For the jaded intellectual palate there is nothing like a late-night three quarters of an hour in the company of Philip Dodd. The names of great thinkers are sprinkled over the conversation like hundreds and thousands on an ice-cream cone, sapient anecdotes come thick and fast, exhortation abounds, and however cajoled, encouraged or earnestly implored, no guest escapes the soft caress of his distinguished courtesy.

Here (2 March), our impresario’s topic was anger, his geographical focus the United States and India and his guests the conservative columnist Jonah Goldberg, academic Kit Davis, and historians Pankaj Mishra and Sunil Khilnani. If there lurked a suspicion that the world of Messrs Trump and Sanders was some distance away from Prime Minister Modi and the spectre of Hindu nationalism, then this was swiftly dispelled by a trawl through some of the realities on display.