Pankaj MishraBland Fanatics: Liberals, Race and Empire

History can be told in many forms and many versions of all the main historical events from the Siege of Constantinople to the shores of Dunkirk. Yet some facts are stubborn, and no matter which one looks, those facts present their true faces. One such fact is that the world today is the direct consequence of colonialism. All the subjugation, exploitation, nationalism, and struggles for independence are interconnected. There are, however, aspects of all that which are subject to dispute, sometimes cordial and scholarly, sometimes with sting and venom. The ‘lesser culprits of history’ – those ‘bland fanatics’ of the West, Pankaj observes, have reincarnated themselves as liberal internationalists, neocon democracy promoters, and free market globalisers’. This book is a collection of essays from 2011 to 2019 presenting aspects of the way these new bland fanatics ‘blunder through a world grown more complex and intractable’ – unravelling their former colonies in Asia, Africa, and South America, and now, ‘sowing political chaos in their own societies’. In one, Pankaj describes how whiteness turned into a religion, and how that religion has become ‘the world’s most dangerous cult today’. In these brilliant 211 pages of sharp, often caustic observations not only of the fanatics, but those they oppress or hope to continue to oppress, and also the observations of other observers, Pankaj reminds the reader that the only way to avoid getting re-trapped, is to see through the bluster, the faux praise, and the hypocrisy of the fanatics in search of their own glorious past – a past in which the rest were the voiceless supporting cast. Acutely sensitive to racism, Pankaj is not a racist (though he had been threatened by Niall Fergusson with a libel suit for being called a racist by Pankaj) and he has an essay in this book entitled, ‘Why do White People Like What I Write’? which explains why White people like what Ta-Nehisi Coates writes, perhaps as a mirror of why they like what Pankaj writes – and why not? Wit, wisdom and learning should be appreciated by everyone.

Very impressive and cogent discussion of our crisis.

I am afraid I got very little from this book of previously published journalism. I have sympathy with many of the author's ideas. However, I found that he had very little himself to add to the arguments and just recycled over and over the same ideas. As is the case with many polemicists, one found oneself reading the author's criticism of another author's summary of opinions in the area concerned. So one is not reading primary or secondary material, but tertiary or quaternary ideas that have been so well masticated that they have lost all substance.I do not recommend this book and I will not be rushing to read the author's other books or even his journalism.

Thoughtful and critical of so called Right wing. Great reading experience. Kudos to the author for adding more references. Jai hind

As an investment advisor, I found the author to be fascinatingly honest about his historical analysis of Anglo-American 20th century neoliberal capitalism. I also found his perceptions about Niall Ferguson and Jordan Peterson to be spot on - as shameless quasi-intellectual hustlers making a name for themselves by overwhelming brainwashed white nationalists with their self-aggrandizing analyses of the “white vs all others” historical superiority. Yet the author also exposes the “spiritual” political con of Barack Obama and other revered historical American icons - who certainly don’t deserve the adulation that has stuck to their reputation.In summary, if you want to read a nonfiction book that will enlighten you in a disconcerting way about the propaganda behind UK-US political economic superiority in a “hard to deny” manner, buy this book and plow through the exemplary writing and the time it takes to finish it. I won’t read it twice, but I probably should!

Waxed eloquent. Incredibly informative. The thematic arguments in the book will make you pensive about the global mood regarding topics that are important in this age, that include fetishes of imperialism, free market, liberalism, and West's desire for political and social elitism. There is a certain beauty in his writing: it's also analytical and unvarnished prose. Mishra is at the height of his intellectual powers. One of the greatest Indian non fiction writers of our time.

This 2020 book is republished articles from 2008 to 2019 in the Guardian, London Review of Books, NY Times, NY Review of Books and the New Yorker. Many are available online, but it's convenient to have them collected here. The theme is a historical connection between current free market liberalism and past colonialism. Pankaj Mishra is a novelist and essayist with an English literature degree from New Delhi living in London. His writing and concepts are challenging, with references to many historical and contemporary authors.The articles were mostly published as book reviews. Liberalism, as described in 'Bland Fanatics', was an outgrowth of imperialism. Free markets once enforced by gunboat diplomacy and armed occupation are now upheld in sacred precepts of lax labor laws, low regulation and less taxation. This may seem akin to conservatism in the US, but in global market capital speak it is known as liberalism. Other guises of liberalism used to spread the late 20th century creed are said to include democracy, human rights, secularism and free speech.On Remembrance Day Mishra recalls forgotten millions of Asians and Africans who fought in the trenches of the western front and frozen eastern forests during WWI. As imperial powers at Woodrow Wilson's 1919 Paris Peace Conference denied colonies self rule they became more likely to prefer communism. After WWII former colonies knew that development was needed to compete, but chose central organization over individual liberties. Europe's faith in liberalism was shaken, but US power and the rhetoric of freedom and democracy grew.Niall Ferguson is excoriated as neo-imperialist and racist, earning Mishra threats of a libel lawsuit. A culture of Islamophobia is revisited in the writings of Aayan Hirsi Ali, Bat Ye'or and others seen from the perspective of Muslim guest workers invited to Europe after WWII. Salman Rushdie's memoir of life on the run after a death decree by Ayatollah Khomeini seem delusions of a celebrity western spokesman. British withdrawal from the EU is compared to the 1947 retreat from India, in terms of a reckless rush towards an unknown outcome.An American author writes about life inside a Mumbai slum, situated between a new airport and luxury apartments built by the slum dwellers. Canadian pop shrink and YouTube guru Jordan Peters turns fascism and mysticism against gender identity politics, and freaks out at Mishra on Twitter. Ta-Nehisi Coates and Barack Obama become liberal bait, as social redress is switched for drone strikes, corporate bailouts and immigrant deportations. Trump's rise was presaged by a catastrophic loss of jobs, pensions, and homes by the lower middle class.Mishra uses these reviews as launch pads for political exposition. It is a difficult book to read, partly for it's take on liberalism, but also for it's fleeting literary references. While nothing appears positive in this analysis of the west, it's an intriguing door to peer behind. Democracy, human rights and free trade may well be hollow words of a cynical elitist narrative. On another hand, what are the alternatives: autocracy, arbitrary justice and planned economies? Democratic socialism might be one answer, but Mishra doesn't quite come out and say so.

Honesty and assertion of truth are two fundamental requirements for an intellectual. Pankaj Mishra certainly possesses both these qualities which are glaringly visible in almost all of his writings from "Butter Chicken in Ludhiana" to "Bland Fanatics". The book under review is a collection of more than a dozen essays written by Pankaj Mishra during last ten years and published mainly in leading newspapers and journals in United Kingdom & United States. This book covers a wide range of ideas from politics to culture, imperialism to Neo-imperialism and liberalism to the end of liberalism in a very forceful manner. The most important essays are- Watch this man, the culture of fear, Bland Fanatics, Free markets and social darwinism in Mumbai, Bumbling Chumocrats, The Economist and Liberalism and England's Last Roar. The book opens with an essay where the author has entered into a forceful debate with a renowned Scottish historian Niall Ferguson in whom he finds an intellectual representative of Neo-imperialism. The author has also beautifully reflected on the hypocrisy of liberals when it comes to race, empire, political establishments and disadvantaged sections both in west and the east including India. This acclaimed author and a leading intellectual seems to spare none when he uses a term 'intellectual quacks' to highlight those who have appeared in public space during the second half of the 20th century with certain sparkling ideas presented in the public space and a huge gullible number got swayed by the empty bowl of so called wisdom. He has wonderfully coined and used touching phrases such as 'intellectual entrepreneurs', 'vendors of spirituality', 'stalls in the new marketplace of ideas', 'healers of modern man's soul' and 'mass market musings'. He has deeply touched the foundation stones on which these intellectual cheer leaders came to acquire immense following and fanatically loyal fan clubs. In short, the nuances of modern fascination with myth and the clever attempts to push the reality aside, have been explored and explained fantastically by the author of this heart-touching piece of intellectual feast. Since these essays were originally written for the public in the west which is very well informed, the level of analysis is of a higher standard and hence slightly difficult to understand as it is very rich both in contentual & contextual zones. However, the book doesn't generate that level of interest which his earlier books particularly " From the Ruins of Empire" and "Age of Anger" did perhaps because it is a collection of essays and not a thematic work. But each page of this book is a remarkable indicator of the astute intellectualism of this leading essayist and cultural critic of our times. If you wish to go for an intellectual ride, you have a good option available in "Bland Fanatics".