Kanishk Tharoor

Kanishk Tharoor is associate editor at openDemocracy. His writings on politics and culture have also been published in the Guardian, The Independent, The National, The Hindu, The Times of India, The Telegraph (Calcutta), the Virginia Quarterly Review, Foreign Policy and YaleGlobal Online. His appearances on radio and TV include BBC's Today programme, BBC News, BBC Radio Scotland and the Colbert Report. He is a published and award-winning author of short fiction. He studied at Yale, where he graduated magna cum laude with BAs in History and Literature.

Email him at kanishk [dot] tharoor [at] opendemocracy [dot] net.

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Britain is good at dealing with diversity

The UK copes with the issue of ethnic difference more maturely than its neighbours, whatever the BNP may want us to believe

By Kanishk Tharoor

/ 2 Nov 2009

India's rape victims lost in political row

Indians have long grown used to tawdry eruptions and interruptions in their politics, when the contentious core of Indian political life surfaces in the most grisly, unflattering light. From corruption

By Kanishk Tharoor

/ 20 Jul 2009

Obama's speech in Cairo: live blog

President Barack Obama has braved criticism from many fronts in his bid to speak directly to the "Muslim world". How will he spin US involvement in the Israel-Palestine conflict? Will he make a dig at his host, Hosni Mubarak, and other American-backed dictators? Will he apologise for the gross blu

By Kanishk Tharoor

/ 4 Jun 2009

India: the promise of stability

Five years ago, Indian voters comprehensively shredded the predictions of their country's chattering class, toppling the then ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government and sweeping to power the

By Kanishk Tharoor

/ 19 May 2009

Kaplan's dreary romanticism

Robert Kaplan is not a writer who tries to get your blood boiling. The Atlantic correspondent genuinely wants to edify, not provoke. But in his bid to become the American

By Kanishk Tharoor

/ 24 Apr 2009

India votes

The world's biggest exercise in democracy begins today when Indians in over one hundred constituencies head to the polls. Such is the size of national elections in a

By Kanishk Tharoor

/ 16 Apr 2009

Paramilitaries throw Bangladesh into chaos

According to Bangladeshi government officials, an uprising by paramilitaries that flung the country into chaos and confusion for a day has ended. At a meeting on Wednesday between army officials

By Kanishk Tharoor

/ 26 Feb 2009

The "poetic documentary" of meat

One of the abiding stereotypes of India is of the country's traditional vegetarianism, of its reverence for cows, of a devout, pinched people living off rice and pulses.

By Kanishk Tharoor

/ 8 Feb 2009

What to make of the Mumbai attacks

India wakes up to one of the most significant terrorist attacks in its history

By Kanishk Tharoor

/ 28 Nov 2008

Change we don't really need

The Obama campaign pioneered the use of 21st century social networking in American electoral politics. Its My.BarackObama.com website was a small miracle of technology and tact, building a

By Kanishk Tharoor

/ 25 Nov 2008

NYT comes out against electoral college

Following in our footsteps, a New York Times editorial today forcefully argues for the abolition of the electoral college in favour of the popular vote. There are numerous reasons to

By Kanishk Tharoor

/ 20 Nov 2008

The "celestial" president

The New Yorker's recent issue boasts a particularly arresting cover (pasted below). Obama's "O" moon waxes high over the Lincoln Memorial, casting a pale

By Kanishk Tharoor

/ 17 Nov 2008