51 Pankaj Mishra Quotes for You to Enjoy

Pankaj Mishra

Indian Novelist

Born: 1969

China People Political Think War World

Related authors: Charles Dickens Ernest Hemingway Gustave Flaubert James Baldwin John Updike Leo Rosten Paulo Coelho Walter Scott

I grew up in small towns in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra - places like Akola, Betul, Wardha, Jhansi; I thought the rise of provincial India would be an interesting subject to tackle. Pankaj Mishra

Thought Would Would-Be India Rise Tackle Small Small Towns Like Towns Subject Provincial Up Grew Places Interesting

Basically, I think of fiction and non-fiction as different ways of engaging with the world. You reach a point where you feel you have said all you possibly can, in reportage or a review essay or a reflection on history, which 'From the Ruins of Empire' was. Pankaj Mishra

History You World Reflection Think Ruins Ways Possibly Point Feel Empire Reach Non-Fiction Said Review Essay Where Different Fiction Which Engaging Different Ways Basically

Force-backed humanitarianism, which relies on rational influence over events in other countries, may have been a more feasible project in the bipolar era of the Cold War, with its relatively defined and stable web of alliances and proxies. Pankaj Mishra

War Events Bipolar Cold Other Cold War Other Countries Relatively Project Defined Web Feasible More Rational Alliance Countries Over Era Been May Stable Influence Which

After India and China, Indonesia was the biggest new nation-state to emerge in the mid-twentieth century. Pankaj Mishra

India Emerge Indonesia New After Biggest China Century

The Indonesian nationalists, mainly Javanese, who threw the Dutch out - in 1949, after a four-year struggle - were keen to preserve their inheritance and emulated the coercion, deceit, and bribery of the colonial rulers. Pankaj Mishra

Struggle Rulers Out Threw Colonial Mainly Were Deceit Dutch After Inheritance Bribery Who Keen Coercion Four-Year Preserve

Like the Britain of Beaverbrook and Kipling, Japan in the early twentieth century was a jingoistic nation, subduing weaker countries with the help of populist politicians and sensationalist journalism. Pankaj Mishra

Nation Politicians Weaker Journalism Countries Like Japan Century Help Twentieth Twentieth Century Populist Early Britain

To Westerners, the students at Tiananmen may have given an impression of a solid and energetic consensus against dictatorship and for democracy, but they were an egotistical and fractious lot, riven by disagreements over tactics and money. Pankaj Mishra

Democracy Money Dictatorship Egotistical Solid Given Tactics Students Disagreements Over Were Lot Impression May Energetic Against Consensus

Tiananmen Square in early 1989 attracted many dreamers like Ma Jian, who returned from Hong Kong to a one-room shack in Beijing in order to join the student protests. Pankaj Mishra

Dreamers Hong Kong Ma Shack Join Student Like Attracted Returned Protests Kong Square Beijing Order Who Many Early

Though blessed with many able administrators, the British found India just too large and diverse to handle. Many of their decisions stoked Hindu-Muslim tensions, imposing sharp new religious-political identities on Indians. Pankaj Mishra

Ineptitude and negligence directed British policies in India more than any cynical desire to divide and rule, but the British were not above exploiting rivalries. Pankaj Mishra

Cynical Negligence Rule India Above Directed More Divide Rivalries Policies Were Than Any Exploiting Desire British

Decolonisation seems to have dented little the sense of superiority that since 1945 has made American leaders in particular consistently underestimate the intensity of nationalist feeling in Asia and Africa. Pankaj Mishra

Made Feeling Sense Consistently Seems Superiority Leaders Since Particular Underestimate American Intensity Nationalist Africa Little Asia

German writers in the late 18th century were the first to uphold a prickly, literary nationalism, in reaction to the then dominance and prestige of French literature. Pankaj Mishra

First Nationalism Late Prestige Writers French Reaction French Literature Were Dominance German Uphold Literary Literature Century Then

After the oil crisis of 1973, many European countries tightened restrictions on immigrants. By then, millions of Muslims had decided to settle in Europe, preferring the social segregation and racial discrimination they found in the West to political and economic turmoil at home. Pankaj Mishra

Home Political Settle Crisis Immigrants Muslims Restrictions Economic Segregation Had Countries Tightened West Discrimination Oil After Decided Social Turmoil Racial Then Europe European European Countries Many Found Millions

Tenured professors are more prone than the rest of us to think that the university is the universe. Pankaj Mishra

Rest Think Universe Prone More Than Us Professors University

I am often struck by the anxious inferiority many well-educated British people display towards the U.S., particularly Londoners dazzled by New York, when many postcolonials are accustomed to regarding Britain's old imperial cosmopolis as the true capital of the western world. Pankaj Mishra

People Inferiority World Old British People Struck Imperial True Towards New Particularly Well-Educated Am Western Western World York Anxious Accustomed Often New York Regarding Capital Many Display Britain British

Living in a cultural milieu where the foreign writers most widely available and admired were Russian, I came very late to postwar American writers, and I had great trouble with the canonically exalted white male writers I tried first. Pankaj Mishra

Great Trouble First White Living Late Tried Admired Exalted Russian Postwar Writers Had Most Foreign Came Were Male Cultural Very American Where Available Milieu American Writers Widely

The clash of civilizations or the clash between Islam and the West may be cliches. But there is an even bigger cliche around: that this clash actually goes on within Islam, between reformists and fanatics. Pankaj Mishra

Islam Clash Civilizations Between Cliche Cliches Within Around West Goes May Bigger Fanatics Even Actually

Devout Anatolian masses rising from poverty have transformed Turkey politically and economically. Pankaj Mishra

Poverty Rising Economically Masses Devout Politically Transformed Turkey

Though there are laws against blasphemy and insult to religion in many European countries, France has institutionalised its anti-clerical past by proscribing religion from public life. Pankaj Mishra

Life Religion Past France Though Laws Blasphemy Countries Insult Against Public Public Life European European Countries Many

As in the early 20th century, the elemental forces of globalisation have unravelled broad solidarities and loyalties. Pankaj Mishra

Broad Globalisation Forces Century Loyalties Elemental Early

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