The prevalence of inter-caste marriage has barely budged in the last half-century. It was around 5% in 1976 and remained at 5% in 2012 (IHDS-2). Partly it is sustained by a political culture where unclear caste lineage can turn into a tool of political attack.

The presence of six American novels on this year's Booker longlist reminds us that among the biggest losers of the Booker being open to US authors are American readers. For every US book on the longlist there is a non-US book that fewer American readers will now hear about.

I write about Rahul Bhatia's new book on India - The Guardian: theguardian.com/books/article/…

In case you want to hear me talk about fiction and politics on the Granta podcast: granta.com/podcast-benjam…

Vinesh Phogat's stunning victory! #VineshPhogat #Paris2024

Coming into the Olympics, Yui Susaki is 82-0 In all her international career, Susaki has never even been pushed. She’s beaten World champions and Olympic medallists for fun. She’s too fast. Too slick. Too technical. Too intelligent. Too damn perfect. Can someone beat Susaki

Remember while felicitating her that Vinesh was being dragged by callous policemen on the streets of Delhi - this was months before Paris while her competitors were training. This isn’t any one else’s medal - this is just VINESH’S medal - let no one take credit for this

How many humans can recover from THIS and yet continue to chase the goal of being the absolute best version of themselves? Women are something else

Pakistan beating India in the Hockey Gold Medal match of the 1960 Rome Olympics has been the greatest moment of their sports history. Arshad Nadeem beating Neeraj Chopra for the Javelin Gold in Paris 2024 will make it the most seminal moment. #Javelin #athletics #Olympics

‘These songs don’t feel “written” in any conventional way; they are like pollen on the breeze. Words as vibrations, passing places, silvered keys to unlock the heart.’ Ian Penman (Ian Penman) on the many-faceted music of Arthur Russell: lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/…

Neeraj Chopra's mother, Saroj Devi: “We are happy with the silver. The one who got the gold is also my child.” indianexpress.com/article/opinio…

New article in Capitalism: A Journal of History and Economics , free access for a month, where I try and make sense of emergent technologies, namely hydropower in the 1930s, what that means in light of agrarian power, and implications for a coal scarce region like Tamilnad. muse.jhu.edu/issue/53014

Greatly honored to be on this list, and in such great company.

Why do Sri Lanka play Madushka over Nissanka?

For London Review of Books, I wrote about the new Creation Lake, a book that gave me Lyme Disease. lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/…

The twinkling feet of Archie Jackson during his innings of 73 at the Oval in 1930 - he was just 20, but was only ever to play two Tests in England and eight all told- he passed away from tuberculosis during the Bodyline series, not yet 24

This new Duleep Trophy format makes a ton of cricketing sense, but surely the teams should have better names than A, B, C and D. Why not Bedi, Chandra, Prasanna, Venkat?

Enjoyed chatting to The Sports Agents pod this week about the state of Test cricket and who runs the sport