Journalism of Courage
Advertisement
Pratap Bhanu Mehta
Pratap Bhanu Mehta is Contributing Editor at the Indian Express. He has been vice-chancellor of Ashoka University and president, Centre Policy Research. Before he started engaging with contemporary affairs, he taught political theory at Harvard, and briefly at JNU. He has written on intellectual history, political theory, law, India's social transformation and world affairs. He is the recipient of the Infosys Prize, the Adisheshiah Prize and the Amartya Sen Prize. Follow @pbmehta
Authors you can follow
More From Pratap Bhanu Mehta
Pratap Bhanu Mehta on conflicts across the world: Dangerous new thresholdsSubscriber Only
June 18,2025 07:05:39 AM
The impunity and nihilism of this moment are glaring. Amidst mass devastation and suffering, our moral faculties have been paralysed
Wed, Jun 18, 2025
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: What a free speech regime requiresSubscriber Only
June 13,2025 07:10:33 AM
Crisis of free speech is crisis of social mistrust. Each act of legal censorship is a vote of no confidence in our autonomous agency
Fri, Jun 13, 2025
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: SC order in Mahmudabad case casts a shadow on our rightsSubscriber Only
May 23,2025 06:51:58 AM
We are now in a constitutional regime in which even the Court’s philanthropic benevolence in granting bail lays the groundwork for further oppression.
Fri, May 23, 2025
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: Dealing with Pakistan, weak or strongSubscriber Only
May 12,2025 07:20:22 AM
Immediate onus is on Pakistan to demonstrate commitment to pacification of terrorism. There is no avoiding political process in Subcontinent
Mon, May 12, 2025
The Pahalgam abyssSubscriber Only
April 24,2025 16:29:57 PM
Perpetrators of the terror strike will be brought to justice. But a sense of foreboding will remain
Fri, Apr 25, 2025
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: How technology affects balance of power — and the lesson for IndiaSubscriber Only
April 19,2025 07:05:12 AM
If you want to be a technology leader, you should focus less on getting dominance in specific sectors and more on broad-based policies that allow for the diffusion of General Purpose Technologies
Sat, Apr 19, 2025
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: India must stand up to Donald Trump, the bullySubscriber Only
April 05,2025 07:05:41 AM
Recent US moves are brutal power play. Delhi must work on an international coalition to resist his imperiousness
Sat, Apr 05, 2025
Arun Shourie’s book on Savarkar, A New Icon, is a biting indictment of the Hindutva leader but fails to diagnose what makes his ideology so pervasive in modern IndiaSubscriber Only
April 04,2025 18:51:12 PM
Shourie does what he has so often done in the past: read original sources deeply and thoroughly to make a compelling case for the prosecution. Savarkar does not escape the full force of Shourie’s forensic wrath. He uses Savarkar’s own words to indict the man
Fri, Apr 04, 2025
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: Under Trump, America teeters on the edge of authoritarianismSubscriber Only
March 18,2025 07:42:21 AM
His playbook has an Orwellian penchant for the inversion of language and policy and rides on normalising fear and compliance
Tue, Mar 18, 2025
Centre, state, party: The many conundrums of federalismSubscriber Only
March 14,2025 06:56:07 AM
The question of the dominance of parties threatens to obscure issues of federalism, including on delimitation
Sat, Mar 15, 2025
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: After Ukraine, imperialism is now the normSubscriber Only
March 05,2025 06:58:33 AM
The fact that the invasion of Ukraine happened at all was a profound failure, not of Ukraine as Trump suggests, but of the international community, which failed to uphold its security guarantees to a country that had willingly given up its nuclear arsenal.
Wed, Mar 05, 2025
Delhi’s contradictions took down Dikshit and Kejriwal. They will continue to haunt BJPSubscriber Only
February 20,2025 06:54:58 AM
Perhaps the starting point for thinking about governance is to not begin with a list of schemes, but the contradictions that Delhi must manage.
Wed, Feb 26, 2025
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: Trump wants to show the world who is bossSubscriber Only
February 05,2025 07:11:37 AM
This is not an era of transactionalism. It is the reinventing of American supremacy by weaponising the discontent with the current order
Wed, Feb 05, 2025
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: India’s delusion of relevanceSubscriber Only
February 01,2025 06:56:59 AM
Absolute numbers, framed by a propaganda machine, do not present an accurate picture of India's place in the world
Sat, Feb 01, 2025
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: India’s growth slowdown is a signal of declining confidence in governmentSubscriber Only
January 14,2025 07:04:33 AM
Mindless capital expenditure, schemes that fail to address systemic weaknesses, a lack of real reforms – investors may not say it openly out of fear or politeness, but privately, there is a crisis of faith in the state
Tue, Jan 14, 2025
PB Mehta writes: Five vibes — in politics, economics and creativity — that will shape 2025Subscriber Only
January 01,2025 06:50:53 AM
These are not predictions; it would be presumptuous to claim omniscience or even foresight. But here are five trends more in the realm of how the world might feel, rather than a prediction of actual events.
Wed, Jan 01, 2025
Manmohan Singh was devoured by populist furies. History is a mean avengerSubscriber Only
December 27,2024 12:16:43 PM
Manmohan Singh secured developmental space for India and positioned India brilliantly. It is capital that we are still living off.
Sun, Dec 29, 2024
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: In today’s India, can the Constitution protect individual dignity?Subscriber Only
December 18,2024 07:00:11 AM
We have a politics that has created the sense of a permanent ascriptive majority and minority, with the latter demanding that the Constitution represent it as a social force. Can we survive this contradiction and keep some semblance of the Constitution?
Wed, Dec 18, 2024
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: Why the South Asian neighbourhood is on edgeSubscriber Only
December 03,2024 07:28:09 AM
In a deep ideological sense, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh are joined at the hip. India uses the fires in Pakistan and Bangladesh to shore up the claims of a Hindu state, and the ‘India’ card is still a potent defining feature of their identity. But they must remember: State sponsored religious nationalism will always turn authoritarian
Tue, Dec 03, 2024
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: Why Opposition’s ‘democracy in danger’ pitch cuts little ice with votersSubscriber Only
November 27,2024 04:20:49 AM
It has to show what it can do with democracy.
Sun, Dec 01, 2024
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: D Y Chandrachud, a Chief Justice of his timeSubscriber Only
November 12,2024 04:20:48 AM
His self-defence on civil liberties was: ‘I gave so many people bail, from A to Z’, rather than the ‘law and process was applied consistently and fairly. Umar Khalid got the same consideration as Arnab Goswami’
Tue, Nov 12, 2024
In Trump, stronger and bigger, America has chosen The Great Disruption. Brace for the rideSubscriber Only
November 06,2024 15:36:05 PM
From being written off after January 6, 2020, Trump now owns, not just the Republican Party, but the United States of America. The USA is now Trump country
Thu, Nov 07, 2024
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: In government and outside, Bibek Debroy remained his own personSubscriber Only
November 02,2024 02:00:01 AM
In both partisan alignments, first with Congress and then the BJP, he managed to remain his own person: Self-driven, mysterious, funny, but always industrious
Sat, Nov 02, 2024
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: India’s economic credibility challengeSubscriber Only
October 30,2024 02:25:57 AM
The trustworthiness of a country’s capabilities is not established by an odd scheme or examples of success
Wed, Oct 30, 2024
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: Forget West, fossilised Khalistanis, Trudeau’s motivesSubscriber Only
October 18,2024 20:30:54 PM
We need to know what is going on for our own sake
Wed, Oct 23, 2024Trending
Journalism of Courage
Install the Express App for
a better experience
a better experience
Featured
Trending Topics
News
Multimedia
Follow Us