HN_ZOOM_INTERVIEW_WITH_PANKAJ_MISHRA_GALLERY_VIEW_10-33-24

ETVBHARAT

1/10/2025

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00:00in the West or in places like Australia.

00:04And the biggest critics of Israel,

00:08the most prominent critics of Israel,

00:11are on the other side of the color line.

00:14And I think race itself has emerged

00:18as a very crucial marker of identity.

00:23It's certainly been claimed by any number of people

00:26in the West today

00:28as a badge of identity.

00:32And I think the defense of Israel

00:35is seen as a defense of white Western civilization.

00:39So, you know, this question never really goes away.

00:43It can seem out of sight,

00:47it can go out of sight for some time,

00:50but it reappears.

00:52And so what Du Bois called

00:56the central problem of the 20th century

01:00has reemerged as a central problem of the 21st century.

01:06Right.

01:09You also talk about how Israel is sort of a window

01:13to a future of a bankrupt and exhausted world.

01:17It's quite scary when I try to visualize such a future,

01:21especially for our children.

01:25As someone who has been to Israel,

01:29who writes about it,

01:31who writes about complex historical and political issues,

01:35do you think there is any hope in this bankrupt world?

01:39Can we ever witness an equilibrium of world morality as you write?

01:45Well, I think, you know,

01:47I wouldn't want to offer any kind of false hope or consolation.

01:53But I do find hope,

01:56at least, you know, in small quantities,

02:00in amongst young people

02:04who are shocked and outraged

02:08by what, not only by what the Israelis are doing,

02:12but the way they're being supported by their own governments

02:16in Europe and America.

02:19I think many of these young people

02:22who haven't received any kind of great education,

02:27historical education of any kind,

02:30they're simply scandalized and horrified

02:33by the killing of children.

02:36And they ask themselves,

02:38why should children be killed in this way?

02:41Why should thousands of children be destroyed in this way?

02:47And I don't think there are any satisfactory answers to that question.

02:51No matter how much history you invoke,

02:53no matter how much you talk about the Holocaust,

02:55there is simply no way to justify

02:58the killing of tens of thousands of children.

03:02And I feel that those simple questions

03:05that the young people are asking today

03:08offer some kind of a way out of this, you know,

03:14poisonous mess that we found ourselves in,

03:17where people are flouting every,

03:22every basic rule and norm of ordinary morality

03:30to justify extreme violence.

03:33I think a simple reaction to that,

03:37that young people are manifesting today,

03:39holds more hope for me

03:42than all the great major institutions

03:46and legacy periodicals of the world today.

03:54To conclude this, I have a question for you.

03:58As an Indian writer, someone who is from India,

04:01how do you see India's role in politics,

04:06particularly in relation to the West

04:08and other non-Western powers?

04:12And, you know...

04:31...that have claimed that position.

04:33It's smaller countries like Brazil or Malaysia

04:36or Indonesia or, you know, South Africa

04:40that have been far more prominent

04:42on this issue in particular.

04:44Even China has been far more prominent.

04:48So India has missed an opportunity

04:51to reclaim some of the prestige,

04:56the moral prestige it once enjoyed across the world.

HN_ZOOM_INTERVIEW_WITH_PANKAJ_MISHRA_GALLERY_VIEW_10-33-24

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