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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
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More From Pratap Bhanu Mehta - Page 8
Big tech regulation can solve real problems, or only increase state controlSubscriber Only
February 20, 2021 04:00 IST
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: A few years ago, India would not have thought this way because of its desire to court the United States. But the context has now changed. There is a genuine ideological push to Atmanirbhar Bharat.
Sat, Feb 20, 2021
A letter to the misunderstood men and women who are creating New India through Unity in PuritySubscriber Only
February 06, 2021 04:00 IST
P B Mehta writes: The overwhelming political power you have will not be seriously challenged in the near future, notwithstanding a few social movements.
Sat, Feb 06, 2021
The real darkness on horizon is the turn Indian democracy is takingSubscriber Only
January 30, 2021 03:00 IST
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: The scenes at the Red Fort may have been disturbing. But the real darkness on the horizon is not the protest, or the turn it might have taken. It is the turn Indian democracy is taking, almost as if it is on the road to perdition.
Sat, Jan 30, 2021
A new conversation takes place on the Constitution. Rumbling of tractors announces a new spectacleSubscriber Only
January 26, 2021 00:40 IST
Bhimrao: "I thought we would keep God and Identity out of the Constitution. Didn’t we, Jawahar? So what are we celebrating on Republic Day? Ethnic Majoritarianism and Authoritarianism?”
Tue, Jan 26, 2021
Supreme Court’s order putting on hold the farm bills is terrible constitutional precedent, bereft of judgmentSubscriber Only
January 13, 2021 03:36 IST
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: The issues in the farm bills are complex. But no matter which side you are on, you should now worry about how the Supreme Court is interpreting its function. The court is, perhaps unintentionally but damagingly, seeking to break the momentum of a social movement.
Mon, Jan 18, 2021
US might recoil from Capitol siege. But its democracy will remain riven by internal conflictsSubscriber Only
January 08, 2021 03:30 IST
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: It is hard to shake off the feeling that liberal democracy in America will continue to come under more stress, riven by its own internal conflicts and confusion of values.
Fri, Jan 08, 2021
We need a new language to speak of the people, avoid the old impasseSubscriber Only
January 01, 2021 03:00 IST
PB Mehta writes: Outside of political contexts there is enough vitality, creativity and reciprocity, where the people are expressing themselves in all their concreteness, individuality and complexity, more than enough to sustain faith in the face of political disillusionment.
Fri, Jan 01, 2021
SC verdict exposes fallacy of using general category as reservation for upper castesSubscriber Only
December 26, 2020 00:59 IST
PB Mehta writes: What the Court is trying to do, in an interesting way, is to argue that for its purposes, the opposition between merit and reservation needs to be deconstructed — not because there is no such thing as merit (as defenders of reservation claim), or because there should not be reservation (as critics of reservation claim).
Sat, Dec 26, 2020
Our misshapen federalism is not about Centre vs states, but co-produced by political culture in bothSubscriber Only
December 10, 2020 03:04 IST
It is true that the Centre disproportionately controls resources in India; but very few states have shown a zeal to increase their own financial headroom by utilising whatever powers they might have on taxation.
Thu, Dec 10, 2020
What makes A Promised Land by Barack Obama one of the best American presidential memoirsSubscriber Only
November 29, 2020 06:30 IST
Obama’s vivid, novelistic writing brings to life his fairytale political career from state legislator to America’s first Black president.
Sun, Nov 29, 2020
The government may ride out the farmers’ protests. But simmering discontent will remainSubscriber Only
November 28, 2020 03:00 IST
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: The sense that the farmers will be at the receiving end of these changes rather than shaping them propels the need for a show of strength. If they lose, they are marginalised forever.
Sat, Nov 28, 2020
Why Arun Shourie concludes that the ultimate preparation for death is simply loveSubscriber Only
November 22, 2020 06:30 IST
The former Union minister and veteran journalist’s latest book, ‘Preparing for Death’, is both a contemplation of and an anthology on death
Sat, Nov 21, 2020
PB Mehta writes: SC was never perfect, but the signs are that it is slipping into judicial barbarismSubscriber Only
November 18, 2020 04:00 IST
This phenomenon is not just a matter of individual judges or individual cases. It is now a systematic phenomenon with deep institutional roots.
Wed, Nov 18, 2020
America is caught between an anaemic liberalism and a militant Republican PartySubscriber Only
November 07, 2020 04:00 IST
PB Mehta writes: The character of the Republican Party has changed deeply and profoundly. The House of Cards might have been a dystopian vision of a ruthless quest for power by individuals. But the current wave of public ruthlessness in American politics is of a different order.
Sat, Nov 07, 2020
In defence of liberty: It is time to stand up for individual freedoms, against all challengersSubscriber Only
October 31, 2020 03:30 IST
PB Mehta writes: Liberal states are right to take actions against the perpetrators of violence, and should worry about the atmosphere that nourishes a fear of freedom. But if they are doing it in the name of liberal principles, they will need to, as much as possible, adhere to those principles.
Sat, Oct 31, 2020
Opposition must think harder about political economy of protest to counter new political economy of reformSubscriber Only
October 23, 2020 00:01 IST
Despite economic headwinds, it has not been easy to use the economy as a point with which to attack the Modi government. It has still positioned itself as a breaker of the status quo.
Fri, Oct 23, 2020
Nobel to Gluck privileges a literature whose job is to resist redemption or enchantmentSubscriber Only
October 10, 2020 01:00 IST
It is not to save us, but to expose the fact (as her best collections, Ararat, Meadowlands, and The Wild Iris, remind us) that we are entirely at the mercy of our own passions; even a God would give up ordering them.
Sat, Oct 10, 2020
PB Mehta writes: Delhi riots chargesheet invents conspiracy and enemy, as per scriptSubscriber Only
September 25, 2020 04:06 IST
Those who really incite roam free. But all of us who saw the Constitution as a site of hope are potential terrorists now.
Fri, Sep 25, 2020
PB Mehta writes: Betrayal of procedure in Parliament is not just about technicalities. Deference to process builds trustSubscriber Only
September 22, 2020 03:11 IST
If the events of the last few days are any guide, the Indian temple of democracy will continue to be ground into the dust
Tue, Sep 22, 2020
Whichever way the Sudarshan TV case turns out, dark days lie aheadSubscriber Only
September 19, 2020 03:10 IST
PB Mehta writes: The big lesson of the last two decades is that an over-reliance on legal instruments to solve fundamentally social and political problems often backfires. In the case of free speech, this is even more so.
Sat, Sep 19, 2020
India and China might not want war, but will not be able to will peace eitherSubscriber Only
September 12, 2020 04:00 IST
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: Chinese aggression is a problem for the world. India has announced it intends to break the shackles of the past.
Sat, Sep 12, 2020
We must ask tough questions about Facebook’s role. But problem of freedom, civility, censorship goes deeperSubscriber Only
September 05, 2020 03:00 IST
PB Mehta writes: Predictably, both the Congress and BJP are claiming to be victim of Facebook’s censorship policy. But the truth is this: Censorship, whether public or private, will always invite charges of partisanship.
Sat, Sep 05, 2020
PB Mehta writes: The greatest allure of vishwas is that you maintain it by simply believingSubscriber Only
August 26, 2020 05:20 IST
Politics of belief is different from one based on fact and interest. It has an underlying cultural nihilism
Wed, Aug 26, 2020
In post-mortem of secularism, we are hand wringing over religion, missing the real crisisSubscriber Only
August 11, 2020 00:58 IST
PB Mehta writes: To take religion seriously is to preserve the conditions of religious freedom for all, letting each person discover the law of their own Being. I tremble at the thought of a politicised public sphere taking religion seriously.
Tue, Aug 11, 2020
PB Mehta writes: Ayodhya’s Ram temple is first real colonisation of Hinduism by political powerSubscriber Only
August 05, 2020 04:00 IST
They will say Ram is a national symbol, a symbol of Hindu pride. But did Ram consent to being converted to something as banal and nasty as the symbol of an ethnic nationalism? Ayodhya's Ram temple is a monument to exclusion, a brute majoritarianism subordinating others.
Thu, Jan 11, 2024Journalism of Courage
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