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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
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, 2024
Text of education policy artfully navigates several thickets. Fears about document come from contextSubscriber Only
August 01, 2020 05:00 IST
This government’s record on regulation is not inspiring. So the critical question will, less, be: Does one agree with the document?
Sat, Aug 01, 2020
PB Mehta writes: Padmanabhaswamy case turns on specific facts, but there are wider political ramificationsSubscriber Only
July 21, 2020 04:05 IST
It is actually the state, whom the temple rescue brigade reviles, that created a national Hindu legal identity, and perhaps unwittingly abetted Hindutva in its political form.
Tue, Jul 21, 2020
Loneliness of Varavara Rao, Anand Teltumbde, Sudha Bharadwaj tells a disquieting tale about state and usSubscriber Only
July 18, 2020 04:00 IST
PB Mehta writes: Teltumbde was insightful in thinking that once you had been labelled Left in India, it was easy to secure a diminution in your legal and cultural standing. Even the Courts will turn off their thinking cap. It is in this that the genuine intellectual enterprise is a lonely one, whose disastrous political consequences Teltumbde is facing.
Sat, Jul 18, 2020
Thoki Raj: Creating order by trampling on law is one of the elements of Adityanath’s ideological successSubscriber Only
July 11, 2020 04:05 IST
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: Unleashing strong arm tactics by state stands in for creating law and order. No one wants police reform.
Sat, Jul 11, 2020
How did India manage to lose its neighbourhood? Answers lie at homeSubscriber Only
June 26, 2020 03:30 IST
P B Mehta writes: Don’t count on the fact that the world will support an Indian escalation beyond a point. The efforts of the international community, in the final analysis, will be to try and throw cold water on the conflict; no one has a serious stake in the fate of the terrain India and China are disputing.
Fri, Jun 26, 2020
PB Mehta writes: India is heading into uncharted waters with no leadership at the helm, just the simulacra of oneSubscriber Only
June 16, 2020 04:30 IST
The prime minister evokes a deep adulation in his supporters. But it should be clear by now that whatever that adulation is, it is not on account of his leadership. His leadership has been totally missing. Covid to China, economy to society, there’s a politics of illusion and evasive silence
Tue, Jun 16, 2020
An American Tragedy: In days, the narrative has shifted from police brutality to fear of violenceSubscriber Only
June 02, 2020 04:06 IST
The explosion of protest, violence, rioting, curfews and brutal police crackdowns in the wake of George Floyd’s suffocation by police in Minneapolis is another chapter in the long history of a democracy whose self-image often cloaks its more sordid realities.
Tue, Jun 02, 2020
Trains on their mind: Death of a mother at a railway station, a conversation in HeavenSubscriber Only
May 29, 2020 03:00 IST
PB Mehta writes: Mohandas Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Hansa Mehta, Rabindranath Tagore, Bhim Rao Ambedkar, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Sri Aurobindo, Sarojini Naidu, Jayaprakash Narayan, Deendayal Upadhyaya are milling around. Narada shows up to needle them.
Fri, May 29, 2020
Covid lockdown is seen as a cover for Jammu and KashmirSubscriber Only
May 16, 2020 00:32 IST
It is also imprisoned in intellectual, political, constitutional, strategic and moral lockdowns.
Sat, May 16, 2020
Ordinances by states to change labour laws are a travestySubscriber Only
May 12, 2020 00:30 IST
Indian labour laws had the unique distinction of representing the state’s war on both capital and labour.
Tue, May 12, 2020
We need to question our addiction to cultural and political economy of alcoholSubscriber Only
May 07, 2020 05:00 IST
PB Mehta writes: There is very little worry about the forms of dependence on alcohol that, in crucial moments, take away our ability to exercise or recognise consent, exercise good choice or act like an agent. The liberal case for encouraging moderation is actually stronger than the conservative case.
Thu, May 07, 2020
Loss of great artiste helps in understanding the loss any death representsSubscriber Only
May 01, 2020 04:15 IST
But what is the loss we mourn, especially in the case of a brilliant genius like Irrfan, who attained the pinnacle of what art could achieve? He leaves a void in this world. In part, the sense of loss that accompanies every artiste is the sense of their irreplaceability.
Fri, May 01, 2020Journalism of Courage
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