Books:
Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit: A Biography. Penguin/Viking India, Forthcoming December 2023.
India and the Cold War (edited). The University of North Carolina Press, New Cold War History Series (Odd Arne Westad, Series Editor) & Penguin India, Fall 2019.
Hidden Histories: Religion and Reform in South Asia. (edited, with Syed Akbar Hyder). Primus Books, March 2018.
The Peacemakers: India and the Quest for One World. HarperCollins India, February 2012. Updated and expanded edition, with Foreword by Akira Iriye and Rana Mitter, Palgrave Macmillan, September 2013. Read more.
Heterotopias: Nationalism and the Possibility of History in South Asia (edited). Oxford University Press, 2010. Read more.
Speaking Truth to Power: Religion, Caste and the Subaltern Question in India (edited, with Anne Feldhaus). Oxford University Press, 2008. Paperback edition, July 2009. Second printing, May 2010. Third impression, March 2011. Read more.
Claiming Power from Below: Dalits and the Subaltern Question in India (edited, with Anne Feldhaus). Oxford University Press, 2008. Paperback edition, July 2009. Second printing, January 2011. Third impression, Summer 2011. Read more.
Sovereign Spheres: Princes, Education, and Empire in Colonial India. Oxford University Press, 2003. Read more.
Articles and Book Chapters (*=peer reviewed):
With Anjani Kapoor. “Beyond the Nation: Ambedkar and the Anti-Isolation of Fellowship.” In Suraj Yengde and Anand Teltumbde, eds., The Radical in Ambedkar (Delhi: Penguin Allen Lane), pp. 243-254.
“Minority Report: Illiberalism, Intolerance, and the Threat to International Society.” Invited contribution. In the 2018 Raisina Files, co-edited by Ritika Passi and Harsh Pant, as part of the Raisina Dialogue, India’s flagship global affairs event, co-sponsored by the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) think tank and the Indian Ministry of External Affairs.
“Reflections on Indian Internationalism and a Postnational Global Order: A Response to Partha Chatterjee.” Invited contribution. In Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 37(2), 2017, pp. 220-225.
“The Hand and the Fist: Human Rights and State Power in India.” In Atul K. Thakur, ed., India Now and In Transition (Delhi: Niyogi Books, 2017). Foreword by Sunil Khilnani.
“The Age of Authoritarianism and the End of the World as We Know It.” In Seminar 693, May 2017, on “Democratic Authoritarianism.” Guest edited by Kanchan Chandra.
“Indian Internationalism and the Implementation of Self-Determination: Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay and the United Nations Human Rights Commission.” In Vinay Lal and Ellen DuBois, eds., A Passionate Life: Writings by and on Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay (Delhi: Zubaan, 2017). World distribution by the University of Chicago Press. Foreword by Gloria Steinem.
“India and the United Nations Or Things Fall Apart.” Invited contribution, in David Malone, C. Raja Mohan, and Srinath Raghavan, eds., The Oxford Handbook of Indian Foreign Policy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015).
“Towards Universal Relief and Rehabilitation: India, UNRRA, and the New Internationalism.” Invited contribution, in Thomas Weiss and Dan Plesch, eds., Wartime History and the Future United Nations (New York: Routledge, 2015).
With Alexander Bacha. “The Commodification of Love: Gandhi, King and 1960’s Counterculture,” in Bryan S. Turner, War and Peace: Essays on Religion, Politics and Space (New York: Anthem Press, 2013).
“One World 2020: A Decade-long Vision for India’s Relations with the United Nations.” Invited contribution, in Krishnappa Venkatshamy and Princy George (eds.), India’s National Security Strategy: 2020 Perspectives (Pentagon Publishers, New Delhi, 2012).
“Towards a World Community: India and the Idea of United Nations Reform,” invited contribution, Strategic Analysis 35(6), November 2011, Special issue on UN Reforms.
*”Princely States and the Making of Modern India: Internationalism, Constitutionalism and the Postcolonial Moment.” In The Indian Economic and Social History Review, 46(3), September 2009: 427-456. Ranked #4 out of the “Top 50 Most-Frequently Read Articles” in The Indian Economic and Social History Review for December 2009.
* “A New Hope: India, the United Nations and the Making of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” Modern Asian Studies, 44(2), March 2010: 311-347. Also published in MAS online 13 June 2008. Copyright Cambridge University Press. The No. 1 “Most-Read Article” for October 2009 and January, December 2011 and a Top Ten “Most-Read Article for the Previous 12 Months” from April 2010-January 2012 in Modern Asian Studies. Press coverage: The Nation (Pakistan); The Indian Express (C. Raja Mohan’s column). “[P]ath-breaking”-The Washington Quarterly
*“The Hindutva Underground: Hindu Nationalism and the Indian National Congress in Late Colonial and Early Postcolonial India.” In The Economic and Political Weekly, XLIII(37), 13 September 2008: 39-48. Reprinted in Steven Lindquist, ed. Religion and Identity in South Asia and Beyond: Essays in Honor of Patrick Olivelle, New York: Anthem, 2010. Press coverage: Dawn (Pakistan)
*“Princely States and the Hindu Imaginary: Exploring the Cartography of Hindu Nationalism in Colonial India.” The Journal of Asian Studies 67(3), August 2008: 881-915.
“Indian Nationalism” and “The Indian National Congress.” Commissioned for The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World. Oxford University Press, 2008.
“The Historical Context.” In Understanding Contemporary India. Edited by Sumit Ganguly and Neil DeVotta. Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2003, pp. 17-40.
* With Faisal Bari. “(Mis)Representing Economy: Western Media Production and the Impoverishment of South Asia.” Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East 21(1&2), 2001 (published 2002): 99-109. Special issue on Globalization and Cultural Studies.
* “The Rebel Academy: Modernity and The Movement for a University in Princely Baroda, 1908-1949.” The Journal of Asian Studies 61(3), August 2002: 919-947.
* “Demystifying the ‘Ideal Progressive’: Resistance Through Mimicked Modernity in Princely Baroda, 1900-1913.” Modern Asian Studies 35(2), 2001: 385-409.
* “The Discourse of School Choice in the United States.” The Educational Forum 60(4), 1996: 317-325. Baltimore’s Task Force on School Choice, appointed by Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke, used a version of this paper in March 1996.
Book Reviews:
Kim Wagner, Amritsar 1919: An Empire of Fear and the Making of a Massacre (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2019). [In The Journal of Asian Studies 79(1), 2020].
Gyan Prakash, Emergency Chronicles: Indira Gandhi and Democracy’s Turning Point (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2019). [Review essay, on H-Diplo].
David Engerman, The Price of Aid: The Economic Cold War in India (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2018). [On H-Diplo, November 2018 Roundtable featuring Amit Das Gupta, Andreas Hilger, Paul McGarr, and Tanvi Madan, with an introduction by Srinath Raghavan and a response from Engerman.]
Aishwary Kumar, Radical Equality: Ambedkar, Gandhi, and the Risk of Democracy (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2015). [In the American Historical Review 121 (5), 2016, pp. 1638-1639.]
Yasmin Khan, India at War: The Subcontinent and the Second World War (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015). [On H-Diplo, May 2016.]
Mohammed Yunus, Bhutto and the Breakup of Pakistan (Karachi, Pakistan: Oxford University Press, 2012). [In The Historian 76 (3), 2014, pp. 616-617.]
Ramnarayan Rawat, Reconsidering Untouchability: Chamars and Dalit History in North India (Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 2011). [In the American Historical Review 118 (2), 2013, pp. 505-506.]
Ravikumar, Venomous Touch: Notes on Caste, Culture and Politics (Kolkata: Samya, 2009). [In The Indian Economic and Social History Review 49(4), pp. 606-609.]
Urmila Pawar, trans. Maya Pandit, The Weave of My Life: A Dalit Woman’s Memoirs (Kolkata: Stree, 2008.) [In The Indian Economic and Social History Review 49(4), pp. 606-609.]
Raka Ray and Seemin Qayum, Cultures of Servitude: Modernity, Domesticity, and Class in India (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2009). [In Labor History 52(4), November 2011, 571-572.]
Aradhana Sharma, Logics of Empowerment: Development, Gender, and Governance in Neoliberal India (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2008). [Published online by H-Asia, Spring 2010.]
Badri Narayan. Fascinating Hindtuva: Saffron Politics and Dalit Mobilisation. (Los Angeles: Sage Publications, 2009). [In History: Reviews of New Books 38(2), April 2010, 65-66.]
Shabnum Tejani. Indian Secularism: A Social and Intellectual History, 1890-1950 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008). [In the Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History 10(2), Fall 2009.]
Vinayak Chaturvedi. Peasant Pasts: History and Memory in Western India (University of California Pres, 2007). [In Social History 33(3), August 2008, 338-340.]
Sanjoy Bhattacharya. Expunging Variola: The Control and Eradication of Smallpox in India, 1947-1977 (New Delhi: Orient Longman, 2006). [In The Journal of Interdisciplinary History 39(2), 2008: 319-320.]
Thomas Metcalf, Forging the Raj: Essays on British India in the Heyday of Empire. (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2005), pp. 317. [In The Indian Economic and Social History Review 44(4), December 2007, 543-547.]
Carey Anthony Watt, Serving the Nation: Cultures of Service, Association, and Citizenship in Colonial India. (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2005), 255pp. [In The Indian Economic and Social History Review 44(4), December 2007, 543-547.]
Sarah Ansari. Life after Partition: Migration, Community, and Strife in Sindh, 1947-1962. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), pp. 256. [In The Journal of Interdisciplinary History 38, Summer 2007: 173-175.]
Sandhya Shukla. India Abroad: Diasporic Cultures of Postwar America and England. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003), 322pp. [In The Canadian Review of Studies in Nationalism 32, 2005.]
Sharad Chari, Fraternal Capital: Peasant-Workers, Self-Made Men, and Globalization in Provincial India. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004), 379pp. [In Labor History 46(3), August 2005: 405-406.]
Andrew Wyatt and John Zavos, eds. Decentring the Indian Nation. (Portland: Frank Cass/ISBS, 2003), 152 pp. $26.50 [In The Journal of Asian Studies 63(4), November 2004: 1189-1191.]
Stanley Wolpert. Gandhi’s Passion: The Life and Legacy of Mahatma Gandhi. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), 308 pp. $17.95 [In Peace & Change: A Journal of Peace Research 29(2), April 2004.]
Dick Kooiman, Communalism and Indian Princely States. (Delhi: Manohar, 2002), 249 pp. Rs. 500 [In The American Historical Review 108(4), October 2003: 1131-1132.]
Nita Kumar, Lessons from Schools: The History of Education in Banaras. (New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2000), 232 pp. $45.00 [In The Journal of Asian Studies 61(2), May 2002: 755-757.]
Margrit Pernau, The Passing of Patrimonialism: Politics and Political Culture in Hyderabad 1911-1948. (Delhi: Manohar, 2000), 395 pp. Rs. 700 [In The Journal of Asian Studies 60(2), May 2001: 586-588.]
Alaka Basu and Roger Jeffrey (eds), Girls’ Schooling, Women’s Autonomy and Fertility Change in South Asia. (New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1996), 339 pp., Rs. 225 [In South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies 20(1), 1997: 134-135.]
Essays:
“India’s Most Significant Contribution to the World,” India at 75, being a collection of reflections from India’s most distinguished writers, in defense of democracy. Produced by PEN America. Summer 2022.
With Jonathan Rosenberg. “1918 + 1929 + 1968 = 2020” CNN. 2 June 2020.
“Not just Nehru, even sister Vijaya Lakshmi had strong reason to decline UNSC permanent seat.” The Print, 20 March 2019. The #1 “Most Popular” article on The Print on 21 March 2019, across all categories (including news and entertainment).
“When her Aunt Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit Took on Indira Gandhi for Crushing Democracy and Dissent,” Scroll.in, 24 October 2017. Picked up on Yahoo News India and Qoshe.
“Towards a Strategic Vacuum.” Invited contribution. Outlook Magazine India@70 Special Issue, 21 August 2017. Reproduced as “The Sunset of the Century: India and the Ideal of Internationalism” on the World Orders Forum (by invitation).
“The Doctor and the Cure: The Crisis of Sovereignty in the Twenty-first Century.” Online symposium, “Does Brexit Herald a Reassertion of the European Nation-state?” On the Brexit: Global Perspectives Blog, affiliated with Cambridge University and hosted by the e-International Relations website, 24 February 2017. (invited) Picked up on the ETH Zurich Center for Security Studies Blog.
“India’s Court Ban will have Unintended Consequences.” In “Can India Put an End to Identity Politics?” Room for Debate, The New York Times, 9 January 2017. (invited) Picked up by India Abroad, 20 January 2017, p. 26.
“Brexit Aftermath: The Nation State is Making a Global Comeback–And We Should All be Very Afraid.” Quartz. 30 June 2016. (invited)
“A Real Commitment to Change, or Sleight of Hand.” In “Opening India to Foreign Investors,” Room for Debate, The New York Times, 22 June 2016. (invited)
“We are Witnessing the Rise of Global Authoritarianism on a Chilling Scale.” Quartz. 21 March 2016. Also published as “Not Just Trump: The Chilling Rise in Global Authoritarianism.” Defense One. 21 March 2016. And listed on the evening edition of Real Clear Markets, 22 March 2016, and on Yahoo Finance. Was the “No. 1 Most Read Article” on Defense One on 22 March 2016, and was the “Story of the Day” as well as a “Top Pick” and “Most Popular” story on Quartz on 21 March 2016. Engagement by the Latin American Post and TruthOut. Filtered and partially translated into Czech. Cited in The World Post/The Huffington Post in an essay by Richard Javad Heydarian on autocratic nostalgia in the Philippines. Excerpted on Daily Kos. Cited in Tanzania’s The Citizen newspaper, in an op-ed by Justice Novati Rutenge. Discussed in The Daily Vox by Managing Editor Sipho Hlongwane in relation to the Oslo Freedom Forum held in Johannesburg, South Africa. Updated version translated into German by the Berliner Republik as the lead cover article to their May 2016 issue debating the rise of authoritarianism in Europe.
“Strong arm tactics,& disdain for opposition &critical press – authoritarianism is on the rise ard the world” fm @qz https://t.co/dgpXaMWbPf
— Michiko Kakutani (@michikokakutani) March 25, 2016
READ!! —> We are witnessing the rise of global authoritarianism on a chilling scale https://t.co/wmaHlPZ3GI via @qz
— Jonathan Capehart (@CapehartJ) March 25, 2016
We are witnessing the rise of global authoritarianism on a chilling scalehttps://t.co/Wdyq02dhwo
By @ManuBhagavan in @qz— Alfons López Tena (@alfonslopeztena) April 16, 2016
We are witnessing the rise of global authoritarianism on a chilling scale https://t.co/IJlWK4NN0Z via @qz
— Manuel L. Quezon III (@mlq3) April 27, 2016
We are witnessing the rise of global authoritarianism on a chilling scale https://t.co/fRL56TFQFu
— Thomas Hegghammer (@Hegghammer) April 26, 2016
“Narendra Modi is Not Reagan. Or Obama. Or Evita. Or Margaret Thatcher.” Quartz. 3 October 2014.
“Thoughts on the Victory in India.” Picked up on the South Asia Citizens Wire, 14/15 May 2004.
“James Laine, Shivaji, and Freedom of Speech.” Picked up on the South Asia Citizens Wire. Published on CounterCurrents.org, 3/2004, and as an interview in India Abroad.
“The Answer is Blowing in the Wind.” Published in The Nation (Pakistan), 8/9 July 2002. Picked up in The Kashmir Observer (Srinagar, Kashmir), 19-21 July 2002.
“Ending the Stalemate: Thoughts on Kashmir.” Published in The Nation (Pakistan), U.S. 3/26/02.
With Faisal Bari. “The Madness of the Nation.” Published as “The Dilemma of the Nation” in The Nation (Pakistan), U.S. 5/25/01.
Other:
“Woman of the Future,” an artistic contribution on Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit for the As If a Girl Matters virtual museum. https://www.asifagirlmatters.com.
“The One World Blog,” by invitation on CNN-IBN. http://www.news18.com/byline/manu-bhagavan.html. My blog contains essays, reviews, and interviews.
* Interview with and story on Garry Davis, the first “world citizen”
* Response to Perry Anderson’s LRB essay on the 1947 Partition
* Interview with Nayantara Sahgal, acclaimed writer and Nehru’s niece
* Interview with Mallika Dutt, President and CEO of Breakthrough
* Review of Ananya Vajpeyi’s Righteous Republic (removed by Network 18)
* The Right to Life = The Right to Food: Interview with Colin Gonsalves
* The Indian Supreme Court, Section 377, and the Assault on Fundamental Rights
* Commemorating the 20th Anniversary of the Fall of Apartheid: India and S. Africa
Editor-in-Chief. Sagar: South Asia Graduate Research Journal 1(1) thru 2(2) [1994-1995, 4 issues]
Manu Bhagavan 