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August 23, 2026
Keeping up with Joneses in Keralam
Going by the logic of English spelling, foreigners will call the state Kere-laam. Pucca sahibs would say, if the word has to be pronounced the way it is in Malayalam, it should be spelt Keralom
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August 16, 2026
Beware of the last days of America
Global re-militarisation is accelerating as countries from Japan to Europe increase defence spending and form new strategic alliances
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August 09, 2026
Why laws fail, scammers pass
Law-making in India has become whimsical, and reactive to public outcries
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August 02, 2026
Lead, non-violent youth
Unlike their cousins in Dhaka, Colombo or Kathmandu, the Gen Z of Jantar Mantar didn’t storm Bastilles or bastions, palaces or parliaments. Yet they had their revolution
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July 26, 2026
Thugs, fossils and a mountain tunnel
For centuries most of central and north India was infested with members of a murder cult called thuggee
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July 19, 2026
Ayodhya Ram Mandir theft: Honour the deity and the devotee
The alleged theft at Ram Mandir is a breach of the trust and faith that millions of devotees place in one of India’s holiest shrines.
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July 19, 2026
Communism: An idea whose end hasn’t come
India’s secular intellectual space will continue to draw its sustenance from the Leftist school
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July 12, 2026
Vijay? No better ideas?
Sadly, our military seems to be losing the poetic touch. Look at how we are code naming ops and projects these days
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July 05, 2026
Citizen vigilantes
Most countries don’t have citizenship cards, but then they don’t ask their people to prove their citizenship as frequently as we do
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June 28, 2026
A centennial gift for the naked dancer
A few fig-leafed pedagogues have sought to clothe the four millennia-old dancing girl of Mohenjo-daro. A few textbook writers of NCERT, who thought her nakedness a national shame, made an attempt to mask her nakedness to the satvik class nine schoolboys and girls of Bharat varsha
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June 21, 2026
Moscow’s Kabuliwala
Russia has strategically re-engaged with Afghanistan, appointing Zamir Kabulov, an envoy with deep expertise in the region, as its special representative
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June 14, 2026
The elephant in the cabinet room
Having managed the Karnataka transition well, the Congress has fouled up the aftermath
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June 11, 2026
Hit him in the rear – a masterstroke at Inchon
Frontal assault can often be foolhardy. In battle, the idea is not to display chivalry but to ensure victory using tact. And strategies of indirect approach suit the objective better. In this 23rd instalment of ‘Tactics & Tacticians’, we look at how Gen. Douglas MacArthur made a bold landing in the enemy’s rear at Inchon in Korea
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June 07, 2026
Rain, rain, stay here
Monsoon rains are produced by an interplay of In dra, Varuna and Surya
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June 04, 2026
Forts and walls don’t protect you; vigilant sentries do
Fortifications create a false illusion of security, wrote Alistaire Horne, one of Europe’s finest war historians. Throughout history, rulers have erected castles, forts, fences and walls to safeguard their manors, fiefs, kingdoms and empires. But they have all been breached when the sentries left, slept or were compromised. In this 22nd instalment of ‘Tactics & Tacticians’, we look at how some of the supposedly impregnable fortifications were easily breached
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May 31, 2026
Cockroaches in their stomachs
Looks like we may have a national insect soon. I was betting on the ubiquitous mosquito that sings us to sleep, or the housefly with which we share our sweetmeats, but the cockroach is scurrying ahead
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May 28, 2026
Shots on the roof that persuaded a surrender
At times, unnerving the enemy with minimal force yields better results than killing him with massive force. Not only does it get you general goodwill, but also allows you to claim a clean victory. In this 21st instalment of 'Tactics and Tacticians', we look at how a neat surgical air strike on Dacca yielded India a clean victory in the 1971 war
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May 26, 2026
Thucydides Trap and the claptrap
Xi Jinping invoked Thucydides, a fifth century BC Athenian naval commander and historian, whose account of the Peloponnesian War led to the theory that when a rising power seeks parity with an established power, it could lead to war
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May 17, 2026
Letters for post: Vajpayee to Vijay
Vijay lacks the versifying talents of Vajpayee, but is blessed with a filmy charisma that should stand him in good stead
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May 14, 2026
Battle of Assaye: Where Wellesley found two villages and a way
A smart strategist is also a sharp-eyed quartermaster. Arthur Wellesley was one such. In this 19th episode of ‘Tactics and Tacticians’ on the Battle of Assaye, we find out how his sharp eye found a crossing point in a flooded river which no one knew about.
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May 10, 2026
Connecticut Yankees & Charles’s speech
Kingship may survive centuries, but would the idea of liberty?
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May 07, 2026
The unsettled affair of Sivaji’s claws
How would you describe the slaying of the Bijapur nobleman Afzal Khan by Sivaji? A battle? An assassination? A clever stratagem? In this 15th edition of ‘Tactics and Tacticians’, we examine the lesser-discussed battle doctrines that were relied on by both adversaries.
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May 07, 2026
Ride light and shoot straight: The Battle of Agincourt and the underdog's triumph
Ease of use is what matters in battle more than the technological quality of the weapon. Simple weapons have often prevailed over complex systems because they are user-friendly. In this 18th instalment of 'Tactics & Tacticians', we examine how the simpler English peasant-warrior’s longbow beat the advanced French crossbow in the Battle of Agincourt.
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May 04, 2026
A requiem for AAP
Where it went fundamentally wrong was that it missed the two I-s, one of which every party needs—ideology or identity
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April 30, 2026
Light as straw, on camelback: The tactical mastery of Nadir Shah's invasion
Very often, it is not the most powerful or sophisticated weapons that win battles, but smaller and less advanced ones. Put differently, it is not the size or superiority of a weapon that matters more; what matters is how the weapon is used. Military history offers several examples of this. In the 17th instalment of ‘Tactics & Tacticians’, let us examine one such example from the Indian history.
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