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Polity

Delhi Governance: Article 239AA and the National Capital Territory

Why the capital is neither a full state nor a full Union Territory: the 69th Amendment, the excluded subjects, the Lieutenant Governor, and the services battle that produced the 2023 amendments.

30 September 2026 · 7 min read

History

Empires in Stone: Colonial Architecture in India

From Portuguese churches in Goa to Lutyens' Delhi, how five colonial powers rebuilt India's cities in stone, and what their buildings reveal about empire.

29 September 2026 · 27 min read

Medieval History

The Deccan's Other Empire: Bahmani Sultans, Warring Successors and the Road to Talikota

While Vijayanagara rose on the Tungabhadra's south bank, a rival empire rose on the north: the Bahmani kingdom, born from a revolt against Delhi in 1347. Its story is one of Persian splendour, bloody faction fights, and five successor states that finally destroyed Vijayanagara at Talikota.

27 September 2026 · 33 min read

Medieval History

City of Victory: How Vijayanagara Became Medieval South India's Greatest Empire

In 1336, two brothers founded a city on the Tungabhadra that would defy the Delhi Sultanate for 300 years. Under Krishnadevaraya it became the richest city in India, until one catastrophic battle in 1565 reduced it to the haunting ruins of Hampi.

27 September 2026 · 38 min read

Medieval History

How the Sultanate Ran, and Built: Iqta, Bureaucracy, Arches and Domes

The Delhi Sultanate's real revolution wasn't on the battlefield, it was in the tax register and the mason's yard. The iqta system funded a professional state, and the true arch, the dome and lime mortar gave India a new architectural language. Here's how both worked.

27 September 2026 · 38 min read

Medieval History

The Reformer and the Visionary: Alauddin's Markets and Tughlaq's Experiments

One Sultan fixed the price of everything from grain to horses to fund history's first standing army in India. His successor tried to move the capital 1,500 km, print token currency, and tax a famine-struck doab, and failed spectacularly at all three. The Khaljis and Tughlaqs, explained.

27 September 2026 · 34 min read

Medieval History

The Slave Kings: How Aibak, Iltutmish, Razia and Balban Built the Delhi Sultanate

In 1206, a slave-general with no royal blood founded India's first Islamic empire from Delhi. Within sixty years, his successors, a consolidator, a queen who defied her nobles, and an iron-fisted king who called himself God's Shadow, had built a state that would rule for three centuries.

27 September 2026 · 23 min read

Medieval History

The Southern Powerhouses: Cheras, Hoysalas, Kakatiyas and the Yadavas of Devagiri

While Delhi was still a Tomar town, the Deccan and the far south were ruled by dynasties UPSC loves to test: the Cheras who guarded the spice trade, the Hoysalas who carved soapstone into lace, the Kakatiyas ruled by a warrior queen, and the Yadavas whose capital became Tughlaq's dream.

27 September 2026 · 34 min read

Governance

The All-India Services: one service, many masters

Recruited by the Centre, posted in the states, recalled to Delhi: the IAS, IPS and Indian Forest Service sit at the fault line of Indian federalism. Article 312, the cadre system, central deputation and the Centre-state tussle.

27 September 2026 · 19 min read