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Amrita Shah

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Amrita Shah is a writer, political affairs commentator and independent scholar based in Mumbai, India. She is the author of 'Telly-Guillotined: How Television Changed India' (1997, Vikas; 2019 Sage-Yoda), 'Vikram Sarabhai: A Life' (Penguin, 2007) and 'Ahmedabad: A City in the World' (Bloomsbury, 2015). She has been a Contributing Editor of a national daily, The Indian Express and has been a fellow at the Institutes for Advanced Study in Nantes and Johannesburg, the Institute for Public Knowledge at NYU and the Centre for Contemporary Studies at the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru

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Papers by Amrita Shah

Vikram Sarabhai: A Life

Vikram Sarabhai (1919-71), the renaissance man of Indian science, visualized the impossible and o... more Vikram Sarabhai (1919-71), the renaissance man of Indian science, visualized the impossible and often made it happen. Amrita Shah's "Vikram Sarabhai: A Life" is the story of this dynamic visionary. Born into an immensely wealthy and politically conscious business family, Vikram had an early understanding of the power of money and the problems of a newly independent nation, to which he married a deep love for physics. Between 1947 and 1971, he built a thriving pharmaceutical business, conducted research into cosmic rays, set up India's first textile research cooperative, ATIRA, the first market research organization, ORG, the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad and the dance academy Darpana. He also headed the Atomic Energy Commission and laid the foundations for the world's first entirely peaceful space programme. Good-looking, charismatic, married to the glamorous classical dancer Mrinalini and closely associated with the most influential figures of his time - C.V. Raman, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Homi Bhabha, Bruno Rossi, Louis Kahn and John Rockefeller III - Vikram seemed to have led a charmed existence. Yet, his personal life was troubled and his strong resistance to India's move towards a nuclear explosion in the late 1960s put him at odds with powerful lobbies and fellow technologists. Amrita Shah delves into the life and mind of this fascinating, complex individual.

Revenge & Reconciliation: Understanding South Asian History

Foreign Policy, 2000

Indian Express, 2020

The City as Spectacle: Namaste Trump in Ahmedabad signaled a new politics combining the local wit... more

Star! The Once and Forever Legend

Imprint, 1985

He has been a star so long that on-screen and off-screen personae have merged. AMRITA SHAH probes... more

Interview Derek Malcolm

Debonair, 1992

Imprint, 1985

The Lok Sabha opened to a new set of faces, voices and concerns.

Ethnography of an Indian City: Ahmedabad

Bridge/The New Blackwell Companion to the City, 2012

... families of Ahmedabad moved out east, to Shahibaug, a neighborhood that took its name from a ... more

The ‘New India’ and the Politics of Space

A majestic sweep of red sandstone buildings housing government ministries overlooking manicured g... more A majestic sweep of red sandstone buildings housing government ministries overlooking manicured green lawns and an avenue slicing its way to a lonely war monument. To its left is Parliament House (shaped like a wheel on its side), stately administrative buildings and the National Archives. This landscape of restrained opulence – known as the Central Vista – was designed by the British when they decided to move their imperial headquarters from Calcutta (or Kolkata as it is now called) to Delhi in 1911. It seems to reach further back, however, drawing its monumental presence from a hoary, indeterminate past and projecting it into the eternal future, a timeless performance of power.

The Man with Big Ears, and Big Dreams that Took India to the Moon

Current Science

Revenge & Reconciliation: Understanding South Asian History

Foreign Policy, 2000

Sociology of the Fan

Indian Express, 2001

'Nationalism' has become a significant factor in a game once known for sportsmanship

The Amar Singh Fan Club

Indian Express, 2001

Every time he is interviewed interviewers are so bewildered about what makes him significant that... more

Attack on the Kaffirs

Indian Opinion, 1905

From Gandhi's Indian Opinion, Source Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi

A Collection of Statements on the 1975 Emergency

Imprint, 1984

Who supported the Emergency and Who Turned Around

The Scindias, Politics and Palace Intrigues

Telly-Guillotined:How Television Changed India, 2019

A month later, I travelled to Gwalior, a former princely town in the state of Madhya Pradesh. Ele... more A month later, I travelled to Gwalior, a former princely town in the state of Madhya Pradesh. Election fever was at its height and the whole town was festooned with buntings and banners proclaiming the merits of competing candidates. Elections in India's small towns and villages are always a lively affair but in this particular case the battle was not merely political. In 1971, the government had abolished the privileges enjoyed by India's former princely rulers wiping out, in one fell swoop, the line dividing the ruler and the ruled. In the eyes of the people, nonetheless, the distinction remained. Some members of the royalty had attempted to legitimise their dominance through politics. Vijaya Raje Scindia, widow of the Maharaja of Gwalior, was one of them.

Taking Back (Hindu) Control the Narendra Modi Way

Communal Violence as revanchism in India's gentrification

Super-lawyer Jethmalani

Imprint , 1986

Ram Jethmalani - politician, lawyer and bon vivant

Charlie Chaplin Through Indian Eyes

Indian Post, 1989

Tomorrow, April 16, is the birth centenary of Charlie Chaplin, the actor-director who gave the si... more Tomorrow, April 16, is the birth centenary of Charlie Chaplin, the actor-director who gave the silver screen one of its most memorable characters, the Little Tramp. Amrita Shah recalls Chaplin's remarkable life, and found out what impression he had made — as a character actor and director — on Indian film personalities -- April 15, 1989

George Fernandes, The Bandhwagon Rolls On.pdf

Imprint, 1986

Watching George Fernandes Stop a Train in Mumbai, 1986

Before #MeToo: The Loneliness of Being Monica Lewinsky

The world looked very different in 1998, when the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal broke.

Vikram Sarabhai: A Life

Vikram Sarabhai (1919-71), the renaissance man of Indian science, visualized the impossible and o... more Vikram Sarabhai (1919-71), the renaissance man of Indian science, visualized the impossible and often made it happen. Amrita Shah's "Vikram Sarabhai: A Life" is the story of this dynamic visionary. Born into an immensely wealthy and politically conscious business family, Vikram had an early understanding of the power of money and the problems of a newly independent nation, to which he married a deep love for physics. Between 1947 and 1971, he built a thriving pharmaceutical business, conducted research into cosmic rays, set up India's first textile research cooperative, ATIRA, the first market research organization, ORG, the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad and the dance academy Darpana. He also headed the Atomic Energy Commission and laid the foundations for the world's first entirely peaceful space programme. Good-looking, charismatic, married to the glamorous classical dancer Mrinalini and closely associated with the most influential figures of his time - C.V. Raman, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Homi Bhabha, Bruno Rossi, Louis Kahn and John Rockefeller III - Vikram seemed to have led a charmed existence. Yet, his personal life was troubled and his strong resistance to India's move towards a nuclear explosion in the late 1960s put him at odds with powerful lobbies and fellow technologists. Amrita Shah delves into the life and mind of this fascinating, complex individual.

Revenge & Reconciliation: Understanding South Asian History

Foreign Policy, 2000

Indian Express, 2020

The City as Spectacle: Namaste Trump in Ahmedabad signaled a new politics combining the local wit... more

Star! The Once and Forever Legend

Imprint, 1985

He has been a star so long that on-screen and off-screen personae have merged. AMRITA SHAH probes... more

Interview Derek Malcolm

Debonair, 1992

Imprint, 1985

The Lok Sabha opened to a new set of faces, voices and concerns.

Ethnography of an Indian City: Ahmedabad

Bridge/The New Blackwell Companion to the City, 2012

... families of Ahmedabad moved out east, to Shahibaug, a neighborhood that took its name from a ... more

The ‘New India’ and the Politics of Space

A majestic sweep of red sandstone buildings housing government ministries overlooking manicured g... more A majestic sweep of red sandstone buildings housing government ministries overlooking manicured green lawns and an avenue slicing its way to a lonely war monument. To its left is Parliament House (shaped like a wheel on its side), stately administrative buildings and the National Archives. This landscape of restrained opulence – known as the Central Vista – was designed by the British when they decided to move their imperial headquarters from Calcutta (or Kolkata as it is now called) to Delhi in 1911. It seems to reach further back, however, drawing its monumental presence from a hoary, indeterminate past and projecting it into the eternal future, a timeless performance of power.

The Man with Big Ears, and Big Dreams that Took India to the Moon

Current Science

Revenge & Reconciliation: Understanding South Asian History

Foreign Policy, 2000

Sociology of the Fan

Indian Express, 2001

'Nationalism' has become a significant factor in a game once known for sportsmanship

The Amar Singh Fan Club

Indian Express, 2001

Every time he is interviewed interviewers are so bewildered about what makes him significant that... more

Attack on the Kaffirs

Indian Opinion, 1905

From Gandhi's Indian Opinion, Source Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi

A Collection of Statements on the 1975 Emergency

Imprint, 1984

Who supported the Emergency and Who Turned Around

The Scindias, Politics and Palace Intrigues

Telly-Guillotined:How Television Changed India, 2019

A month later, I travelled to Gwalior, a former princely town in the state of Madhya Pradesh. Ele... more A month later, I travelled to Gwalior, a former princely town in the state of Madhya Pradesh. Election fever was at its height and the whole town was festooned with buntings and banners proclaiming the merits of competing candidates. Elections in India's small towns and villages are always a lively affair but in this particular case the battle was not merely political. In 1971, the government had abolished the privileges enjoyed by India's former princely rulers wiping out, in one fell swoop, the line dividing the ruler and the ruled. In the eyes of the people, nonetheless, the distinction remained. Some members of the royalty had attempted to legitimise their dominance through politics. Vijaya Raje Scindia, widow of the Maharaja of Gwalior, was one of them.

Taking Back (Hindu) Control the Narendra Modi Way

Communal Violence as revanchism in India's gentrification

Super-lawyer Jethmalani

Imprint , 1986

Ram Jethmalani - politician, lawyer and bon vivant

Charlie Chaplin Through Indian Eyes

Indian Post, 1989

Tomorrow, April 16, is the birth centenary of Charlie Chaplin, the actor-director who gave the si... more Tomorrow, April 16, is the birth centenary of Charlie Chaplin, the actor-director who gave the silver screen one of its most memorable characters, the Little Tramp. Amrita Shah recalls Chaplin's remarkable life, and found out what impression he had made — as a character actor and director — on Indian film personalities -- April 15, 1989

George Fernandes, The Bandhwagon Rolls On.pdf

Imprint, 1986

Watching George Fernandes Stop a Train in Mumbai, 1986

Before #MeToo: The Loneliness of Being Monica Lewinsky

The world looked very different in 1998, when the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal broke.