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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

British troops, including a military band, on parade outside the British Residency in Hyderabad, circa 1900. Today it's a women's college. (Getty Images)

Manu S Pillai: How time transforms monumental architecture

5 min read . 08 Aug 2026

The Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj statue at Pangong Tso, Ladakh. (Courtesy Firefurycorps_ia/x)

Manu S Pillai: What the rise of monumental statues reveals about politics

5 min read . 11 Jul 2026

A Benjamin West painting showing Robert Clive receiving the land revenues of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa in 1765. (Getty Images)

Manu S Pillai: How art was used as an expression of power and propaganda

6 min read . 13 Jun 2026

Emperor Jahangir was once gifted 50 eunuchs. (Getty Images)

Manu S. Pillai: The hidden history of eunuchs in India’s royal courts

5 min read . 09 May 2026

Akka Mahadevi, a poet-saint from Karnataka. (Wikimedia Commons)

Women poets in Indian history: From the ‘Therigatha’ to the Bhakti movement

5 min read . 11 Apr 2026

Bijapur’s Adil Shahi dynasty was founded by a Persian warrior and his Hindu queen. (Getty Images)

Manu S. Pillai: Persian culture flourished in India—until the British arrived

5 min read . 14 Mar 2026

A 19th-century illustration of 'Toilette of a Roman lady of rank'. (iStockphoto)

Manu S. Pillai: A history of the toilet, from assassins to ‘poop suitcases’

5 min read . 14 Feb 2026

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