Pankaj mishra biography

Pankaj Mishra is a renowned Indian writer and intellectual who has gained international acclaim for his insightful and thought-provoking essays and books. So I was particularly curious to know how he developed his craft. What was the process like? And I found the answer in a recently published book titled How I Write.

Pankaj mishra political views

In the first chapter itself we find the conversation between Pankaj Mishra and Sonia Faleiro who also happens to be the editor of this book. Mishra admits that the first twenty years of his life remain the valuable source of his writings. Especially in terms of the societal exposure he got in those years. My father worked for the railways, so we moved around quite a lot.

I was exposed to the cruelties that people of a higher caste inflict on people from a lower caste; I was exposed to the communal poison of Hindu supremacists expressing nasty views about Muslims, Sikhs and Christians. At the same time, it provides them the raw material that can be used for a long time. Well, it can be debated.

I would love to know your thoughts, dear reader. No, they are very careful about getting to the depths of an issue. My instincts were that of the novelist inside me, because a novelist is always interested in the fate of an individual. And when that individual is suffering, that is what you respond to. I was approaching my subjects with the kind of empathetic intelligence that a novelist brings, feeling a high degree of sympathy with the people who were being victimised.

What is your analytical framework?