Archives: Authors

MAHESH NEELKANTH BUCH was an urban planner, statesman and writer who focused on issues of governance and administration in India. He joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1957. An alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge University, he was Parvin Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson School of the Princeton University. He opted for voluntary retirement in 1984, when he was principal secretary with the government of Madhya Pradesh. He founded the National Centre for Human Settlements and Environment in Bhopal and remained its chairman until his death in 2015.
He held several important portfolios, including vice chairman of the Delhi Development Authority, vice chairman of the National Commission on Urbanization, chairman of the Lutyens’ Bungalow Zone Committee of the Government of India and chairman of the Empowered Committee for the New Vidhan Sabha building in Madhya Pradesh.
He received the Aga Khan award for architecture in 1998 and the Padma Bhushan in 2011. Known as the architect of modern Bhopal, he wrote on wide-ranging issues and chalked out the way forward for effective legal and policy implementation. He published a number of books on governance, planning and environment, besides regularly writing for journals and newspapers.
He is survived by his wife, Nirmala Buch, and son, Vineet Buch.

N. RAVICHANDRAN retired from Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad in October 2018 after serving there for thirty-eight years. He was also director of IIM Indore from 2008 to 2013. His areas of interest include operations research, operations management and business strategy.

Swapan Dasgupta is a member of the Rajya Sabha. He has worked in major national newspapers and magazines and has a doctorate in history from the university of Cambridge.

Giles Tillotson writes and lectures on a wide range of Indian art and architecture, from the sultanate and Rajput period to the colonial and modern eras. He taught at the University of London from 1990 to 2004, since when he has been living in India, working as an author and curator, and as a consultant to museum trusts. Delhi Darshan completes Giles Tillotson’s Golden Triangle trilogy, following his critically acclaimed books Jaipur Nama and Taj Mahal, both published by Penguin India.

Pika Nani was what Deepika Murthy called herself as a child. She wanted to become a writer and realized this dream with her first book, Little Indians: Stories from across the country (2013). When she is not writing, she can be found talking about writing to children in various schools. She grew up in Mumbai and now lives in Bengaluru with her family. When on a break, you will find her travelling or curled up with a good book–most likely a mystery.

Kartik Hosanagar is the John C. Hower Professor of Technology and Digital Business and a professor of marketing at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. The co-founder of four different ventures, he was recognized in 2011 by Poets & Quants as one of the “Top 40 Business Professors Under 40.” His writing has appeared in Wired, Forbes, and the Harvard Business Review, and his past consulting and executive education clients include Google, American Express, Citigroup and SunTrust Bank. Hosanagar earned his PhD in Management Science and Information Systems from Carnegie Mellon University.

Deepti Priya Mehrotra’s published works include Gulab Bai: The Queen of Nautanki Theatre, Home Truths: Stories of Single Mothers, A Passion for Freedom: The Story of Kisanin Jaggi Devi, Western Philosophy and Indian Feminism, Ekal Maa and Bharatiya Mahila Andolan. She has a PhD in political science, and a post-doctoral thesis in philosophy. She remains actively involved with varied social organizations and has an enduring interest in people’s movements, feminist peace-building, popular theatre, healing and creative education. She teaches part-time in Agra University.

WALTER ANDERSEN is professor of South Asia Studies, School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University. Prior to joining the SAIS, he served as chief of the US State Department’s South Asia Division in the Office of Analysis for the Near East and South Asia.

SHRIDHAR D. DAMLE is a freelance journalist and scholar of Indian politics based in the US.

SHRIDHAR D. DAMLE is a freelance journalist and scholar of Indian politics based in the US.

Hilal Ahmed is Associate Professor at Centre for the study of Developing Societies (CSDS), New Delhi. He works on political Islam, Indian democracy, and politics of symbols in South Asia. He is associated with the Lokniti programme of the CSDS.

He is the author of Muslim Political Discourse in Postcolonial India: Monuments, Memory, Contestation (Routledge 2014), Allah Naam ki Siyasat (Hindi, Setu Prakashan, 2023), Siyasi Muslims: A Story of Political Islam in India (Penguin-Random House, New Delhi, 2019) and Democratic Accommodations: Minorities in contemporary India (With Peter R deSouza, and Sanjeer Alam, Bloomsbury, 2019). He has also edited Companion to Indian Democracy: Resilience, Fragility, Ambivalence (With Peter R deSouza, and Sanjeer Alam, Routledge, 2021), Rethinking Muslim Personal Law: Issues, Debates and Reforms (with R. K. Mishra & K. N. Jehangir, Routledge, 2022) and Sudipta Kaviraj: A Reader (Hindi, Setu Prakashan, 2023). Ahmed is the Associate Editor, South Asian Studies, journal of the British Association of South Asian Studies. He is also part of the editorial team of CSDS’s Hindi journal Pratiman.

Ahmed writes for academic journals, newspapers, and websites in English and Hindi. He has produced two documentaries, Encountering the Political Jama Masjid (English, 2006) and Qutub: Ek Adhura Afsana (Qutub: an unfinished story, Hindi with English subtitles, 2016). Ahmed has also conceptualized and developed an academic mobile app SHARC-DILLI, an app on the Partitioned City of Delhi, (with Deborah Sutton, Lancaster University).

Ahmed was awarded the Rajya Sabha Fellowship (2015-2016), the Asia Fellow Award (2008/2010), the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies Fellowship (2009), the Ford Foundation-IFP Fellowship (2002), the ATRI-Charities Aid Foundation Fellowship (2001), and UGC Senior Research Fellowship (1999) and the UGC Junior Research Fellowship (1997).

A film Beacons of Hope (2008) documents Ahmed’s life story.

Kulpreet Yadav (Author)
Kulpreet Yadav, a graduate of the Naval Officers’ Academy, served in the Indian Coast Guard for two decades, during which he successfully commanded three ships. Retiring as a Commandant in 2014, he transitioned into writing, authoring numerous books across diverse genres, including military history, espionage, and true crime. His military history books, The Battle of Rezang La (Penguin, 2021) and The Battle of Haji Pir (Penguin, 2024), have garnered widespread recognition. Beyond writing, Kulpreet is also an actor, filmmaker, and entrepreneur.

Madhur Rao (Author)
Madhur Rao is a dedicated historian with a deep passion for the culture, heritage, and history of Ahirwal, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Rajasthan, and Western Uttar Pradesh. A proud alumnus of the prestigious Sherwood College, Madhur now divides his time between Kotputli, Rajasthan, where he runs a renowned school, and Jaipur and Gurgaon, where he oversees various business ventures. He is also deeply involved in restoring old furniture and heritage buildings, driven by a commitment to preserving the cultural legacy of his homeland.