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
More From Pratap Bhanu Mehta - Page 2
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: Why the South Asian neighbourhood is on edgeSubscriber Only
December 03, 2024 07:28 IST
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 IST
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 IST
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 IST
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 IST
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 IST
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 IST
We need to know what is going on for our own sake
Wed, Oct 23, 2024
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: Haryana shows BJP’s slide is overstated. In J-K, National Conference’s resilience winsSubscriber Only
October 08, 2024 18:16 IST
For BJP, winning a third term in Haryana where it does not have the kind of default cultural identification it has in Gujarat or Madhya Pradesh is no mean feat. J&K results testify National Conference's staying power
Wed, Oct 09, 2024
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: Why the arguments for and against One Nation One Election are flawedSubscriber Only
October 04, 2024 00:52 IST
It is neither a panacea for all that ails Indian politics and governance, nor an apocalypse. Democracy requires a broader imagination.
Fri, Oct 04, 2024
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: Democracy’s blind eyeSubscriber Only
September 26, 2024 00:37 IST
Suffering unleashed by Israel in Gaza and Lebanon is made possible by complicity of Great Powers, including India. It has high costs
Sat, Sep 28, 2024
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes on Manipur: The darkness we unseeSubscriber Only
September 13, 2024 07:10 IST
The scale of our indifference bears calling out. BJP's behaviour over the crisis is shockingly bizarre
Fri, Sep 13, 2024
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: S Radhakrishnan still speaks to our timeSubscriber Only
September 05, 2024 07:00 IST
As we honour him on Teachers’ Day, we might as well read him, not in the spirit of a nationalistic paean to this or that tradition, but to an open world trying to discover its yet unborn soul.
Thu, Sep 05, 2024
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: Uncharted territory for India’s governance matrixSubscriber Only
August 29, 2024 07:04 IST
The main driver of the new governance matrix is not the presence of coalition partners, but the BJP's own weaknesses
Fri, Aug 30, 2024
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: In Kolkata, after the crime, indignitySubscriber Only
August 20, 2024 07:59 IST
On top of the alleged cover-up or incompetence, politicisation is added to a political pantomime where the chief minister plays victim.
Tue, Aug 20, 2024
From Bangladesh’s students, a message: A fighting chanceSubscriber Only
August 06, 2024 18:26 IST
The country is unique in the degree to which students retain the aura of democratic legitimacy in challenging authoritarianism
Wed, Aug 07, 2024
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: Caste questions for Rahul GandhiSubscriber Only
July 30, 2024 13:00 IST
A public culture where invocation of caste becomes a substitute for serious thinking will not serve the cause of social justice or healthy institutions
Wed, Jul 31, 2024
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: Cries buried under rubble of Gaza will come back to haunt global systemSubscriber Only
July 22, 2024 16:20 IST
ICJ advisory on Israel’s actions in Gaza highlights how Netanyahu has converted a serious crisis into an existential one
Tue, Jul 23, 2024
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: The focus on Trump attack, Biden’s age hides a more fundamental problemSubscriber Only
July 17, 2024 19:41 IST
The problem for the Democratic Party is that the focus on the persona of Trump, and the preoccupation with Biden clinging onto power by all means, is obscuring the fact that Trump is acquiring more ideological coherence, governing plausibility and undercutting Democrats on their own terms
Sun, Jul 21, 2024
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: Collapse of trust in examination system amounts to a collapse in trust in system as a wholeSubscriber Only
June 24, 2024 12:41 IST
Exams are a test of a certain kind of skill: If nothing else ambition, concentration, endurance, commitment and character. India’s coaching industry is much derided. But coaching is an inevitable consequence where competitive stakes are high
Tue, Jun 25, 2024
What went wrong with capitalism? Ruchir Sharma seeks to answer in his latestSubscriber Only
June 22, 2024 15:28 IST
The investment banker’s new book details how lowering interest rates and 'rescuing' failing banks and businesses made the economy work against the poor
Sat, Jun 22, 2024
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: Why the rejection of BJP is not a rejection of HindutvaSubscriber Only
June 14, 2024 19:21 IST
The building of the temple was popular and communalism is growing. But the BJP made the mistake of thinking this could transform into political capital indefinitely
Sun, Jun 16, 2024
Pratap Bhanu Mehta on 2024 Lok Sabha election results: Suffocating shadow has lifted, balance restoredSubscriber Only
June 04, 2024 16:05 IST
At the very least, the result pricks the bubble of Prime Minister Modi’s authority. He made this election about himself. But today, he is just another politician, cut to size by the people
Wed, Jun 05, 2024
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes on ICC seeking arrest of Benjamin Netanyahu: Why we need humanity’s lawSubscriber Only
May 21, 2024 19:19 IST
Reaction to International Court seeking arrest warrants against Israeli and Hamas leaders shows international order is beyond even the redeeming comforts of organised hypocrisy
Wed, May 22, 2024
Knife: Salman Rushdie’s temptation of, and triumph over, fateSubscriber Only
April 28, 2024 07:00 IST
The book is an attempt to recover the strength of Rushdie, the person, occluded by Rushdie, the targeted writer
Sat, Apr 27, 2024
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: Behind student anger in US, three crises — democracy, university, protestSubscriber Only
April 26, 2024 14:48 IST
Protests against the war in Gaza across US universities are a sign of a triple crisis: Of liberal democracy, of the university, and paradoxically, of anti-war protests as well
Sat, Apr 27, 2024a better experience