Today my guest is environmental scholar, historian and biographer Ramachandra Guha. He is the author of a number of books, including a two-volume biography of Gandhi and the award-winning book “India After Gandhi.”

Recorded May 7th, 2025.

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Timestamps

00:00:00 - Intro

00:01:08 - Speaking with Nature

00:08:42 - Unquiet Woods

00:38:29 - Science and Progress of Environmentalism

00:47:33 - Radhakamal Mukerjee

00:55:06 - K. M. Munshi

01:03:38 - Technological Progress and Tradeoffs

01:11:22 - Jayaprakash Narayan

01:19:39 - Outro

Today’s episode is the second part of my conversation with Rajmohan Gandhi, a historian and biographer involved in efforts for trust-building and reconciliation and author of more than fifteen books, of which the most recent is Fraternity: Constitutional Norm and Human Need. He taught history and politics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 1997 until he retirement in 2022. His most recent initiative is We Are One Humanity (WAOH), a writers collective responding to the worldwide thrusts against democracy and equality.

We spoke about his reflections on communal violence between Hindus and Muslims, revenge and reconciliation in South Asia, Sikhs and Buddhists, differences between north and south India, constitutional values, and much more.

Recorded April 17th, 2025.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.

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Today my guest is Rajmohan Gandhi, a historian and biographer involved in efforts for trust-building and reconciliation and author of more than fifteen books, of which the most recent is Fraternity: Constitutional Norm and Human Need. He taught history and politics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 1997 until his retirement in 2022. His most recent initiative is We Are One Humanity (WAOH), a writers collective responding to the worldwide thrusts against democracy and equality.

We spoke about his reflections on his biographies of the founding fathers, Vallabhai Patel, Mohandas Gandhi, C Rajagopalachari, and Gaffar Khan, their competing visions, debates with others like Ambedkar and Nehru, constitutional values, the civil rights movement, his faith, and much more.

Recorded April 18th, 2025.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.

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Timestamps

Intro - 00:00:00

Patel - 00:01:34

Rajaji - 00:31:20

Ghaffar Khan - 00:51:53

Gandhi - 01:05:53

Competing Visions - 01:17:32

Biographies of Family Members - 01:18:54

Serendipity in the Research Process - 01:23:40

Civil Rights in the US - 01:27:23

Pessimistic or Optimistic? - 01:35:16

Role of God and Faith - 01:36:27

Outro - 01:38:20