Pankaj Mishra

FRSL The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 600 Fellows, elec ...

(born 1969) is an Indian essayist and novelist. He was awarded the Windham–Campbell Prize for non-fiction in 2014.

Early life and education

Mishra was born in

Jhansi Jhansi (; Hindi: झांसी, Urdu: ) is a historic city in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It lies in the region of Bundelkhand on the banks of the Pahuj River, in the extreme south of Uttar Pradesh. Jhansi is the administrative ...

, India. His father was a railway worker and trade unionist after his family had been left impoverished by post-independence land redistribution. Mishra graduated with a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

in commerce from Allahabad University before earning his Master of Arts degree in

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...

at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.Pankaj Mishra website
He married Mary Mount, a London book editor, in 2005.

Career

In 1992, Mishra moved to Mashobra, a

Himalaya The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 10 ...

n village, where he began to contribute literary essays and reviews to ''The Indian Review of Books'', ''The India Magazine'', and the newspaper '' The Pioneer''. His first book, ''Butter Chicken in Ludhiana: Travels in Small Town India'' (1995), was a travelogue that described the social and cultural changes in India in the context of globalization. His novel ''The Romantics'' (2000), an ironic tale of people longing for fulfilment in cultures other than their own, was published in 11 European languages and won the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...

Art Seidenbaum award for first fiction The Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction, established in 1991, is a category of the ''Los Angeles Times'' Book Prize awarded to authors' debut books of fiction. It is named for the Los Angeles Times' critic Art Seidenbaum who was also an author ...

. This novel, with some autobiographical strains, is a ''

bildungsroman In literary criticism, a ''Bildungsroman'' (, plural ''Bildungsromane'', ) is a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from childhood to adulthood ( coming of age), in which character change is imp ...

''. The narrative begins with the nineteen-year-old protagonist Samar coming to the city of

Varanasi Varanasi (; ; also Banaras or Benares (; ), and Kashi.) is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world. * * * * The city has a syncretic t ...

from

Allahabad Allahabad (), officially known as Prayagraj, also known as Ilahabad, is a metropolis in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.The other five cities were: Agra, Kanpur (Cawnpore), Lucknow, Meerut, and Varanasi (Benares). It is the admin ...

. A large part of the novel, including its end, is set in Varanasi. Gradually, Samar realizes that the city is a site for mystery. Mishra's book ''An End to Suffering: The Buddha in the World'' (2004) mixes memoir, history, and philosophy while attempting to explore the

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in ...

's relevance to contemporary times. ''Temptations of the West: How to Be Modern in India, Pakistan and Beyond'' (2006), describes Mishra's travels through Kashmir,

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...

, Afghanistan, Tibet, Nepal, and other parts of South and Central Asia. Mishra's 2012 book, ''From the Ruins of Empire'', examines the question of "how to find a place of dignity for oneself in this world created by the West, in which the West and its allies in the non-West had reserved the best positions for themselves." Mishra's anthology of writings on India, ''India in Mind'', was published in 2005. His writings have been anthologised in ''The Picador Book of Journeys'' (2000), ''The Vintage Book of Modern Indian Literature'' (2004), ''Away: The Indian Writer as Expatriate'' (2004), and ''A History of Indian Literature in English'' (2003), among many other titles. He has introduced new editions of

Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British Raj, British India, which inspired much o ...

's ''

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'' (Modern Library), E. M. Forster's '' A Passage to India'' (Penguin Classics),

J. G. Farrell James Gordon Farrell (25 January 1935 – 11 August 1979) was an English-born novelist of Irish descent. He gained prominence for a series of novels known as "the Empire Trilogy" (''Troubles'', ''The Siege of Krishnapur'' and ''The Singapore Gri ...

's '' The Siege of Krishnapur'' (NYRB Classics), Gandhi's '' The Story of My Experiments with Truth'' (Penguin) and R. K. Narayan's '' The Ramayana'' (Penguin Classics). He has also introduced two volumes of V.S. Naipaul's essays, ''

The Writer and the World ''The Writer and the World: Essays'' (2002) is a collection of essays and reportage, many previously published, spanning the 50-year career of Trinidad-born British writer V. S. Naipaul. The book contains some of Naipaul's most notable essays on ...

'' and ''Literary Occasions''. Mishra has written literary and political essays for ''

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'', where he was a Bookends columnist, ''

The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...

'', ''

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'', the ''

London Review of Books The ''London Review of Books'' (''LRB'') is a British literary magazine published twice monthly that features articles and essays on fiction and non-fiction subjects, which are usually structured as book reviews. History The ''London Review ...

'', and ''

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'', among other publications. He is a columnist for '' Bloomberg View'' and ''

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''. His work has also appeared in ''

Foreign Affairs ''Foreign Affairs'' is an American magazine of international relations and U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership organization and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and ...

'', ''

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'', ''

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'', ''Common Knowledge'', the ''

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'', ''

Granta ''Granta'' is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centres on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story’s supreme ability to describe, illuminate and ma ...

'', ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publishe ...

'', ''

The New Republic ''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hu ...

'', the ''

New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members o ...

'', ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'', ''

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'', ''

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'', '' Outlook'', ''

Poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek '' poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings ...

'', ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, t ...

'' magazine, ''

The Times Literary Supplement ''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp. History The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication ...

'', '' Travel + Leisure'', and ''

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''. He divides his time between London and India, and is currently working on a novel. He was the Visiting Fellow for 2007–08 at the Department of English,

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = � ...

, UK. He was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 600 Fellows, ele ...

in 2008. In November 2012, ''

'' magazine named him one of the top 100 global thinkers. In February 2015, ''

Prospect Prospect may refer to: General * Prospect (marketing), a marketing term describing a potential customer * Prospect (sports), any player whose rights are owned by a professional team, but who has yet to play a game for the team * Prospect (mining ...

'' nominated him to its list of 50 World Thinkers. In 2011, Niall Ferguson threatened to sue Mishra for libel after Mishra published a review of his book ''Civilisation: The West and the Rest'' in the ''

''. Ferguson claimed that Mishra accused him of racism. In March 2014,

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

awarded Mishra the Windham–Campbell Literature Prize. In an article published on 19 March 2018 in the ''New York Review of Books'' titled "Jordan Peterson & Fascist Mysticism", Mishra wrote that Canadian clinical psychologist and author Jordan Peterson's activities with Charles Joseph, a native member of the coastal Pacific Kwakwakaʼwakw tribe in Canada, "...may seem the latest in a long line of eggheads pretentiously but harmlessly romancing the noble savage." Peterson perceived Mishra's use of the phrase "romancing the noble savage" as a racist insult to his friend Joseph, and his response via

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

, which included a threat of violence to Mishra, went viral. ''Run and Hide'', Mishra's first novel in 20 years, was published in 2022 to a generally positive reception, with Allan Massie in ''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its pa ...

'' concluding: "This is a wonderfully rich and enjoyable novel. It is very much, and disturbingly, of our time.... Intellect, observation memory, sympathy and imagination are all happily here. The novel can be read quickly for sheer pleasure. It is a work for our time and one that will surely be read many years on for what will then be its historical interest. So: a novel built to last."

Awards and recognition

* 2000: Art Seidenbaum award for Best First Fiction * 2013: Crossword Book Award (nonfiction) for ''From the Ruins of Empire''. * 2014:

Leipzig Book Award for European Understanding The City of Leipzig awards the Leipzig Book Award for European Understanding () which has been given since 1994. The award is endowed with prize money of 20,000 Euro and is presented every year during the official opening of Leipzig Book Fair. Re ...

for ''From the Ruins of Empire'' * 2014: Windham–Campbell Literature Prize (Nonfiction), valued at $150,000 one of the largest prizes in the world of its kind. * 2014: Premi Internacional D'Assaig Josep Palau i Fabre

Bibliography

Books

* ''Butter Chicken in Ludhiana: Travels in Small Town India'' (1995) * ''

The Romantics The Romantics are an American rock band formed in 1977 in Detroit. The band is often put under the banner of new wave and power pop. They were influenced by 1950s American rock and roll, Detroit's MC5, the Stooges, early Bob Seger, Motown ...

'' (2000) * ''An End to Suffering: the Buddha in the World'' (2004) * ''India in Mind'', edited by Pankaj Mishra (2005) * ''Temptations of the West: How to Be Modern in India, Pakistan, Tibet, and Beyond'' (2006) * ''From the Ruins of Empire: The Intellectuals Who Remade Asia'' (2012) * ''A Great Clamour: Encounters with China and Its Neighbours'' (2013) * ''Age of Anger: A History of the Present'' (2017), * ''Bland Fanatics: Liberals, Race, and Empire'' (2020), * ''Run and Hide'' (2022), ISBN 9780374607524

Book chapters

* Introduction to '' Kashmir: The Case for Freedom'' (2011)

Essays and reporting

* Mishra, Pankaj. (9 April 1998)
"Edmund Wilson in Benares"
''

''. * — (24 June 2004)
"The Invention of the Hindu"
''

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.'' * * * * * — (19 November 2020). "Grand Illusions." ''The New York Review of Books''. 67 (18): 31–32. Essay.

Book reviews

References

External links

Official website

"Pankaj Mishra: history lessons must not become empire triumphalism – video"
– interview at ''The Guardian''

– book review in ''The New York Times''
"Pankaj Mishra, Intellectual and Spiritual Vagrant"
– interview by Wendy Cheng at '' Loggernaut''
"Pankaj Mishra in conversation with Hirsh Sawhney"
– interview by Hirsh Sawhney at the ''

Brooklyn Rail ''The Brooklyn Rail'' is a publication and platform for the arts, culture, humanities, and politics. The ''Rail'' is based out of Brooklyn, New York. It features in-depth critical essays, fiction, poetry, as well as interviews with artists, criti ...

''
Pankaj Mishra
– interview by Sarah Fay for "The Believer", 2007
Podcast of Pankaj Mishra and Arundhati Roy discussing "India in the World" at the Shanghai International Literary Festival

"Turning the Mirror: A View From the East – A conversation with Pankaj Mishra"
''Ideas Roadshow'', 2013
"A View From the East"
– Pankaj Mishra in conversation with Hirsh Sawhney (December 2012), ''Brooklyn Rail'' * ;Reviews and articles
Pankaj Mishra
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Pankaj Mishra
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Pankaj Mishra
at '' Outlook''
Pankaj Mishra
at Bloomberg L.P.
Pankaj Mishra
at ''The London Review of Books'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Mishra, Pankaj 1969 births 20th-century Indian essayists 20th-century Indian journalists 20th-century Indian male writers 20th-century Indian novelists 21st-century Indian male writers 21st-century Indian novelists 21st-century Indian essayists Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Indian columnists Indian male journalists Indian male novelists Indian travel writers Jawaharlal Nehru University alumni Journalists from Uttar Pradesh Indian male essayists Living people Mount family Novelists from Uttar Pradesh People from Jhansi The New Yorker people University of Allahabad alumni

Early life and education

Career

Awards and recognition

Bibliography

Books

Book chapters

Essays and reporting

Book reviews

See also

References

External links