“Shallowness and ignorance have been our lot in the mass consumer societies we inhabit, where we were too distracted to act politically, apart from periodically deputing political elites to take life-and-death decisions on our behalf.”

Indian essayist, novelist, and socialist

Pankaj Mishra is an Indian essayist, novelist, and socialist. He is known for his nonfiction books and for writing widely in major international publications. He has 94 quotes on the site. His books include The World After Gaza, Temptations of the West: How to Be Modern in India, Pakistan, Tibet, and Beyond, From the Ruins of Empire: The Intellectuals Who Remade Asia, and A Great Clamour: Encounters with China and Its Neighbours. He has also published two novels and contributed to The Guardian, Harper's Magazine, The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The New York Review of Books. His writing has prompted controversies, including disputes with Salil Tripathi, Niall Ferguson, and Jordan Peterson. He won the Windham-Campbell Prize for non-fiction in 2014 and the Weston International Award in 2024.