In this episode, Shalini Randeria speaks with political theorist Pratap Bhanu Mehta about the global rise of civilizational narratives — from India and China to Russia, Turkey, and parts of the U.S. They explore why governments increasingly invoke ancient civilizational identities, how this shift fuels soft authoritarianism, and what it reveals about the deeper crisis of liberal democracy. They also discuss how civilizational thinking erodes the historicity of the modern nationstate, replaces democratic negotiation with pregiven identity, and licenses new forms of exclusion and political violence. Mehta contrasts today’s nostalgic, essentialist civilizational claims with earlier Indian thinkers like Gandhi and Tagore, whose visions were futureoriented and emancipatory. A wideranging conversation on democracy, identity, and the dangerous seductions of civilizational politics.

Episode Notes