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
October 26,2021 03:51:02 AM
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: It's not about establishing that everyone is equal before the law. There are larger ideological connections here.
Wed, Oct 27, 2021October 20,2021 03:10:59 AM
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: Fundamentalists, even as they create walls between communities, recognise that South Asia has a connected destiny: They bank on it to achieve their ends
Thu, Oct 21, 2021October 09,2021 03:55:13 AM
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: India’s security environment is precarious, its political future fragile, and its human sympathies dead. It will require a great act of statesmanship to overcome these challenges.
Sun, Oct 10, 2021September 28,2021 03:44:21 AM
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: It is consolidating at a moment when its grade on the three ‘Cs’ — Climate, Covid and Critical Technologies — is, from the point of view of the rest of the world, already a ‘C’.
Wed, Sep 29, 2021September 25,2021 13:30:49 PM
Translator Salim Yusufji has done a commendable job with Alipura, in deftly recreating a vanished way of life and character portrayals — but the tragic absurdity of their situation is lost in translation
Sat, Sep 25, 2021September 11,2021 04:00:05 AM
PB Mehta writes: The twin crises of liberal statecraft and of authority from Saudi Arabia to Afghanistan are still with us.
Sun, Sep 12, 2021September 08,2021 03:45:40 AM
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: It reflects a nation with diminishing prospects for everyone, encouraging them to reach into the narrowest-minded conceptions of identity and calling it social justice.
Thu, Sep 09, 2021September 02,2021 03:55:12 AM
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: The supply of weapons matters, and unless controlled, acquires an autonomous dynamic. The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan is the latest example
Fri, Sep 03, 2021August 21,2021 04:00:00 AM
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: Fundamentalism draws its motivating energy from cultivating grievance against imperial hierarchies. The US management of the withdrawal will give fillip to fundamentalism’s deepest psychological impulses.
Sun, Aug 22, 2021August 14,2021 04:00:39 AM
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: One concentrates on the true foundation of national greatness, the other creates an impostor-like substitute. One is premised on fear, the other on hope.
Sun, Aug 15, 2021August 05,2021 03:30:28 AM
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: It’s a bumpy ride ahead, with China seeking to displace America and remake the world order in its own image
Thu, Aug 05, 2021August 01,2021 06:30:16 AM
Remembering the Italian writer and publisher who passed away last week.
Sun, Aug 01, 2021July 21,2021 03:02:07 AM
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: It has great implications for our institutions. Government cannot sidestep questions by alleging conspiracy
Wed, Jul 21, 2021July 06,2021 03:30:17 AM
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: While China uses it to legitimise authoritarian rule, India’s lack of egalitarianism makes it harder for national humiliation to be owned equally.
Tue, Jul 06, 2021July 02,2021 04:10:19 AM
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: Indians are committed to religious diversity, but exclusionary and segmented in toleration, and tempted by authoritarianism.
Fri, Jul 02, 2021June 22,2021 03:50:16 AM
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: Not just social engineering, there are good religious grounds for opening all ritual functions to women. The rest of India must follow Tamil Nadu’s example
Tue, Jun 22, 2021June 18,2021 03:41:52 AM
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: Bail order for Asif Tanha, Natasha Narwal and Devangana Kalita is a welcome effort to prevent our civil liberties from being swallowed up by the black hole of state power.
Fri, Jun 18, 2021June 12,2021 04:24:41 AM
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: If the G-7 wants to truly exercise more leadership, it will have to convince the world that all its new principles are not simply ruses to serve only the interests of the developed world.
Sat, Jun 12, 2021June 06,2021 08:28:59 AM
Keerthik Sasidharan’s incandescent masterpiece points at, among many things, the fact that the very thing that gives your life meaning also raises questions of accountability
Sun, Jun 06, 2021June 02,2021 03:44:17 AM
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: Even as we battle Covid, we have to think about what will truly reverse the diminishing of our economic fortunes.
Wed, Jun 02, 2021May 21,2021 03:30:29 AM
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: A moral psychology legitimising an unprecedented ruthlessness is now becoming the default of civil society in the state.
Fri, May 21, 2021May 14,2021 03:20:25 AM
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: The world cannot ignore the Palestinian question, which is not an object of geo-political opportunism, but one of basic dignity and justice.
Fri, May 14, 2021May 07,2021 03:50:33 AM
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: If our politics continues as usual over the next few months, the devastation to our lives will be immeasurable.
Fri, May 07, 2021April 28,2021 04:15:24 AM
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: Our vaccine policy reflects an ad hoc social Darwinism, where the strong do what they can and the weak suffer because they must
Wed, Apr 28, 2021April 13,2021 04:50:27 AM
The Gyanvapi order combined with the Supreme Court’s willingness to entertain a plea challenging the Places of Worship Act could open another communal front.
Tue, Apr 13, 2021