cannot tolerate discomfort will eventually lose the ability to describe reality. And reality, unlike these sponsored festivals, does not curate itself. Nuremberg Rallies weren’t just big speeches.  They were mass propaganda spectacles;Via: Amber Speaks Up What we are watching unfold before our eyes is both censorship and choreography. Writing has already learned its steps. Journalism now knows when to enter and when to exit. There is a colourful, orderly, well sponsored parade underway where everyone is encouraged to carry a banner that says dissent provided they do not wander off the designated route. The music swells at the right moments when the masters of the ring ...

✍️ Written by Saket Suman One of the most overlooked features of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar is that he does not begin the tragedy with conspiracy or bloodshed but with a festival. Rome is in motion, gathered in public ritual at the Feast of Lupercal, an ancient observance tied to fertility, purification, and the turning of the season.  Representational; Via: Shukri Hamk Mark Antony runs the sacred course. Julius Caesar watches, then calls out, asking that his wife Calpurnia be touched in the holy chase so that her barrenness may be lifted. It is a small moment that is easily overlooked but it is doing serious work. William Shakespeare places power inside a seasonal frame before politics hardens into violence. The play reminds us that societies once understood legitimacy, continuity and anxiety about the future through the language of the sun and the body.  That instinct, the urge to pause when the sun turns and to read meaning in...

✍️ Written by Saket Suman There are some words that a civilisation carries for centuries and in due course of time it becomes a part of our living memory. Karuna is one such word in India.  It does not translate cleanly into “compassion” because it asks much more of us than sympathy, charity, or even kindness. Karuna is an obligation. It is the unsettling recognition that somebody else’s suffering is not separate from our own and therefore cannot be ignored without cost to the self. In the Indian philosophical imagination, Karuna holds together ethics, community, and governance in ways that are both simple and righteous. To speak of Karuna, then, is not to speak of benevolence in the abstract but of the moral mechanics by which a society chooses to function or fail. Reprsentational Image of Aloka, the peace dog! Via: Bobby Devito Across India’s spiritual traditions, compassion has never been passive, or at least that is what I found in my ...

✍️ Written by Saket Suman In a development likely to intensify global scrutiny over energy trade during wartime, a new dataset analyzed by German NGO Urgewald reveals that European Union member states funneled an estimated €7.2 billion to Russia in 2025 alone through imports from the Yamal LNG project.  The findings, backed by Kpler shipping data and released today, show that 76.1% of Yamal LNG exports, roughly one in every seven ships docking at European LNG terminals, were destined for the EU. File Photo; via FNNG Alliance This revelation carries sharp geopolitical consequences. With the EU having committed to a full ban on Russian LNG by 2027, the 2025 data illustrates a contradiction between stated policy and actual practice.  Despite a reduction in overall volumes, the EU’s proportional dependence on Yamal gas has deepened, and it casts doubts on Europe’s enforcement of sanctions amid Russia’s ongoing conflict in Ukraine. In an exc...

There has been a visible impact of IndianRepublic.in ’s reporting . More than two days after this publication documented a serious marketplace misrepresentation, Amazon India has now removed the misattributed reviews and ratings from the Kindle listing of The Sage Who Reimagined Hinduism: The Life, Lessons, & Legacy of Sree Narayana Guru by Shashi Tharoor .  But the correction is incomplete and the silence surrounding it is louder than ever. ; Representational Meme Source: MJ__Speaks on X As of this writing, the Kindle product page for Tharoor’s book (ASIN: B0G6Z7858F) continues to display the biographical description of another author, Amitava Kumar , under product description. This is a misleading artefact that remains live despite the removal of the reviews. The result is a listing that no longer carries borrowed ratings but still presents incorrect author information to readers under product description . Tharoor’s Kindle edition now has zero ratings and zero reviews. But...

More than sixty hours after IndianRepublic.in exclusively documented a serious marketplace misrepresentation involving Shashi Tharoor’s latest book , The Sage Who Reimagined Hinduism: The Life, Lessons, & Legacy of Sree Narayana Guru , the listing remains live, uncorrected, and consequential. This is in brazen defiance of the law and utter disregard for transparency and fair play by entities concerned. Representational Meme Source: Edgar Again Poeha on X During this period, the Kindle edition of Tharoor’s book has continued to gain measurable traction despite having received no original ratings of its own . Instead, it has benefited from reviews and star ratings written for an entirely different book: Amitava Kumar’s The Social Life of Indian Trains . Those reviews, which reflect reader responses to Kumar’s earlier work, remain algorithmically attached to Tharoor’s Kindle listing. The misattribution has operated to Tharoor’s clear commercial and reputational advantage, even as ne...

✍️ Written by Saket Suman When Shashi Tharoor announced on social media that his new book, The Sage Who Reimagined Hinduism: The Life, Lessons, & Legacy of Sree Narayana Guru , had been released by the Vice President of India, C.P. Radhakrishnan, the message carried the full institutional gravitas of a nationally endorsed publication. Released on December 30, 2025 at Sivagiri Mutt in Varkala, in the presence of the Governor of Kerala and senior religious and political leaders, the book was framed by Tharoor as a serious intellectual engagement with Sree Narayana Guru’s legacy and the Kerala Renaissance. It is precisely because of this stature, visibility, and public legitimacy that a parallel development on Amazon India demands thorough scrutiny: a flawed and misleading product listing that algorithmically links Tharoor’s book to reviews, ratings, and metadata belonging to a different author altogether, and raises troubling questions about co...

India and Pakistan exchanged lists of civil prisoners, fishermen, and nuclear installations on January 1, 2026, in line with established bilateral agreements aimed at fostering transparency and humanitarian engagement between the two countries.  The twin exchanges, conducted simultaneously through diplomatic channels in New Delhi and Islamabad, come amid a largely adversarial bilateral relationship shaped by decades of historical and geopolitical tensions since the 1947 partition. Representational Image: Attari–Wagah Retreat Ceremony. Via: Krishna Rao K As part of the Agreement on Consular Access signed on May 21, 2008, India shared details of 391 civil prisoners and 33 fishermen believed to be Pakistani in its custody, while Pakistan handed over a list containing details of 58 civil prisoners and 199 fishermen believed to be Indian.  The agreement mandates such exchanges on January 1 and July 1 every year and ensures reciprocal consular access, early repatriation upon...

✍️ Written by Saket Suman The first quarter of the 21st century is ending with an inward silence that cannot be hidden despite tourists thronging major hotspots. This is a moment that is ripe for reflection, when the land of over a billion should pause, even if briefly, to glance over its shoulder before looking ahead again. Representational Image: INSV Kaundinya on her maiden voyage from Porbandar to Muscat. Via: PM NaMo In these twenty-five years, India has become compressed, elastic and restless. The republic that once imagined itself as a socialist, secular, democratic experiment is now often narrated through a different grammar of scale, speed, and spectacle. The people have changed, politics has consolidated, and the idea of governance has been rewired. India now stands at global forums with postures of pride and of paradox. The arrival of Narendra Modi in 2014 was a culmination of accumulated frustrations, deferred dreams and a desire...