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
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
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
Shallowness and ignorance have been our lot in the mass consumer societies we inhabit, where we were too distracted to act politically, apart from periodically deputing political elites to take life-and-death decisions on our behalf. Pankaj Mishra actbehalfconsumer share on social
I grew up in small towns in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra - places like Akola, Betul, Wardha, Jhansi; I thought the rise of provincial India would be an interesting subject to tackle. Pankaj Mishra akolabetulgrow Change image and share on social
Ineptitude and negligence directed British policies in India more than any cynical desire to divide and rule, but the British were not above exploiting rivalries. Pankaj Mishra britishcynicaldesire Change image and share on social
The White House tapes, the recordings that Nixon made of his conversations in office, have long been recognized as a marvel of verbal incontinence. Pankaj Mishra conversationhouseincontinence Change image and share on social
In a democratic age, you can't buck demography - except through civil war. Pankaj Mishra agebuckcivil Change image and share on social
To Westerners, the students at Tiananmen may have given an impression of a solid and energetic consensus against dictatorship and for democracy, but they were an egotistical and fractious lot, riven by disagreements over tactics and money. Pankaj Mishra consensusdemocracydictatorship share on social
