Rahul Bhatia @rahulabhatia Twitter profile

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

3 months

It’s here.

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

9 days

The BMC and its beautification. They’ve ruined Bandra Fort.

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

3 months

In 1946, the RSS went door to door with a picture of Nehru smoking as evidence of his immorality. (From D.R. Goyal's 'Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh'.) Nehru really felt it when he said about them, "If these people had their way, neither you nor I would have a tolerable existence."

Pratik Sinha

@free_thinker

3 months

In recent times, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi has been targeted several times with manipulated images. The latest in that series is a morphed photo of a woman holding a cigarette, which was edited with Sonia's face. #AltNewsFactCheck

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

2 months

The Guardian asked me to recommend five of the best books on Indian politics. I stretched it and recommended five political books I admire and/or absolutely love*: A Free Man, Curfewed Night, Malevolent Republic, The Incarcerations, Gujarat Under Modi

Five of the best books about Indian politics

The world’s largest democracy comes under the microscope in these compelling works of journalism and history

www.theguardian.com

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

6 months

Is there a more accommodating regulator in India than the food safety authority? It just increased permissible pesticide levels in spices by 10 times:

FSSAI Increases Permissible Pesticide Levels in Spices by 10 Times

Known as the maximum residue limit (MRL), the MRL has been increased from 0.01 milligrams per kilogram (mg/kg) to 0.1 mg/kg.

thewire.in

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

2 months

Out now in the UK today.

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

5 months

I won the @truestoryaward last night. It’s still sinking in.

True Story Award

The Global Reporter Prize in Bern, Switzerland

truestoryaward.org

Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

9 months

Very happy that my Guardian Long Read about Nisar Ahmed, a Delhi riots witness, is among the finalists for this year's True Story Award.

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

2 months

Last year I found this note someone wrote to Nehru almost 82 years and nine months ago.

banojyotsna ...

@banojyotsna

2 months

Happy Birthday Idiot

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

1 month

Since Jean Drèze’s transportation preferences are doing the rounds, here’s a small bit about him from the book. #theidentityproject

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

1 year

Next year, from @AbacusBooks and @HachetteIndia

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

7 months

A slight change. This August.

Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

1 year

Next year, from @AbacusBooks and @HachetteIndia

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

8 months

A country surprised that the State wants to register relationships—after allowing itself to be coerced into getting ID cards, having its citizens’ face scanned, and normalising truck checks by cow vigilantes—is a country that’s really not thinking ahead.

Siddharth

@svaradarajan

8 months

Wake up India, an intrusive state is your future. Uttarakhand UCC makes registration of live-in relationships compulsory. Couples must submit statement to registrar who will carry out inquiry which might include couple providing additional info. Sickos.

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

1 year

Still registering some of these explanations in the new bill.

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

14 days

Doing everything I possibly can to not finish this extraordinary book. I’ve read This House of Grief over four months, and with only a dozen pages to go, I find myself retracing each sentence slowly, as if it’ll show me how Helen Garner shifts the mood so subtly; foolishness.

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

2 months

The Irish Times has a *very* nice review of The New India:

The New India. The Unmaking of the World’s Largest Democracy: a country with a very dark side

Being outnumbered by Muslims is a constant Hindu fear. Add to that Narendra Modi’s increasingly autocratic rule and what emerges is very far from a shiny India

www.irishtimes.com

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

6 months

You heard the man. The book is now available for pre-order: UK (August): US (November):

The New India: The Unmaking of the World’s Largest Democracy

www.amazon.com

james crabtree

@jamescrabtree

6 months

Just back from 🇨🇳 to discover waiting for me a preview copy of what I'm convinced will the most important book on 🇮🇳 for many years: "The New India", by the formidably talented @rahulabhatia . Everything Rahul does is top class. Looking forward to reading very much 📚👊

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

3 months

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

8 months

Live face recordings with boarding pass at the security line inside Chennai airport. No consent, of course. Why? “Boss has said.” @internetfreedom

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

9 days

Removing tiles to fill them with grout. Turn around one minute to write about Hindu nationalism, and next thing you know they’re wrecking the one good thing Bandra had.

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

2 months

The Identity Project is now in stores across India. Needless to say, support your nearest independent bookshop. @rachnabooks @ChampacaBooks @BookshopInc @Bahrisons_books @teltrilogy @harmonybookshop @KitabKhanaBooks @midlandbook @blossombookhous @bookworm_Kris

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

2 months

In The New India, I go deep into the use of “Bangladeshi” as a slur, and show how profoundly it would change the relationship between the state and all citizens. The slur, it turned out, led to the creation of Aadhaar, the ultimate tool of exclusion. Book out on Aug 8.

Aman Wadud

@AmanWadud

2 months

We all know who are Bangladeshis for them. No one is listening to this hate-monger in Bangladesh, he is just seeking legitimacy to orchestrate violence on Indian citizens. Why is this man not arrested yet ?

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

9 days

They tore down a fort. Unbelievable. Unbelievable.

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

6 months

A important follow-up. What happened to the first person and village to sign up for Aadhaar once the press left.

14 years on, first Aadhaar recipient recalls ‘false show’ of publicity

Ranjana Sonawane, the 'Aadhaar card woman', lives in a remote village in Maharashtra, highlighting the struggles of her community.

www.thehindu.com

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

9 months

Very happy that my Guardian Long Read about Nisar Ahmed, a Delhi riots witness, is among the finalists for this year's True Story Award.

The trials of an Indian witness: how a Muslim man was caught in a legal nightmare

The long read: Nisar Ahmed was almost killed in the Delhi riots. But when he became a witness in court cases against the alleged perpetrators, he realised that was only the start of his troubles

www.theguardian.com

True Story Award

@truestoryaward

9 months

A total of 36 feature reports are nominated for the True Story Award 2024. The nominees were chosen from 974 submissions from 101 countries: #tsa2024 #truestoryaward

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

1 year

I’m happy my source found humour in my misery.

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

11 days

Still grinning at how cool yesterday’s audience in Bangalore was. (That’s me on the left at the back, doing book signings – a thing I’m never getting used to. In the foreground, in blue, @prempanicker , who was a superb moderator.)

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

9 days

They’ve modernised it. Replaced rocks with a staircase. The amphitheatre I’m conflicted about because it needed restoration. It’s certainly a more public space now, but it isn’t the fort. I don’t know, man. I don’t know.

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

8 months

They literally took the sea away from people. What a thoughtless, heartless bunch of planners.

naresh fernandes

@tajmahalfoxtrot

8 months

Now on our coast, world-class Robert Moses arrogance.

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

10 months

Chalo, done for now. What a mad few years it's been.

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

9 days

See it for yourself while the park is closed because they've got three exhausted men dismantling it tile by tile. This is the alternate route: head to Land's End, go up the side to the top, turn right, and head down to the temple by the water. The path to the park is there.

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

5 months

This was a nice surprise. The New India is an Editor’s Pick in the Bookseller.

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

8 months

So while the government can now delete its own data interception records within six months, telecom companies are required to keep all user data for at least two years. Information flows only one way in this country.

DoT directs telcos to keep data and call records of users for minimum two years

The amendment in the Unified License Agreement comes after requests from security agencies according to reports. Previously, the duration of archiving call data and internet usage records of subscr...

www.indiatoday.in

Srinivas Kodali

@digitaldutta

8 months

All pegasus related records can now be officially destroyed.

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

4 months

Every tech reporter out there should be looking at Digital Public Infrastructure and its effects on civil rights across the global South. This tech is justified as a public good, takes root in places where rights are fragile, and ends up being about surveillance.

Nikhil Pahwa

@nixxin

4 months

No one. It's a private company not accountable to government or citizens. Yet it's being forced upon us. Digital public infrastructure = Digital Surveillance Infrastructure

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

2 months

The Times reviews The New India: “the stuff of black comedy.” Buy it here:

The New India by Rahul Bhatia review — how Hindu nationalism is eating India

Under Narendra Modi’s government the Muslim minority have become second-class citizens and victims of the mob

www.thetimes.com

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

4 months

This is quite a claim: “Following our report, we were told that SEBI pressured brokers … to close short positions in Adani under the threat of expensive, perpetual investigations, effectively creating buying pressure and setting a ‘floor’ for Adani’s stocks at a critical time.”

Hindenburg Research

@HindenburgRes

4 months

Adani Update – Our Response To India’s Securities Regulator SEBI

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

25 days

“The intensity of intellectual labour that has made a work of this kind possible is simply amazing.” Avijit Pathak reviews The Identity Project/The New India.

Rahul Bhatia’s ‘The Identity Project’ on the danger of majoritarianism - The Tribune

Here is a book which, as the author has rightly said, “pieces together fragments of history to bring the present into focus”. The intensity of intellectual labour that has made a work of this kind...

www.tribuneindia.com

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

15 days

“This book will shake you up.” Kitaab reviews The identity Project/The New India

Book Review: The Identity Project - The Unmaking of a Democracy by Rahul Bhatia - KITAAB

Shevlin Sebastian reviews Rahul Bhatia’s book, The Identity Project — The Unmaking of a Democracy (Published by Context, 2024) and analyses how through narrative, anecdote, research and on-the-spot...

kitaab.org

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

6 months

There’s a great burn-all-bridges story to be done about the ethics of a famously credit-hungry Mumbai auteur whose lavish production budgets run dry when it’s time to pay his writers.

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

2 months

A thrill to see @nilanjanaroy ’s Black River on its list of 20 indie books for the fall. Such a brilliant exploration of power and its absence through the prism of a crime. You know when you want everybody to read a book you just read? This is that.

20 Indie Books to Read for Fall 2024

This season’s noteworthy offerings feature time loops, psychoactive booze, the Big Bang, and a hermit on a mission from God.

www.publishersweekly.com

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

3 months

The quotes in this piece are so good. eg. Ravish on Arnab: "He was the game changer. The first to become shameless."

Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

3 months

This @andreasbabst profile of Arnab Goswami is so revealing – "We want to bring the power of nationalism to every home in this country" – and so bonkers: "Subtlety is just a lack of confidence in taking a stand."

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

8 months

It's getting closer.

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

1 year

I’ve been thinking a lot about the techniques used to force tech adoption in India. Hurdles are placed in everyday activities to force a change. A simple thing is made more complicated in order to make the invasive thing look easier.

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

1 year

What a remarkable story. Superb work, @gerryshih

Inside the vast digital campaign by Hindu nationalists to inflame India

India’s BJP, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and affiliated Hindu nationalist groups have perfected using social media to spread of inflammatory, often false and bigoted material on an industr...

www.washingtonpost.com

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

8 days

Few people know the RSS (including many sympathetic to it) as well as Dhirendra Jha. His book on Golwalkar promises to be revelatory, and from everything I’ve heard, people will be studying it to learn how extreme organisations take root. It should find publishers abroad.

Hartosh Singh Bal

@HartoshSinghBal

8 days

do attend, after the lok sabha results & now haryana the rss has more control. in haryana, modi was non-playing captain, his vote-gettng ability & aura in decline. This alters the equation with the rss, which remains undiminshed, its ugly history manifested in our bigoted present

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

1 month

People, come on over to Alliance Francaise in Delhi on the 17th evening! I’ll be chatting with the astounding legal scholar Usha Ramanathan and the incredible Nisar Ahmad over at the launch event for The Identity Project! We’ll talk about identity, riots, and much else. Come!

Westland Books

@WestlandBooks

1 month

Mark your calendars #Delhi ! Join us for the first event of the #IdentityProject Tour on 17 Sept at M.L. Bhartia Auditorium. @rahulabhatia in conversation with Usha Ramanathan and Nisar Ahmad.

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

3 months

This was one memorable reporting day.

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

1 month

I am gobstruck and thundersmacked by this development on the Bahrisons best sellers list.

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

1 year

Aadhaar, FastTag, and now Digiyatra. When these dudes go on global roadshows talking about the exponential growth of digital public infrastructure, you don't hear them talk about the strategic coercion employed with the help of the State.

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

18 days

Delighted that @prempanicker will be chatting with me about The Identity Project at BIC in Bangalore on Sunday! Bring your friends along. Tell them attendance is voluntary mandatory.

Westland Books

@WestlandBooks

18 days

The Identity Project Tour in #Bangalore ! Join us for a discussion on ‘An Unequal Citizen’ between @rahulabhatia and @prempanicker . Happening this Sunday (6 Oct) at @bicblr . @ContextIndia

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

2 months

An extract from The New India / The Identity Project. In the book, the passage the Guardian published is twice as long, and intertwined with a parallel story: of Nehru grappling with rumors and violence as refugees crossed the border between W Bengal and East Pakistan in 1950.

SANJAY HEGDE

@sanjayuvacha

2 months

“Their entire functioning has been so boring and dull and drab that it has helped them to build a very powerful national network of people who cannot think"

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

2 months

Everybody warned me I'd find the most embarrassing mistake after the book was published and I'm here to tell you through my grimace that this is true.

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

7 months

1/3 Take it from India. When rumour networks and alternative histories become entrenched, it limits the effectiveness of legitimate news sources, weakens public resolve to find out what's real, and allows entire worlds to be constructed in the knowledge gap that opens up.

Anne Applebaum

@anneapplebaum

7 months

An alternative version of history is being written right in front of our eyes. Take it seriously

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

8 months

I'm so going to savour this whole issue, but for now, enjoy @kmahaj 's short story. Laughed hard at the end.

The Attaché’s Wife | Karan Mahajan | Granta

‘He remembered now why he’d left in the first place: the people of this poor hot country were smug when they had nothing to be smug about.’

granta.com

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

23 days

Happy US publication day to ⁦ @nilanjanaroy ⁩, whose fantastic Black River has already received rave reviews in the UK and India! America, you’re going to love this one.

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

4 months

About a decade ago, while I was researching the nature and causes of stampedes in India, someone shared an unreleased official report on the Wai stampede, which killed about three hundred people in 2005. It was caused by a single misaligned step, if I remember correctly.

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

3 months

Nehru wrote this to B.C. Roy on 24 April 1950. (J.N. (S.G.) Vol 42, part 2)

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

4 months

This is really at the heart of many institutional failings. The RSS, which cannot abide by questions and criticism, is a conveyer belt of mediocrity, and it fills open positions with its members. Even Nehru was hobbled by inert rss-Mahasabha faithful during 1947 Delhi riots.

Tony Joseph

@tjoseph0010

4 months

To what extent is the mess a result of the systematic attempt to create back-door entry for preferred candidates into premier institutions and government jobs - both at the top, at the recruitment level and at the bottom, at the admissions level?

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

6 months

Why did you sign up for Aadhaar? Participate and retweet.

Because I wanted to.

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Because I was forced to.

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

6 months

"Many years later, as I faced the deadline for writing this review, I was to remember that distant afternoon when Márquez showed me the Spanish manuscript of Chronicle of a Death Foretold and then refused to let me read the novel until its publication."

Clamoring for Life | Ariel Dorfman

Though exceptional, fully developed female characters abound in Gabriel García Márquez's work, only in his last novel, Until August, is a woman the uncontested protagonist on her own journey of...

www.nybooks.com

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

6 months

"...part of what makes billionaire philanthropy so dangerous is that it is difficult to recognise it for what it really is: political power." A fine interview about Bill Gates and his philanthro-lobbying.

Tim Schwab

@TimothyWSchwab

6 months

Love this headline from @the_hindu : "The art of Gatescrashing democracy" Around the world, a major reappraisal of the Gates Foundation is underway-----amazing to see the news media opening up a public debate about this undemocratic institution

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

3 months

This @andreasbabst profile of Arnab Goswami is so revealing – "We want to bring the power of nationalism to every home in this country" – and so bonkers: "Subtlety is just a lack of confidence in taking a stand."

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

1 year

“What’s messed up is that most of the claims about human cognition, the psychology of Homo sapiens, are based on a very homogenous sample of human beings.” A fine piece on the work of the marvellous Roberto Zariquiey. @RadInstitute .

The race to extract an Indigenous language from its last lucid speaker

Linguist Roberto Zariquiey has been meeting with Nelita Campos for more than a decade to record all she knows of the Iskonawa language.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

3 months

The first review is here. The Guardian reviews The New India, calling it “a vivid portrait of how a nation turns callous and changes into something unrecognisable.”

The New India by Rahul Bhatia review – how nationalism changed a country

The voices of ordinary Indians take centre stage in this absorbing account of political transformation

www.theguardian.com

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

1 month

This is happening today at Alliance Francaise. Come over if you can and say hi!

Westland Books

@WestlandBooks

1 month

Mark your calendars #Delhi ! Join us for the first event of the #IdentityProject Tour on 17 Sept at M.L. Bhartia Auditorium. @rahulabhatia in conversation with Usha Ramanathan and Nisar Ahmad.

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

2 months

“The cycling track is hardly being used by cyclists.” Yeah. That’s because cyclists (me among them) figured out an absolute sadist designed that cycling track. Make it better, don’t do away with it.

Richa Pinto

@richapintoi

2 months

#Mumbai guardian minister @MPLodha has asked MMRDA to remove the existing cycle track lane in Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) & merge it into the road. He told TOI that congestion BKC was witnessing needed to be eased on priority.

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

2 months

“If the far right ever loses its grip on India, The New India will be remembered as a truthful account of all the people who preyed on a nation’s collective fear.”

‘The poison was always there’: how India’s Hindu-Muslim divide was weaponised by the far right

In The New India: The Unmaking of the World’s Largest Democracy, journalist Rahul Bhatia takes us through a riot-torn nation where a hibernating far right ...

m.independent.ie

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

6 months

@JohnReedwrites recommends four books to understand India. *ing: - @alpashah001 , who "has a gift for nonfiction narrative"; - S Jaishankar; - @kunalpurohit 's "vivid and richly reported" H-Pop; - @jaffrelotc 's Gujarat Under Modi, a "rewarding read".

How to understand Modi’s India

Is India enjoying a golden age or in democratic decline? And what will the prime minister do next? As the nation goes to the polls, four books attempt to unravel its many complexities

www.ft.com

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

1 month

If you’re around Delhi tomorrow, come on over and say hi!

Westland Books

@WestlandBooks

1 month

We are on a bookstore hop with @rahulabhatia and his debut work The Identity Project (internationally released as The New India) in #Delhi on 16 September (Monday). Come join us! @Bahrisons_books @midlandsouthex @midlandbookshop @faqirchandbooks @kunzum

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

7 months

2/3 Organisations that produce storytelling ecosystems at scale, with legends and rationales for every conceivable situation, which can position themselves as 'grievance aggregators', will end up thriving – and will operate like a parallel government.

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

8 days

@Ghair_Kanooni Absolutely. Just an utter disaster every which way. Completely amateurish work.

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

9 days

It's hard not to see the current political aesthetic in the devastation of this Portuguese fort. It has been 'beautified' and ordered, and locals have had little say in its appearance. In one way, the new aesthetic is a fitting record of our times.

Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

9 days

The BMC and its beautification. They’ve ruined Bandra Fort.

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

8 months

The promenade and the sea were this city's greatest asset. That's where they gathered and celebrated and got respite. Because it was an asset of intangible value, access to it was restricted, it was made smaller, its views broken, and new parking charges imposed a needless cost.

Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

8 months

They literally took the sea away from people. What a thoughtless, heartless bunch of planners.

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

1 year

This is a pleasant surprise. Thrillingly, @davidedgarwolf , my editor at the Guardian, explains how this story came together. Listen!

Best of 2023… so far: The trials of an Indian witness: how a Muslim man was caught in a legal...

Nisar Ahmed was almost killed in the Delhi riots. But when he became a witness in court cases against the alleged perpetrators, he realised that was only the start of his troubles. By Rahul Bhatia

www.theguardian.com

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

1 year

@realJennyBoylan @WakeRevolt @RadInstitute @ievaju @EfieZethu @IGalleymore @rocketfantastic @alexcowan2 @TheFSILab @Khanabat @francescamari @QaderiHomeira @LeahEGose @GayleCaleb @PazEncina1 @philip_thai I’m going to miss this view.

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

3 months

The fabulous book I’ve got to get back to:

Aatreyee

@aatreyee2

3 months

The #MicrosoftOutage is the universe telling you to stop working and go and read that fabulous book you had been eyeing for sometime.

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

8 days

I have a pretty good idea who 'beautified' the Jesus fresco.

Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

9 days

The BMC and its beautification. They’ve ruined Bandra Fort.

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

4 months

Superb. More open discussions about tech is the way to go.

Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF)

@internetfreedom

4 months

Last week, @DigiYatraOffice reached out to IFF to offer information and clarifications on the DigiYatra data ecosystem, and invite us to a private closed-door meeting with the CEO & team. This is what we had to say in response. ⬇️ 1/2

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

13 days

OMG. “ @nilanjanaroy has spent her entire life and career preparing to write “Black River,” and it shows. With its depth of feeling, narrative sweep and deceptively plain writing style, this is a crime novel I’ll be thinking about for a long, long time.”

Bring Up the Bodies in 4 New Crime Novels

Our crime columnist on books by Kate Atkinson, Nicholas Meyer, Marcie R. Rendon and Nilanjana Roy.

www.nytimes.com

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

1 year

@BCDreyer Made me laugh. This show got so much *just* right.

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

1 year

“[One Nation, One Election] would release the government from constraints of democratic accountability. With a rapid decline in all autonomous institutions, elections are now the only effective mechanism of holding the government accountable.”

Yogendra Yadav

@_YogendraYadav

1 year

Let us call the govt’s proposal for simultaneous elections by its real name: One nation, one election, one party, one leader. I wrote this in 2019 when this baloon was floated. The argument still holds. What do you think? (Pl read before answering)

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

3 months

@Aakar__Patel Yeah! He looks pretty cool to me.

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

7 months

3/3 Even if Trump doesn't win, you have the infrastructure to contend with. Its corrosive properties are enduring.

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

11 months

3/3 The book, Unequal, is up for pre-order. It's right up there with @mrajshekhar 's Despite the State, and @Rukmini 's Whole Numbers and Half Truths—two of the very best books on Modern India.

Unequal: Why India Lags Behind Its Neighbours

www.amazon.in

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

1 year

Your home libraries are finally safe.

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

11 months

1/3 Massive day for @SNavatar , who decided to travel along the border between Bangladesh and India to study economic and social differences between India and its neighbors.

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

2 months

The book has a promo! And the music at the end matches a surreal situation I found myself in somewhere in East Delhi (it's in section 3).

Westland Books

@WestlandBooks

2 months

The most explosive book of the year is here! @rahulabhatia 's The Identity Project is now available in bookstores and online. Get your copy today!

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

5 months

It’s entirely plausible that Mumbai’s planners didn’t think of the water when they designed the coastal road.

Zoru Bhathena

@zoru75

5 months

Mumbai’s Brand New Coastal Road Making a splash

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

2 months

@kishoreofficial I know who wrote it. Writing about it, though, so can’t say much more. :)

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

24 days

This one’s been in the works for a while, and I’m quite excited about it.

SouthAsiaSpeaks

@AsiaSpeaks

24 days

. @AsiaSpeaks fellows and alumni, get ready for some exciting news! 🎉 Stay tuned for updates. #SASxReportagen @rahulabhatia

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

1 month

The Economist likes The New India for its reporting and excavation of history, but not so much for the Aadhaar connection.

Technology and Hindu nationalism have transformed India

Might the government combine the two in ominous ways?

www.economist.com

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

1 year

When we met last year, the depth of Abhishek's research startled me. I've been so eager to read this.

Abhishek Choudhary

@chacchachoudhry

1 year

Delighted to be back here to announce the publication of the first volume of my debut. Available at bookstores 10th May onwards. Please consider pre-ordering VAJPAYEE: THE ASCENT OF THE HINDU RIGHT, 1924-77 on the link below:

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

4 months

You can see this in aviation regulation, food safety, and air and water management, this callousness about safety. Whatever they're thinking about, it's not safety.

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

4 months

This is all to say that India's mass tragedies are not unconnected events. They are failures waiting to happen. From the contractor laying steps to the signals guy at the train station to the cops overseeing crowds, to the falling bridges - there's a failure to meet standards.

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

9 days

Just beautiful on Radio 104.8 in mumbai. “The city’s air quality has deteriorated significantly, and there’s nothing that can be done about it. The pollution control board has an app you can check, and we can help by not burning candles indoors.”

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

2 months

Someone’s got a sense of humour.

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

1 year

Congratulations, all. Your life is about to change more than you can imagine.

Harvard Radcliffe Institute

@RadInstitute

1 year

Today, we announce our 2023–2024 fellows, a cohort whose projects contend with the urgent, the beautiful, and the vast: from reckoning with the challenges of climate change to creating digital models of iconic Italian violins to detecting distant galaxies.

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

23 days

I enjoyed speaking with @MilanV about the India I saw while reporting the book.

Carnegie Endowment

@CarnegieEndow

23 days

What is the impact of Aadhaar, India's biometric identification system, on its democracy? #GrandTamasha 's 🆕 episode features @rahulabhatia , whose new book, "The Identity Project: The Unmaking of a Democracy, provides an in-depth look at the state of India's democracy. Listen

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

6 months

This is quite something. Protesting farmers who were barred from entering Delhi are now stopping BJP leaders from campaigning in their villages. Via @ramanmann1974

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

4 months

Other reasons for stampedes: poor crowd management, bad communication, not enough room to ease the squeeze. The reports put out in the aftermath of stampedes tend to share similar findings. But what happens after all this depends on where you live.

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Rahul Bhatia

@rahulabhatia

4 months

This is such a great point, @andymukherjee70 : “[Corruption did not] go away under the strongman’s rule. Only the threat of discovery disappeared, as independent institutions were emasculated.”

Andy Mukherjee

@andymukherjee70

4 months

My latest ⁦⁦ @opinion ⁩ column on why markets mustn’t worry too much about the return of coalition politics to India. ‘Reforms will slow’ is such a trope: What land or labor reforms happened under Modi? Free to read link:

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