Kanishk Tharoor is a writer and broadcaster. He is the author of Swimmer Among the Stars, a collection of short fiction, and the presenter of the BBC radio series Museum of Lost Objects. He tweets as @kanishktharoor.
Articles by Kanishk Tharoor
In the US, the gun is a talisman of rugged virtue in the face of a changing world
The American attachment to guns has much less to do with high constitutional principle or even practical need (67% of gun owners may say they have guns “for protection,” but crime rates in America have plummeted since 1990; there is an inverse relationship between rates of violent crime and the manufacture of guns, which has grown exponentially in the last 20 years)
Updated on Jun 02, 2018 10:30 AM IST
Why Arsene Wenger will always be different from the rest
Leaving the club may be something of a mercy for Wenger, allowing him new chances to win the adulation and respect he deserves
Updated on May 05, 2018 11:19 AM IST
We can be proud of our identities and culture without insisting on its certainty
I always find it puzzling and a little sad how nativists cling to the wishful purity of their vision of the past. Why allow yourself to be humiliated by the likely fact of migration? If your sense of self is dependent on insisting that you are a purer and a truer Indian than others, then you have bigger problems than the inconvenient findings of genetic science.
Published on Apr 13, 2018 06:29 PM IST
Nativist tendencies are pulling down the United States
Many Americans still cling onto the idea that their country is in some part a “racial” project, that there is a core cultural or ethnic identity to the nation, and that their whiteness in some way makes them superior to others.
Updated on Jan 24, 2018 05:38 PM IST
How a polarised United States benefits Donald Trump
The quarter or third of Americans who steadfastly support Trump’s administration are unlikely to be upset by his behaviour. His incitement helps polarise Americans and strengthen his base of support
Updated on Dec 07, 2017 08:45 AM IST
Terrorist attacks make the humdrum rhythm of the city feel like an act of resistance
Cities like New York and London and Mumbai are inevitable targets for extremists. They defy zealots and purists. They are diverse, complicated, and contradictory.
Updated on Nov 10, 2017 06:50 PM IST
Acceptance for autocracy is growing in India
A new Pew study launched this week shows that commitment to democracy around the world is inconsistent. By international standards, a large proportion of Indians (27%) “very strongly” support having a “strong leader” who can bypass democratic checks and balances.
Updated on Oct 26, 2017 08:06 AM IST
FIFA U-17 World Cup puts India on the footballing world map
I hope that galvanises more investment, better coaching, training, and scouting for youth players, and more opportunities for local footballers to pursue meaningful careers in the sport. I also hope it wins the national football team even a portion of the support lavished upon India’s celebrity cricketers.
Updated on Oct 06, 2017 05:52 PM IST
Dissent is not simply a right, it’s fundamentally a civic virtue
Journalists, activists, scholars, students and protesters shouldn’t have to fear being physically attacked or killed for their views
Updated on Sep 10, 2017 06:56 PM IST
A principled economic left turn could right the Congress ship
It seems clear now that fighting the BJP at the level of identity is not working; the lofty rhetoric of pluralism can’t compete with Hindutva
Updated on Aug 26, 2017 07:31 AM IST
Kanishk Tharoor
How Modi and Trump use public rallies to build their political persona
These rallies help cement Trump’s position among the minority of Americans who remain firmly in his camp. His rallies are like the passion plays of medieval Europe, figuring a virtuous hero against forces of evil in a quest for the redemption of the people.
Updated on Aug 12, 2017 10:11 AM IST
For once, Donald Trump cannot blame it on fake news
Mails from Trump Junior released this week show that Russia wanted to help Donald Trump against Hillary Clinton, and that both Trump’s son and son-in-law Jared Kushner were involved in building connections to Russia
Updated on Jul 15, 2017 04:42 PM IST
India is warming up to Israel, but Americans are growing sceptical of Tel Aviv
While more Americans still sympathise with Israel over Palestine, attitudes are changing. Criticism of America’s unflinching support of Israel is more palpable than before
Updated on Jul 03, 2017 09:44 AM IST
The Indian American is no longer on the fringe of US pop culture
For a long time now popular culture in the US has assumed the universality of the white American experience. That is slowly changing. Today, Indian figures star not as exotic tokens of another world, but as fully realised individuals
Updated on Jun 17, 2017 12:30 AM IST
India and US are seeing the rise of poisonous politics and attacks on minorities
Trump’s rise has unleashed energies into public life that were previously suppressed. Under the Narendra Modi-led government, a similar majoritarianism is visible
Updated on Jun 19, 2017 07:33 AM IST
To end racism, elevate a wider spectrum of Indians in public culture
In India, we worry about racism against Indians in places like Australia and the United States, but we don’t consider our daily biases towards our compatriots to be racist
Updated on May 30, 2017 04:16 PM IST
Aadhaar is an electronic leash on citizens
The Aadhaar card is an attempt to strengthen the Indian state, a shortcut to circumvent the incremental process of institution-building and social development that has enabled wide-scale tax collection in the West. There is an admirable reluctance in much of the West to grant too much to the state. Many western countries also have legal protections for privacy that don’t exist in India.
Updated on May 05, 2017 11:48 AM IST
As the Trump example shows, power does not temper flawed leaders
Demagogues have long portrayed themselves as authentic representatives of the nation, while their opponents and critics are inauthentic and, worse, anti-national.
Updated on Mar 23, 2017 05:54 PM IST
Attacks against Indians in US: Show solidarity with Muslims, Blacks, other victims
Hostility to economic migrants and outlandish Islamophobia are breeding an atmosphere of hate and violence in the United States
Updated on Mar 09, 2017 01:45 PM IST
In their animosity towards the media, Modi and Trump think alike
Both the US President and the Indian Prime Minister try to limit journalistic access and centralise the flow of information. But Trump is far more prolific and committed in his abuse of the media
Updated on Feb 23, 2017 01:24 PM IST
The Trump administration wants Americans to feel terrified of the Muslim ‘other’
Trump has said almost nothing publicly about the Quebec killings, but his administration took the extraordinary step this week of releasing a list of 78 Islamist attacks it felt deserved more media coverage
Updated on Feb 11, 2017 07:18 PM IST
The ripple effect of a Trump presidency in US felt in Bhubaneswar
Aside from a potential reduction in visas, it seems unlikely that US foreign policy towards India will change all that much under Trump
Updated on Jan 30, 2017 06:10 PM IST
Instead of draining the swamp, Trump is muddying the waters
Donald Trump pledged to “drain the swamp” of Washington, to sweep away encrusted political elites and corporate interests. Now as president-elect, he is assembling an administration that will tug the United States towards oligarchy
Updated on Jan 12, 2017 09:21 PM IST
Why many young Indians and Americans have authoritarian leanings
This is not to say that authoritarian dictatorship is just around the corner, but it does highlight a problem shared by India and the United States, the world’s largest pluralist, ostensibly liberal democracies. The institutions and political assumptions that sustain the democratic systems of both countries inspire less and less confidence.
Updated on Dec 30, 2016 01:09 AM IST
Standing Rock protest unites various strains of disquiet in American politics
There are ready parallels for Standing Rock in the mineral-rich regions of central India, where tribal groups wrestle with the promise and peril of resource extraction in their lands, the prospect of mines and mills pockmarking once sacred geographies
Updated on Dec 15, 2016 10:47 PM IST
Americans didn’t choose Trump because of economic concerns
Donald Trump based his campaign almost entirely on the politics “difference” and identity
Updated on Sep 17, 2018 10:49 AM IST
In Donald Trump’s world, principles are incidental and mirage is everything
From real estate to reality television to his campaign for the presidency, Donald Trump has built and championed a world in which principles are incidental and mirage is everything
Updated on Nov 21, 2016 10:22 PM IST
The US is protesting against a system that normalises Donald Trump
Donald Trump is not just another president. He is a man who, by all accounts, has never read a book, has proven singularly incapable of basic human empathy, has exploited his employees, built his political career on racist smears of Obama, and stands accused by numerous women of sexual violence
Updated on Nov 14, 2016 09:30 PM IST
The US presidential campaign is inordinately long. This must change
Every election cycle, Americans enter a hall of mirrors, searching for substance in a maelstrom of breathless and impressionistic media “content”. It’s time this changed
Updated on Nov 02, 2016 09:30 PM IST
US presidential campaign has exposed deep rifts in American society
The Democrats and Republicans no longer properly represent the various rifts in society beneath the surface of the political system
Updated on Oct 24, 2016 11:45 PM IST
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