India Now

As voting gets underway in the Indian elections, The Strand has commissioned some of the country's most important writers to tell us what they think about India today.

Vikas Swarup

Vikas Swarup is the man behind the novel that became the multi-award winning film Slumdog Millionaire. In this essay written especially for The Strand, he expresses his opinions on the strengths and challenges he believes India faces in the 21st century.

Anita Nair

Anita Nair is one of India's best-known female writers. Her work often exposes the truth about women's lives in India using wit and humour. She lives in Bangalore and in her essay, Courage Under Fire,she considers for us what it is to be a women writing in India today.

Tarun Tejpal

Tarun Tejpal is a journalist, publisher and founder of Tehelka - an online newspaper which is highly acclaimed for its public interest in journalism. He reflects on notions of India in this short poem.

Ramachandra Guha

Recently named as one of the top 100 public intellectuals in the World by US magazine Foreign Policy, historian Ramachandra Guha is considered the biggest name in non-fiction in India. His essay is called The Nobility and the Disgust.