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Business News > Mint Authors > Manu S. Pillai

Manu S. Pillai

Author and Historian

Manu S. Pillai is a historian and the author of five books, most recently "Gods, Guns & Missionaries: The Making of the Modern Hindu Identity". A winner of the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar for his first book, "The Ivory Throne", he is also a columnist at Mint Lounge. Manu holds a PhD in history from King's College London.

ARTICLES BY MANU S. PILLAI

The origins of purdah in India are a topic of controversy. (Getty Images)

Manu S. Pillai: How purdah shaped women, power and politics in India

6 min read . 10 Jan 2026

English education has not really achieved the ends its first sponsors, the British, intended. (istockphoto)

Manu S. Pillai: The complicated history of English and the Indian identity

5 min read . 13 Dec 2025

A self portrait by Rama Varma. (Courtesy Kerala Museum.)

Who was Raja Ravi Varma’s son? The lost story of India’s forgotten artist

8 min read . 08 Nov 2025

There's a lot to bear in mind about the politics of facial hair as we approach the month of 'Movember'. (iStockphoto)

Manu S. Pillai: Movember and the moustache wars of Indian history

5 min read . 11 Oct 2025

Maratha chief Yashwantrao Holkar (right) meeting with Sikh ruler Maharaja Ranjit Singh. (Wikimedia Commons)

Manu S. Pillai: How gossip shaped dynasties and destroyed reputations

5 min read . 13 Sept 2025

The 'Maharani' Sita-Devi of Baroda. (getty images)

Sita Devi of Baroda: The “maharani’ who never was

9 min read . 03 Aug 2025

The ruling prince or Maharaja Gaekwad of Baroda, in the 19th century. (getty images)

Footwear, power, and colonial politics in British India

5 min read . 12 Jul 2025

Persian king Nadir Shah seated upon the Peacock Throne. (Wikimedia Commons)

The remarkable stories behind royal thrones

5 min read . 14 Jun 2025

(left) Raja Ravi Varma; and ‘There Comes Papa’, which features his daughter and grandson. (courtesy jay varma and wikimedia commons)

The stories of the men and women who inspired Ravi Varma

5 min read . 10 May 2025

Shivaji in the court of Aurangzeb, by M.V. Dhurandhar. (Wikimedia Commons)

Aurangzeb's tomb: ‘Correcting’ historical wrongs is a slippery slope

5 min read . 12 Apr 2025

‘A Hindu Custom now Suppressed: Preparations for a Suttee’, 1908; from ‘Harmsworth History of the World, Volume 2’.

(Getty Images)

Sati was real. But it was also great propaganda

5 min read . 07 Mar 2025

Mughal era ‘tawaif’ or courtesan, possibly a 20th century reproduction of an 18th century painting, Lucknow. (getty images)

The inconvenient ‘public women’ of history

5 min read . 08 Feb 2025

Abu’l-Fazl ibn Mubarak presenting the ‘Akbarnama’ to Akbar. (Getty Images)

For historical figures, popularity and unpopularity are cyclical

5 min read . 12 Jan 2025

Noted writer M.T. Vasudevan Nair passed away in Kerala at the age of 91. (PTI)

MT Vasudevan Nair (1933-2024): A rare figure who made history

3 min read . 26 Dec 2024

India, by British Information services, 1944. (Wikimedia Commons )

When the British chose pragmatism as strategy

5 min read . 21 Dec 2024

Engraving of Vishnu in his incarnation as Narasimha, the man-lion (1672), from the Wellcome Collection.

'Gods, Guns & Missionaries' excerpt: When Jesuits met devils, monsters in India

7 min read . 22 Nov 2024

Arthur Wellesley at the Battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815, in Belgium. (Getty Images)

How empires are built on the backs of animals

5 min read . 09 Nov 2024

Vasco Da Gama paying homage to the Zamorin of Calicut, 1498 (Getty Images)

When gifts aren’t an innocent show of affection

6 min read . 19 Oct 2024

Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV and Rana Prathap Kumari of Kathiawar, oil on canvas, Raja Ravi Varma. (Wikimedia Commons)

Royal marriages were a funnel to power

6 min read . 14 Sept 2024

Gosain Narain taking poison in the presence of Mughal emperor Jahangir. (Getty Images)

In games of power, death by milk and honey

6 min read . 10 Aug 2024