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Questions to authority
Two nights ago I attended the launch of [In]Complete Justice?, S Muralidhar’s book of essays about the state of India’s Supreme Court, which turns 75 this year. The hall at India International Centre brimmed with senior advocates, journalists, and politicians soon after six that evening. By the time the event began—a conversation between J. Murali, Continue reading
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On importing self-deporting excellence
These days, disbelief is my usual reaction on waking up and reading the news from America. The attack on universities in particular is extraordinary, even though I understand it from the perspective of diffusing the sound of discontent over Palestine, and of turning institutions into vassals. Outside university there are the economic considerations that regulate Continue reading
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NYT and NPR pick The New India
Bloody hell. The New York Times and NPR *both* have The New India (The Identity Project) on their year-end books list. The NYT has something called 100 Notable Books, which I was vaguely aware of until 8.14pm yesterday and then incredibly aware of by 8.16pm. Going down the list of titles yesterday, I saw my Continue reading
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Review: Washington Monthly on The New India
The book has its first review in the US, and I’m happy to say it’s a very good one. I wondered if American reviewers would find echoes of their own struggles with extremism in the book, and if they would look at the century-old project of turning India into a Hindu state and see how Continue reading
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An interview with Giles Brown of Talk Radio Europe
I can see why they call it talk radio. The interaction is unmediated, and the quiet lulls are a lubricant for conversation. There’s something of the blank canvas about radio—absolutely anything is possible. I might have gone on a bit about the book. Continue reading
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One man’s story of leaving Hindu nationalism
There’s an extract from the The New India in the Guardian. It’s about a writer named Partha Banerjee who joined the RSS when he was six, and left when he was a young man. It’s a story about a father and a son, and the role the organisation played in their lives. But there are Continue reading
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The Journalist
[I wrote this chapter three years ago for the book, but it didn’t fit anywhere so we discarded it. This is a first draft, and therefore filled with all kinds of terrible errors.] “Let’s go to the graveyard, sir,” O said as we strolled through Okhla’s alleys one October night. Sure, I said. I wanted Continue reading
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Eminent people
At 2.44pm on 30 May 2022, I received an email from a professor of horticulture in Haryana. It began with such respect that I, a journalist, was immediately wary: “Respected Sh. Rahul Bhatia Ji. Namaskar. Sadar Vande.” It was the text equivalent of a guest who unexpectedly finds himself garlanded and fed sweets while someone Continue reading
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Rahul Bhatia 