HN_ZOOM_INTERVIEW_WITH_PANKAJ_MISHRA_SPEAKER_VIEW_10-33-22

ETVBHARAT

1/10/2025

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00:00is that the biggest supporters of Israel today

00:03are white supremacists in the West

00:06or in places like Australia.

00:09And the biggest critics of Israel,

00:13the most prominent critics of Israel,

00:16are on the other side of the color line.

00:19And I think race itself has emerged

00:23as a very crucial marker of identity.

00:28It's certainly being claimed

00:29by any number of people in the West today

00:33as a badge of identity.

00:38And I think the defense of Israel

00:40is seen as a defense of white Western civilization.

00:44So, you know, this question never really goes away.

00:48It can seem out of sight.

00:53It can go out of sight for some time, but it reappears.

00:57And so what Du Bois called the central problem

01:02of the 20th century has reemerged

01:06as a central problem of the 21st century.

01:10Right.

01:13You also talk about how Israel is sort of a window

01:17to a future of a bankrupt and exhausted world.

01:22It's quite scary when I try to visualize such a future,

01:26especially for our children.

01:29As someone who has been to Israel,

01:33who writes about it,

01:35and who writes about complex historical

01:38and political issues,

01:40do you think there is any hope in this bankrupt world?

01:43Can we ever witness an equilibrium

01:46of world morality, as you write?

01:50Well, I think, you know,

01:51I wouldn't want to offer any kind of false hope

01:54or consolation,

01:57but I do find hope,

02:01at least, you know, in small quantities in,

02:07amongst young people who are shocked and outraged

02:13by what, not only by what the Israelis are doing,

02:16but the way they're being supported

02:18by their own governments in Europe and America.

02:24I think many of these young people

02:26who haven't received a, you know,

02:28any kind of great education,

02:31historical education of any kind,

02:34they're simply scandalized and horrified

02:38by the killing of children.

02:41And they ask themselves,

02:43why should children be killed in this way?

02:45Why should thousands of children be destroyed in this way?

02:50And I don't think there are any satisfactory answers

02:53to that question,

02:54no matter how much history you invoke,

02:56no matter how much you talk about the Holocaust,

02:58there is simply no way to justify

03:00the killing of tens of thousands of children.

03:05And I feel that those simple questions

03:08that the young people are asking today

03:11offer some kind of a way out of this,

03:17you know, poisonous mess

03:19that we found ourselves in,

03:21where people are flouting

03:25every, every basic rule and norm

03:31of ordinary morality

03:34to justify extreme violence.

03:36I think a simple reaction to that,

03:40that young people are manifesting today

03:42holds more hope for me

03:45than, you know, all the great major institutions

03:50and legacy periodicals of the world today.

03:54Right.

03:57To conclude this,

03:59I have a question for you as an Indian writer,

04:02I mean, someone who is from India,

04:05how do you see India's role

04:08in global politics,

04:09particularly in relation to the West

04:11and, you know, other non-Western countries?

04:1625.

04:35It's a...

04:45It's an opportunity to reclaim some of the...

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