Submerging Nations
Once, we talked about the First and Third Worlds. Today, it’s the vaxxed and unvaxxed.
Slate.com / June 2021 / Essays
My book is Farthest Field: An Indian Story of the Second World War. Co-founder of TheWire.in. Twitter @rkarnad
Once, we talked about the First and Third Worlds. Today, it’s the vaxxed and unvaxxed.
Slate.com / June 2021 / Essays
In a region torn by conflict, what’s overhead offers hope for the future.
The New Yorker / September 2020 / Reporting
The experience of Covid-19 shows how easily other catastrophes can befall our species
The Guardian / August 2020 / Essays
We were already working from home, going out in N95 masks, before the coronavirus was even dreamt of in Wuhan.
NewYorker.com / April 2020
Since the pandemic began, the Prime Minister’s tweets only underline how little we recognise their work – and the reforms they deserve.
TheWire.in / May 2021 / Essays
The marquee events in political history may not seem like they are that important while they’re happening.
TheWire.in / April 2021 / Essays
In 2021, in India, Bay Area tech giants are better positioned to regulate online speech than any national agency or pillar of government.
The Wire / January 2021 / Essays
WW2 ended on August 15, 1945, but the roles Indians played right after reveal a truer picture of the colonial world.
The Indian Express / November 2020 / India's Ww2
Three lessons from 1962 – from 'The Deoliwallahs'
The Indian Express / April 2020 / Books
For a hundred days, Delhi had a living heart – an inclusive, peaceful protest that resisted every kind of provocation. Yet there was also a risk to the Shaheen Bagh model.
TheWire.in / March 2020
The presence of the Brazilian president at Republic Day helps us make overdue connections between climate change, migration and Modi's citizenship agenda.
TheWire.in / January 2020 / Essays
The BJP is maligning student protestors at Jamia Milia and across the country. Yet the PM's website describes his own political origins in a far more disruptive student movement.
TheWire.in / December 2019 / Essays
A report from the district Pulwama, beset by 'encounters' and funerals', on the verge of its voting day in the General Election.
NewYorker.com / May 2019 / Reporting
PDP spokesperson Waheed ur-Rahman Para says the government is not trying to encourage voters in south Kashmir, but to demoralise them.
TheWire.in / May 2019 / Reporting
[VIDEO] The BJP’s unprecedented intake of funds – including from anonymous large donors – is the single most overlooked factor in Lok Sabha elections 2019.
TheWire.in / May 2019 / Video
The most powerful US lobbies take years to reach spends in the range of 500 million dollars. In India, anonymous entities bought electoral bonds on this scale in just two months.
TheWire.in / May 2019
By trying to defeat Modi by winning over the public instead of winning over a united opposition, the Congress president has made a mistake that could reverberate for decades.
TheWire.in / April 2019 / Essays
Part Two of an essay on Naomi Klein's 'No Is Not Enough', and the role of Modi and Trump in a catastrophic global system.
TheWire.in / November 2018 / Books
Part One of an essay on Naomi Klein's 'No Is Not Enough', and the role of Modi and Trump in a catastrophic global system.
TheWire.in / November 2018 / Books
[W/ video] Part Three of a series on how the language of the Emergency has returned under Modi: "Unholy Alliance".
TheWire.in / December 2018 / Essays
[W/ video] Part Two of a series on how the language of the Emergency has returned under Modi: "Anti-Nationals"
TheWire.in / July 2018 / Essays
[W/ video] Part One of a series on how the language of the Emergency has returned under Modi: student "subversion".
TheWire.in / June 2018 / Essays
The paradox of India's approach to tribal education through residential schools.
NewYorker.com / September 2018 / Essays
On shelving my parents books in a new home, and Anne Fadiman's Ex Libris
The Sunday Times of India / June 2018 / Books
Film: A police commando wants to confess to a career as a secret executioner. A glimpse of the violence and haunting lack of resolution in Manipur.
TheWire.in / January 2018 / Reporting
Brief tribute to a songwriter obsessed with the one thing that happens to us all. No, it's not love.
TheWire.in / February 2018 / Essays
The draft Progressive Uniform Civil Code is a signal that liberal Indians cannot just play defence
TheWire.in / December 2017 / Essays
As she retires, a profile of one of most improbable world leaders in modern history.
The Atlantic / December 2017 / Reporting
A specter of elite liberals is used to erase the vernacular resistance.
n+1 / September 2017
A quick take on India's floods - What we need to grasp about India's New Monsoon.
The Guardian / August 2017 / Reporting
On the medieval nehers in water-scarce Aurangabad, a lifeline for residents being ruined by civic corruption and private interests.
TheWire / May 2017 / Cities
A glimpse into the private timeline of the Indian PM
TheWire / February 2017 / Reporting
A meandering essay about Calicut (Kozhikoke) and family history there
Mint Lounge / October 2016 / Essays
Opening Time Out Delhi's coverstory on graffiti, a conversation with the provocateur behind some of Delhi's earliest protest tags.
Time Out India / May 2011 / [Pdf , 0 Bytes]
A Guardian long-read about Herojit, a policeman in Manipur and his turn away from a career as one of India's most lethal extra-judicial executioner.
The Guardian / July 2016 / Reporting
A review of Amitav Ghosh’s The Great Derangement
TheWire.in / July 2016 / Books
A passing generation held the key to a lost chapter in Indian history
TheWire.in / June 2016 / India's Ww2
Digitally altered images and video are fuelling divisive politics
The International New York Times / February 2016 / Reporting
A grim setback highlights other opportunities for the movement & its allies
International New York Times / January 2016 / Reporting
Should India commemorate its soldiers who fell in the Second World War?
International New York Times / August 2015 / India's Ww2
The Swacch Bharat campaign ignored its ideal workforce.
International New York Times / July 2015 / Reporting
On Subhas Bose the Traveller, and his extraordinary submarine journey halfway across the world.
Mint Lounge / July 2015 / Essays
Watching a single, brief rebellion of Delhi Metro construction labourers against their working hours.
Time Out Delhi / April 2010 / Reporting / [Pdf , 1.77 MB]
The story of Abdul Qayyum, prosecuted for twelve years in a false terror case, told through his recent memoir.
The Wire / May 2015 / Reporting
A review of Lance Price's 'The Modi Effect'.
The New Statesman / March 2015 / Books
Uncovering the forgotten story of the Japanese in Delhi's Old Fort.
Granta / January 2015 / Essays
Thoughts about Richard Flanagan's novel, and the ommission from the story of the Burma Death Railway
Times of India / October 2014 / Books
The first-ever battlefield tours in India, to WW2 sites in Manipur, lift a forgotten war out of obscurity
National Geographic Traveller India / August 2014 / Reporting
Battlefield tourism in Manipur lifts a forgotten war out of obscurity
National Geographic Traveller India / August 2014 / Reporting / [Pdf , 1.12 MB]
In the event of a nuclear attack on the capital...
Caravan's Vantage / May 2014 / Cities
A despatch from the remote Outer Manipur constituency as it goes to polls.
NYTimes India Ink / May 2014 / Reporting
A piece about hijras, kothis and Goldman Sachs, and the intangible battle for the soul of the Bangalore Pride March '12.
n+1 / May 2013 / Cities
An essay about the Second World War in Manipur, which was runner-up in the Financial Times-Bodley Head essay competition in 2012.
Financial Times / December 2012 / Essays
The Bodley Head / Random House published the essay below as a free Kindle e-short, downloadable at Amazon.
The Bodley Head / March 2013 / Essays
An essay in n+1 about the rumours which sent thousands of Bangaloreans from the north-eastern states fleeing back to their homes.
n+1 / September 2012 / Cities
A history of Bengaluru through a history of its liquor industry, from the arrack barons to UB City. This was the coverstory of the Caravan Magazine in July 2012.
The Caravan / July 2012 / Reporting
A whimsical zine, on the theme of "Out of Date", produced in Bangalore by two friends and myself. It was printed on a cyclostyle machine in a limited edition of 700. My own contribution is the closing piece.
Cyclostyle / June 2012 / [Pdf , 8.06 MB]
A straightforward profile of Vijay Mallya and his troubles.
BBC News Online / August 2012 / Reporting
Completing a trilogy of articles about Bangalore's liquor industry, a profile of the shadowy DK Audikesavulu: entrepreneur, politician and close associate of Vijay Mallya's.
Business Standard / September 2012 / Reporting
The necessary anti-climax of Lady Gaga in Noida
GQ India / November 2011 / Reporting / [Pdf , 367 KB]
My contribution to Nat Geo's cover feature on quiet places, about the Begumpura Masjid in Delhi. [Downloads as PDF]
Nat Geo Traveller / August 2012 / Essays
BOOKS: A feature on Sarnath Banerjee's "The Harappa Files".
Time Out India / February 2011 / Books / [Pdf , 0 Bytes]
A short rumination on the absence of statues of women in Delhi.
The Ladies Finger / February 2014 / Cities
A grouse about "booksing", a palliative celebration of books as things that actually distracts us from reading.
Mint Lounge / March 2012 / Books
About the world’s first colour blockbuster, which was filmed at the Coronation Durbar in Delhi.
The Big Indian Picture / Time Out Delhi / March 2014 / Cities
BOOKS: Interview with Mahmood Farooqui about "Besieged: Voices from Delhi 1857".
Time Out India / July 2010 / Books / [Pdf , 0 Bytes]
A Delhi map: Sites of sex and scandal over the centuries.
Time Out Delhi / July 2011 / Cities / [Pdf , 885 KB]
A visit to the Embassy of the State of Palestine, in Chanakyapuri, New Delhi.
Time Out India / October 2011 / Cities / [Pdf , 1.41 MB]
A short piece about the origins of the word Comptroller and how they anticipate the vague position of the Comptroller-General in India right now.
The Caravan / September 2011 / Essays
A minor feature from Time Out Delhi, about a mysterious halved house and its remarkable architect.
Time Out Delhi / April 2011 / Cities / [Pdf , 1.9 MB]
In Outlook Traveller's New Delhi issue, my break-down of the city's cultural life.
Outlook Traveller / September 2010 / Cities
As it says, about Paris in the summer. Not the most arduous thing I've ever written.
Outlook Traveller / August 2010 / Cities
A visit to the government opium vendor in Karol Bagh, New Delhi.
Time Out India / January 2010 / Cities / [Pdf , 120 KB]
BOOKS: Short interview with Xu Xi, author of "The Unwalled City"
Time Out India / March 2010 / Books / [Pdf , 0 Bytes]
A piece about media speculation during the disappearance of the chopper that carried the chief minister of Andhra, YSR, to his death.
The Hoot / September 2009 / Essays
Following on the Tehelka report from Nandigram, a response to the electoral tide turning against the CPI(M) in West Bengal.
Kafila / June 2009 / Essays
A first-person piece about discovering that Varun Gandhi, then a candidate for Parliament, was lying to the courts and the public about his education abroad.
Outlook / April 2009 / Reporting
A report from Bayana, where a Gujjar agitation was blocking trains leaving Delhi, and a profile of the charismatic leader Kirori Singh Bainsla.
Tehelka / June 2008 / Reporting
A report from Nandigram about the turbulent, first electoral exercise after the area's recapture by the Communist party.
Tehelka / May 2008 / Reporting
Alongside the report from Nandigram, an interview with the truculent CPI(M) state secretary, Biman Basu.
Tehelka / May 2008 / Reporting
Don't be put off by the title. A long report from Bhopal about the growing water-contamination crisis being caused by the Union Carbide plant, and the difficult question of who's responsible.
Tehelka / April 2008 / Reporting
Profiling the right-wing collegians responsible for the attack on the DU History faculty and the protests against Ramanujan's "300 Ramayanas".
Tehelka / March 2008 / Reporting
A traveller's report from Jaunpur in eastern UP, once the capital of the Sharqi dynasty.
Outlook Magazine / January 2008
A rumination for City Limits magazine's "Capital Letters" section, about Delhi's Productivity House.
City Limits, Delhi / December 2007
An earnest, rather uncritical report on "India's Best Panchayat", Gopalpura in Rajasthan.
Outlook Magazine / October 2007 / Reporting
A poster-essay on youth movements, produced for the Himmat Youth Festival 2006, organised by Openspace India in Pune.
Openspace / June 2006 / Essays / [Pdf , 279 KB]
BOOKS: A review of Vikas Swarup's third novel, "The Accidental Apprentice".
Financial Times / May 2013 / Books
BOOKS: A review of Mohammed Hanif's "Our Lady of Alice Bhatti".
Time Out India / September 2011 / Books
BOOKS: A conversation with Chetan Bhagat about "Revolution 2020" and the Commonwealth Games.
Time Out India / September 2011 / Books
BOOKS: An interview with Tom Scocca about "Beijing Welcomes You".
Time Out India / September 2011 / Books
BOOKS: A review of Aravind Adiga's "Last Man in Tower".
Time Out India / July 2011 / Books
BOOKS: A feature on Aman Sethi's "A Free Man"
Time Out India / July 2011 / Books
BOOKS: A conversation with Deborah Baker about "The Convert".
Time Out India / June 2011 / Books
PUBLISHING: The career of David Davidar at Penguin, and his new start at Aleph.
Time Out India / May 2011 / Books
BOOKS: An article about Alice Albinia's "Leela's Book"
Time Out India / April 2011 / Books
BOOKS: Ten things you need to know about Angela Davis.
Time Out India / March 2011 / Books
BOOKS: A short conversation with I. Allan Sealy.
Time Out India / March 2011 / Books / [Pdf , 900 KB]
BOOKS: A brief review of Nicholas Carr's "The Shallows", about the effects of internet use on the brain.
Time Out India / December 2010 / Books
BOOKS: A feature on Dilip Simeon's "Revolutionary Highway"
Time Out India / October 2010 / Books
PUBLISHING: An article about biography in India, with perspectives from Ram Guha, Patrick French and VK Karthika.
Time Out India / September 2010 / Books / [Pdf , 803 KB]
BOOKS: A feature on Siddharth Chowdhury's "Day Scholar"
Time Out India / June 2010 / Books
BOOKS: A brief review of Omair Ahmad's "Jimmy the Terrorist."
Time Out India / June 2010 / Books
BOOKS: A conversation with Aatish Taseer about "The Temple-Goers".
Time Out India / April 2010 / Books
BOOKS: An article on Zac O’Yeah's "Once Upon a Time in Scandinavistan"
Time Out India / April 2010 / Books
BOOKS: A feature on Fatima Bhutto's "Songs of Blood and Sword"
Time Out India / April 2010 / Books
BOOKS: A feature on Pavan Varma's "Becoming Indian"
Time Out India / March 2010 / Books
BOOKS: A feature on the Cybermohalla Collective's "Trickster City".
Time Out India / February 2010 / Books
BOOKS: Short interview with Amitava Kumar about "Evidence of Suspicion"
Time Out India / January 2010 / Books / [Pdf , 412 KB]
BOOKS: An article on William Dalrymple's Nine Lives
Time Out India / November 2009 / Books / [Pdf , 945 KB]
BOOKS: An early book review of "Secret Ingredients: The New Yorker Book of Food and Drink".
Outlook Traveller / January 2008 / Books
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