Over the past fifteen years, Murali Ranganathan has trawled archives and libraries looking for material on Mumbai’s history in Marathi, Gujarati, Urdu, and Persian. And he has assembled some remarkable finds into a series of books and articles covering everything from print history to pandemics. His latest book, The First World War Adventures of Nariman Karkaria, is a translation from Gujarati of a Parsi soldier’s rollicking accounts of his world travels and battle experiences. And it provides a window into a broader discussion of Mumbai and its people. How has the city changed and stayed the same over the centuries? What is the longer history of controversies over naming, identity, and belonging in the Maximum City? How do Mumbaikars understand their city’s history?

Past Imperfect Episode 13: Murali Ranganathan on Bombay and Mumbai, Past and Present

Past Imperfect Episode 16 features SPJIMR Prof. Dinyar Patel in conversation with Ashoka Mody, formerly a deputy director at the International Monetary Fund and a visiting professor at Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs, and author of India Is Broken.

When Ashoka Mody published India is Broken two years ago, it stoked fierce controversy. Instead of describing the promise of the “India story”—a buoyant economy, a growing middle class, and great potential for manufacturing and service sector growth—Mody portrayed a country which systematically refused to get the basics right. India, Mody argues, remains trapped in a jobs crisis, and its failure to meaningfully invest in quality education, public health, and other public goods condemns it to continued high rates of unemployment and underemployment. In this episode, Mody explains how his views have evolved in the past two years, and why he believes that India is even more broken today. 

Past Imperfect Episode 16: Ashoka Mody on a More Broken India

Sapience Episode 9: Inner presence and wise leadership

In this episode Prof. Surya Tohara explore the topic conscious consulting with Christian Mayhofer, Co-Founder, Conscious consulting group

Sapiens Episode 10: What is conscious consulting

Past Imperfect Episode 17 features SPJIMR Prof. Dinyar Patel in conversation with Jane Ohlmeyer, Erasmus Smiths Professor of Modern History at Trinity College Dublin and author of Making Ireland.

Question: What unites a European island country of 5 million people and a subcontinental nation of 1.45 billion? Answer: A remarkably deep and complex history. Jane Ohlmeyer explains how the Irish—as both colonial victims and members of the colonial elite, army, and bureaucracy—shaped British India from the 1600s onward. Ireland gave India some of its staunchest allies, such as Annie Besant, and its most recalcitrant colonial governors, like Michael O’Dwyer of Punjab. And the Irish have influenced modern India in some profoundly unexpected ways. Bombay’s second governor—the Irishman Gerald Aungier—instilled its commercial ethos and transformed the city into a cosmopolitan entrepot. India’s “City of Dreams” retains several reminders of Irish inputs from nearly four centuries ago.

Past imperfect Episode 17: Jane Ohlmeyer on Ireland and India’s Intertwined Histories

Prof. Surya Tahora is in conversation with Dr. Knut O.J. Ims, Professor emeritus in business ethics at the Norwegian School of Economics and Hege Tuen Seglem, Founder of Being Mindful. In this talk they discuss how mindfulness, defined by Jon Kabat-Zinn as purposeful, present, and non-judgmental awareness, can address interconnected systemic crises in the Anthropocene, such as environmental, social, and economic challenges. It argues that mindfulness can foster conscious, value-driven choices, breaking habitual behaviors to promote sustainability and deeper connections with nature, others, and oneself.

Sapience Episode 11: An exploration of mindfulness in context of economics, Leadership and culture

Past Imperfect Episode 18 features SPJIMR Prof. Dinyar Patel in conversation with Rosemary Wakeman, Professor of History at Fordham University and author of The Worlds of Victor Sassoon.

Victor Sassoon (1881-1961) called three cities home: Bombay, London, and Shanghai. These three cities, as Rosemary Wakeman explains, best epitomized capitalism and globalization in the 1920s and 1930s. In The Worlds of Victor Sassoon, Wakeman uses the life and fortunes of the Baghdadi Jewish businessman to tell a much larger story of cosmopolitanism and global cities. Bombay, London, and Shanghai resembled one another more than their own countries: they became international hubs of finance, technology, media, and the leisure economy. This was a world of horse races and aviation, real estate speculation and the movie industry, and art deco architecture and investment banking. Victor Sassoon stood at the center of a much broader transformation of global capitalism, one which sprouted the roots of today’s economy. 

Past Imperfect Episode 18: Rosemary Wakeman on the Interwar Worlds of Bombay, London, and Shanghai

Past Imperfect Episode 19 features SPJIMR Prof. Dinyar Patel in conversation with Amrita Shah, author of The Other Mohan in Britain’s Indian Ocean Empire.

What does Mohanlal Killavala have in common with Mahatma Gandhi? Both men migrated to South Africa. Both men were Gujarati professionals who smarted at racial prejudice in the British Empire, protested against unjust laws, and spent time in jail. There were important dissimilarities, as well—dissimilarities which add nuance to the story of the Indian diaspora. Amrita Shah’s The Other Mohan traces the story of her great-grandfather, Killavala, as he joined thousands of other Indians seeking better opportunities abroad in the early twentieth century. While reconstructing Killavala’s travels, she also tells a much more complex story of how the Indian Ocean knit together so many different people through bonds of labor, political activity, and marriage.

Past Imperfect Episode 19: Amrita Shah on Ancestral Journeys Across the Indian Ocean

Prof. Surya Tahora is in conversation with Neha Chatwani, an organisational psychologist. In this talk they discuss, in a world of turbulence it is imperative that we re-assess some of the management and leadership assumptions in organisations, so that we can leverage our collective intelligence with meaning and purpose, intentionally, for enabling agility through learning. 
Tune in to the latest episode of the podcast series Sapience presented by SPJIMR Centre for Wisdom in Leadership (CWIL).



Sapience Episode 12:Thriving in Disruption

Past Imperfect Episode 20: Manu S. Pillai on Missionaries, Reformers, and the Making of Modern Hinduism.

SP Jain Institute of Management & Research (SPJIMR) is a constituent of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and is ranked among the top ten business schools in India. It is in the top 50 ranks in the Financial Times (FT) 2020 business school rankings and is placed 3rd in India and 36th in the world. As a premier school of management, SPJIMR is noted for pedagogic innovations and pioneering programmes, which have helped the Institute stand out for its unique and distinctive path in management education. SPJIMR's mission is to 'influence practice' and 'promote value-based growth'. The Institute currently operates from its 45-acre campus in Andheri, Mumbai, and a campus in New Delhi.  

Taking forward the SPJIMR motto of thought leadership, SPJIMR Thoughtcast showcases the 'influencing practice' principle of the institute and features an expert SPJIMR faculty in a reflective conversation with a senior industry leader on management and business.

Past Imperfect Episode 13: Murali Ranganathan on Bombay and Mumbai, Past and Present

SPJIMR Podcast

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