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

January 07, 2020 04:00 IST
It is apocalyptic in a triple sense. At the level of discourse, the normalisation of the phrase “tukde tukde gang” abetted by the home minister, with the help of a pliant media, laid the background conditions for this kind of violence.
Tue, Jan 07, 2020
January 01, 2020 02:47 IST
In 2019, it was not just people versus government, but one definition of people jostling against another.
Wed, Jan 01, 2020
December 29, 2019 01:00 IST
On the brink of the 70th year of the Republic, a reaffirmation of the radical message of the Constitution
Sun, Dec 29, 2019
December 19, 2019 05:20 IST
Violence will not help any cause. But when the state discriminates and calls it justice, when it stokes fear and calls it citizenship, and when it exercises control and calls its freedom, when it confuses prejudice with policy, it sets the seeds for disorder.
Thu, Dec 19, 2019
December 12, 2019 04:12 IST
The political challenge is to make sure that one party’s diabolical version of what is reasonable is not mistaken to be common sense. It will require using the BJP’s tactics.
Thu, Dec 12, 2019
December 09, 2019 09:42 IST
A stunning catalogue of the ways in which merit takes on the form of an inheritance.
Mon, Dec 09, 2019
December 05, 2019 03:40 IST
The real problem is not the absence of big bang reform. It is the misdiagnosis over what our priorities should be and where scarce governance resources need to be deployed.
Thu, Dec 05, 2019
November 30, 2019 00:29 IST
The database is a reminder that the big contentious debates of Indian spiritual, political, economic and social life are not often accurately reflected in the big, and conventional figures we all study or distilled in books. They surface as powerful undercurrents in a variety of genres and forms.
Sat, Nov 30, 2019
November 10, 2019 04:30 IST
Is it just possible that instead of a triumphal monument to Ram’s political glory — for this is all that the temple will be under present circumstances — can we build something genuinely congruent with Ram’s greatness?
Sun, Nov 10, 2019
November 08, 2019 00:05 IST
Don’t convert India’s global weakness into an ideological virtue. The truth is that India’s domestic agenda of reform will, in most respects, need to be the same, RCEP or no RCEP
Fri, Nov 08, 2019
October 31, 2019 00:19 IST
On the Indian economy, no one knows what to believe. This makes the uncertainty of our moment more endemic.
Thu, Oct 31, 2019
October 27, 2019 00:18 IST
An inside job on panoptic state surveillance in the name of national security, and its chilling effect on citizens.
Sun, Oct 27, 2019
October 25, 2019 04:38 IST
The opposition can take some heart from the fact there is political space for them to exploit. But this political space can have a multiplier if there is more smart and credible coordination amongst all opposition groups that converts a protest vote into an alternative narrative.
Fri, Oct 25, 2019
October 19, 2019 00:30 IST
Fighting for secularism against the BJP is hard enough; being tarred with the legacy of Congress makes it even harder.
Sat, Oct 19, 2019
October 10, 2019 04:04 IST
The episode featuring sedition charges against eminent writers and directors — now belatedly withdrawn — is a reminder of the peculiar nature of the crisis of liberal institutionalism in India.
Thu, Oct 10, 2019
October 01, 2019 04:30 IST
The challenges of both India and Pakistan can be solved only if we re-imagine ourselves, internally, as a zone of freedom, not warring identities.
Tue, Oct 01, 2019
September 24, 2019 02:50 IST
Modi-Trump event is a window to the politics of our times: They have sold the thrill of power and prejudice
Tue, Sep 24, 2019
September 14, 2019 00:30 IST
An exhaustive account, also a timely reminder, of the history of RSS and its equation with democracy
Sat, Sep 14, 2019
September 10, 2019 04:00 IST
The hundred days is not a catalogue of specific actions, some good some bad. They are certainly marked by Modi’s energy, drive, imperiousness and unerring instinct to dominate the political discourse. They, rather, reveal the consolidation of a regime type.
Tue, Sep 10, 2019
August 23, 2019 03:50 IST
To attribute the Ravidas movement merely to a jostling for space in Dalit politics would be a mistake. The depth and reach of the movement across large swathes of north India has always been impressive and deeply felt.
Fri, Aug 23, 2019
August 17, 2019 00:21 IST
Even by its own spotty standards, abdication of the legal profession in leading the charge for liberty is striking.
Sat, Aug 17, 2019
August 06, 2019 00:13 IST
BJP thinks it is going to Indianise Kashmir. Instead, we will see, potentially, the Kashmirisation of India.
Thu, Aug 08, 2019
August 01, 2019 02:00 IST
What does it mean to be in politics? Weber asked this question — its answer lies in questions that find an echo today
Thu, Aug 01, 2019
May 24, 2019 00:21 IST
To give Narendra Modi credit: He won because India identifies with him. What that says about India is something we will figure out over the next five years.
Fri, May 24, 2019
May 10, 2019 00:03 IST
It is hard to imagine education as a free and equal space, unless broader society lifts the threat of oblivion from the heads of those who do not achieve by its lights.
Fri, May 10, 2019


