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Mukul Kesavan

Mukul Kesavan is an Indian writer, historian, essayist and social commentator. He is known for his work on modern Indian history, secularism and popular culture, and for his writing on cricket, which has appeared in Indian and international publications. He teaches social history at Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi.

Name Mukul Kesavan
Nationality Indian
Occupation Writer, historian, essayist, columnist
Affiliation Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi
Field Modern Indian history, social history, cultural commentary
Notable book Looking Through Glass (1995)

Background and education

Kesavan was educated in Delhi and at the University of Cambridge, where he pursued postgraduate studies in history. He subsequently took up teaching at Jamia Millia Islamia, a central university in Delhi, where he has been associated with the social history programme.

Writing career

Kesavan's first novel, Looking Through Glass, was published in 1995. Set against the backdrop of the Indian freedom movement and Partition, it draws on his interest in twentieth-century Indian political history and the cultural texture of late colonial north India.

His non-fiction writing has engaged with questions of nationalism, secularism, communalism and the idea of India as a plural republic. Secular Common Sense (2001), part of a series of short polemical essays, set out a defence of Indian secularism in the wake of communal mobilisations of the 1990s. The Ugliness of the Indian Male and Other Propositions (2008) collected essays on cinema, language, sport and public life. He has also written on the visual culture of Hindi cinema and on north Indian Muslim history.

Cricket writing

Kesavan is widely read as a cricket writer. His essays examine the social history of the game in the subcontinent, the politics of spectatorship and the changing economics of international cricket. Men in White: A Book of Cricket (2007) is a collection of his essays on the sport, ranging across players, teams and the texture of watching cricket in India. He has contributed cricket writing to The Telegraph (Kolkata), Cricinfo (later ESPNcricinfo) and The Hindu, among other outlets.

Journalism and public commentary

Kesavan writes a regular column in The Telegraph, Kolkata, where his subjects have included Indian politics, secularism, higher education, communalism, language and cricket. He has also contributed essays to The Hindu, Outlook, The Caravan and international publications.

Themes

  • Indian secularism and the constitutional ideal of a plural republic.
  • The history and politics of communalism in twentieth-century India.
  • Partition, north Indian Muslim identity, and the cultural memory of Awadh and Delhi.
  • Hindi cinema and popular culture.
  • The cultural and political history of cricket in South Asia.

Selected works

  • Looking Through Glass (novel, 1995)
  • Secular Common Sense (2001)
  • Men in White: A Book of Cricket (2007)
  • The Ugliness of the Indian Male and Other Propositions (2008)
  • Homeless on Google Earth (2013)

Significance

Kesavan is regarded as one of the more prominent liberal voices in contemporary Indian public commentary, combining academic training in history with a literary essayistic style. His cricket writing is considered part of a tradition of South Asian sportswriting that treats the game as a window into society, alongside writers such as Ramachandra Guha and Sujit Mukherjee.

References

  • Wikidata entry: Q6933643.
  • Author pages and archives at The Telegraph (Kolkata) and ESPNcricinfo.
  • Publisher catalogues for Looking Through Glass, Men in White and other titles.