The idea that modernisation makes for enhanced national power and rapid progress and helps everyone achieve greater happiness has its origins in the astonishing political, economic and military successes of western Europe in the 19th century. Pankaj Mishra 19thachieveastonish share on social
If you think of India in the 1980s, there weren't many writers in English around. The ones that were there, Amitav Ghosh or Vikram Seth, were living abroad or publishing from abroad. Pankaj Mishra 1980sabroadamitav Change image and share on social
As in the early 20th century, the elemental forces of globalisation have unravelled broad solidarities and loyalties. Pankaj Mishra 20thbroadcentury Change image and share on social
Thomas Friedman's 'The World is Flat' sold more copies in India than in the U.K. The market for go-getting business books or wonkish tomes by corporate moguls posing as philosopher kings has grown dramatically in modernising China and India. Pankaj Mishra bookbusinesschina share on social
No Muslim country has ever done as much as Turkey to make itself over in the image of a European nation-state; the country's westernised elite brutally imposed secularism, among other things, on its devout population of peasants. Pankaj Mishra brutallycountrydevout share on social
An enlarged global public society, with its many dissenting and corrective voices, can quickly call the bluff of lavishly credentialled and smug intellectual elites. Pankaj Mishra bluffcallcorrective Change image and share on social
It should be no surprise that religion in the non-western world has failed to disappear under the juggernaut of industrial capitalism, or that liberal democracy finds its most dedicated saboteurs among the new middle classes. Pankaj Mishra capitalismclassdedicate share on social
Indonesia is hardly immune to catastrophic breakdowns, as the anti-Communist pogrom showed. But, like India, it has been relatively fortunate in evolving a mode of politics that can include many discontinuities - of class, region, ethnicity, and religion. Pankaj Mishra antibreakdowncatastrophic share on social
Tenured professors are more prone than the rest of us to think that the university is the universe. Pankaj Mishra professorpronerest Change image and share on social
Though there are laws against blasphemy and insult to religion in many European countries, France has institutionalised its anti-clerical past by proscribing religion from public life. Pankaj Mishra antiblasphemyclerical Change image and share on social
