independence
South Asia in a time of the breaking of nations
Avinash Paliwal’s gripping tale of espionage opens in 1949, with newly independent India, Pakistan and Burma racked by rivalries in one of the most intricately partitioned areas on Earth
A Hindu Cromwell courteously decapitates hundreds of maharajas
Through a mix of charm, diplomacy and coercion, Sardar Patel, Nehru’s uncompromising deputy, ensured that 565 princely states vanished from the map of India in 1947
Interview: Rowan Williams on Wales, independence and the King Lear of Westminster
Rowan Williams is no stranger to politics. As Archbishop of Canterbury he was as comfortable criticising Tony Blair over Iraq…
Why the SNP fraud allegations matter
A common refrain from opponents of the Scottish National party is that ‘the SNP is not Scotland’. But it often…
Ever weaker Union: The Tories lack a constitutional theory
No doubt Michael Gove is satisfied with how his latest comments on Scottish independence have gone down. The Chancellor of…
Can the UK government navigate the SNP's calls for a second referendum?
The Unionist tactical voting in Scotland makes it tempting to see the country as split down the middle between pro-independence…
A study in vulnerability: The Coming Bad Days, by Sarah Bernstein, reviewed
When the unnamed narrator of Sarah Bernstein’s The Coming Bad Days leaves the man with whom she has been living…
Alex Salmond is a gift to the Unionist cause
If Alex Salmond and his new Alba party did not exist, pro-Union parties would find it necessary to invent them.…
Sturgeon's rush for a referendum could backfire
The Holyrood election campaign kicks off with Nicola Sturgeon buoyed by James Hamilton’s report concluding that she did not break…
Ruth Davidson’s exit reveals Scottish Tories’ independence secret
Ruth Davidson has used her final speech to the Scottish Conservative conference to appeal to pro-Union voters. In a video…
Leaving the Union would harm Scotland more than Brexit
The Spectator recently ran a piece by Andrew Wilson, author of the SNP’s Sustainable Growth Commission, under the headline ‘Scotland…
Does Catalonia really want independence?
In 1714, after a long siege, Spain managed to regain control of Barcelona after the War of Spanish Succession. Catalan…
Zimbabwe’s chaotic history has at least produced some outstanding fiction
Tsitsi Dangarembga’s arresting Nervous Conditions appeared in 1988 and was the first novel published in English by a black Zimbabwean…
Gandhi on Hitler: ‘I do not believe him to be as bad as he is portrayed’
‘It’s a beautiful world if it wasn’t for Gandhi who is really a perfect nuisance,’ Lord Willingdon, Viceroy of India,…
Spanish practices
In October 1936, on the anniversary of Columbus’s discovery of the New World, a ceremony was held at Salamanca University,…
Passage from India
It is not fashionable to feel sympathy for the men and women who lived and served in the British colonies…
The greatest surprise about Nigeria at 100 is that it exists at all
A giant was born in 1914, an African giant. The same year European powers set about each other in the…
Britain didn’t fight the second world war — the British empire did
Had it not been for the empire, Britain might have lost the second world war, says William Dalrymple. The war certainly lost Britain the empire
Reasons for feeling Scottish
Sometimes I say I’m Scottish, a claim often greeted with understandable derision. I was born in England, in Hertfordshire, went…
Can the Scots really be as small-minded, mistrustful and chippy as Spoiling suggests?
Referendum fever reaches Stratford East. Spoiling, by John McCann, takes us into the corridors of power in Holyrood shortly after…
Time for the King of Spain to save his country again
Might there ever be in this century, anywhere in Europe, a case for serious political interference by an hereditary monarch?…
David Cameron is betraying Scotland's Unionists
Cameron is betraying Scotland’s Unionists
