Asim Ali

Political researcher and columnist writing on democracy, nationalism, political economy and popular culture in South Asia.

The Telegraph

2026
A depleted force
The erosion of the public in the expressions of the sovereign
17 January 2026
2025
Deformed modernity
India’s tryst with the modern is in a shambles
20 December 2025
Paradigm matters
The Bihar election offers templates to the TMC and the BJP
22 November 2025
A familiar template
Bihar’s politics resembles a managed form of democracy
25 October 2025
Against inclusion
The SIR in Bihar is India’s Jim Crow moment
29 August 2025
Dispersed force
Identity politics has displaced workers’ rights under Modi
19 July 2025
Sunset hour
Democracy’s defendants are equally complicit in its weakening
21 June 2025
Old shadows
Narendra Modi’s gamble with the caste census
24 May 2025
Body double
The communalisation of the Pahalgam horror
26 April 2025
Creative destruction
The mess that is India’s political economy of finance
1 March 2025
Different visions
Constitutional State versus civilisational State
18 January 2025
2024
A poisoned State
India’s polity encourages the spectre of pollution
23 November 2024
Revival script
South American parties can hold up a mirror to the Congress
26 October 2024
Specific syndrome
The crisis in South Asian democracy is structural
17 August 2024
Passive consumption
The aam aadmi and the Ambani wedding
20 July 2024
Talons intact
Indian democracy is not free from fascism yet
22 June 2024
The two poles
Indian democracy’s future will be decided in 10 days
25 May 2024
The scapegoat
Scapegoating is a fairly ancient and universal mechanism
27 April 2024
Fractured belonging
Democratic citizenship and the spectre of class
16 March 2024
Loose ends
Why has the INDIA bloc lost its political momentum
17 February 2024
Electoral kingship
Ram Temple inauguration marks a turning point
20 January 2024
2023
Baser instinct
Misogyny meets communalism in Animal
23 December 2023
Going Dutch
Hindutva’s symbiotic bond with Europe’s far-Right
25 November 2023
A crooked lens
What binds V.D. Savarkar to Henry Kissinger
28 October 2023
Decoding an evil
Communal violence is often misrecognised in India
19 August 2023
For a new formula
Progressive democratisation and the future of the republic
22 July 2023
The Patna plan
Two kinds of populism will shape the next elections
24 June 2023
The subaltern speaks
Lohiate politics could resurrect India’s opposition
27 May 2023
Blood on the street
The roots of orchestrated violence in Uttar Pradesh
29 April 2023
The new sovereign
Yogi Adityanath leads the race for Narendra Modi’s successor
18 March 2023
A bit too tall
The dangerous centralisation of political power in India
18 February 2023
Mutating virus
What makes love jihad effective is its slippery form
21 January 2023
2022
A special collective
Glimpses of a counter-establishment sphere
24 December 2022
A different ball game
Football as soft power in the Middle East
26 November 2022
Imprisoned minds
The failure of Indian schools to promote liberalism
29 October 2022
Marching for a cause
Criticism of the Bharat Jodo Yatra has mostly been unfair
17 September 2022
Troubling eclipse
What does the waning of Brand Aamir Khan say about India
20 August 2022
Supremacy project
Demystifying anti-Muslim mobilisation
23 July 2022
Grim future
A new compact between the BJP and Muslims is implausible
17 April 2022
Durable formula
Mandal politics must be revamped, not renounced
19 March 2022
New choice
The Muslim vote in the Uttar Pradesh elections
19 February 2022
2021
Golden oldies
The BJP’s campaign may be floundering
30 December 2021
Collective surrender
The story of New India is not being written by Narendra Modi alone
16 October 2021
Asaduddin Owaisi and the Bharatiya Janata Party
Identity politics and electoral strategy
18 September 2021
A slippery ideological surface
The BJP’s ideological dilemmas
21 August 2021
Pegasus controversy
Will surveillance politics reshape opposition strategy
24 July 2021
Regional pride
Could regionalism counter BJP dominance
17 April 2021
Farmers’ protest opportunity
Opposition strategy in mass movements
20 February 2021
Anti-Islamophobic movement
Six steps to build political resistance
23 January 2021
2020
Farmers’ protests unlikely to dent BJP
Limits of agitation politics
26 December 2020
Freedom fighter
Joe Biden’s democracy promotion should not overlook India
28 November 2020
Shared trajectory
Narendra Modi’s political graph mirrors Lalu Prasad
17 October 2020
Middle class and hysteria
Media spectacle and political anxiety
19 September 2020
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