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Analysis and long reads

Deeper writing on Indian elections, constitutional history, policy debates, and how ideology shifts across states and generations.

6 pages

01How the Indian Constitution Borrowed from the WorldThe Indian Constitution drew from the UK, USA, Ireland, Canada, France, the Weimar Republic, and more. Here is what was borrowed from where, and how the framers adapted it for India.

02Introducing the Indian Political CompassWhy a simple left-right scale fails to capture Indian politics, and how a four-axis compass gives a more honest map of where you and India's leaders actually stand.

03The Mandal Moment: How 1990 Reshaped Indian PoliticsV. P. Singh's announcement of OBC reservations in August 1990 triggered the most convulsive social crisis since the Emergency. Thirty-five years on, its consequences still define Indian politics.

04The North-South Divide in Indian PoliticsIndia's north and south vote differently, govern differently, and increasingly disagree on fundamental questions of federal power. Here is what the divide is really about.

05Reading the 2024 Election Through the CompassThe BJP lost its majority but the opposition couldn't convert votes into seats. What the 2024 Lok Sabha result tells us about where India stands on all four axes.

06Why Indian Politicians Are So Hard to Place on a SpectrumThe BJP runs welfare schemes and backs privatisation. Congress launched liberalisation and demands caste justice. Why do Indian parties defy easy ideological labelling?