Other Writing
Selected Features
The Idol And The Mosque
Tablet Magazine, April 2022
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/newsarticles/the-idol-and-the-mosque
“They Are Manufacturing Foreigners”: How India Disenfranchises Muslims
The New York Times Magazine, September 2021
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/15/magazine/india-assam-muslims.html
The Unravelling of a Conspiracy: Were the 16 Charged With Killing India’s Prime Minister Framed?
Guardian Long Read, August 2021
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/12/bhima-koregaon-case-india-conspiracy-modi
The Killing of Gauri Lankesh
Columbia Journalism Review, January 2018
https://www.cjr.org/special_report/gauri-lankesh-killing.php
Arundhati Roy, the Not-So-Reluctant Renegade
The New York Times Magazine, March 5, 2014
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/09/magazine/arundhati-roy-the-not-so-reluctant-renegade.html
On Change in India
Guernica, September 1, 2011
https://www.guernicamag.com/on_change_in_india_siddhartha_deb_9_1_11/
The Girl from F&B
The Nation, August 1, 2011
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/girl-fb-portrait-new-india/
Feast and Famine
Boston Review, May/June 2011
https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/siddhartha-deb-india-food-crisis/
Sweet Smell of Success
Caravan, February 2011
https://caravanmagazine.in/reportage/sweet-smell-success-republished
The Road to Telangana
Caravan, March 2010.
https://caravanmagazine.in/reportage/road-telangana
Breaking Away: India’s Internal Frictions
The National, Abu Dhabi, January 28, 2010
https://www.thenationalnews.com/uae/breaking-away-india-s-internal-frictions-1.568277
Nowhere Land: Along India’s Border, A Forgotten Burmese Rebellion
Harpers, January 2009
https://harpers.org/archive/2009/01/nowhere-land/
The Feelgood: Letter from Delhi
Columbia Journalism Review, March/April 2005
https://www.cjr.org/analysis/the-feelgood.php
Call Me
Guardian Weekend Magazine, April 3, 2004
https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2004/apr/03/weekend7.weekend2
Selected Essays
Between Flood and Fire
Dissent, Fall 2023
https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/between-flood-and-fire
Terrible Beauty
The New Republic, October 2022
https://newrepublic.com/article/168071/abdulrazak-gurnah-uncompromising-visions
India at 75
PEN America, August 2022
https://pen.org/india-at-75-contributors-s-z/#SiddharthaDeb
The Smallness of Hanya Yanagihara’s Maximalist Novel
The New Republic, January 2022
https://newrepublic.com/article/165184/hanya-yanagihara-to-paradise-review-smallness-maximalist-novel
The Deep History of Climate Change
Dissent, September 2021
https://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/the-deep-history-of-climate-change
The Shadow Over H.P. Lovecraft
The New Republic, March 2021
https://newrepublic.com/article/161588/hp-lovecraft-racist-lovecraft-country-matt-ruff
The Blinding Clarity of John Le Carré
The Nation, December 2020
https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/john-le-carre-imperial-decline/
Modi’s Acolytes Have Reminded India’s Muslims Just What He Thinks of Them
The Guardian, August 6, 2020
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/aug/06/modi-india-muslims-times-square-hindu-temple
Héctor Tobar’s Radical Road Trip Novel
The New Republic, August 2020
https://newrepublic.com/article/158748/hector-tobar-last-great-road-bum-review-radical-road-trip-novel
J.M. Coetzee’s States of Exile
The Nation, July 2020
https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/coetzee-death-of-jesus/
Apocalypse Again
Dissent, Summer 2020
https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/apocalypse-again
The Pandemic Imagination
The New Republic, March 2020
https://newrepublic.com/article/156919/pandemic-imagination-coronavirus-literature-camus-thomas-mann
Michel Houellebecq’s Fragile World
The New Republic, January 2020
https://newrepublic.com/article/156003/michel-houellebecqs-fragile-world
India’s Looming Ethno-Nationalist Catastrophe
The New Republic, August 2019
https://newrepublic.com/article/154682/india-looming-ethno-nationalist-catastrophe
The Secret Agent
Bookforum, Summer 2019
https://www.bookforum.com/print/2602/joseph-conrad-and-the-police-state-21991
A Novella That Ticks Like A Bomb
The Paris Review, June 2019
https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2019/06/26/a-novella-that-ticks-like-a-bomb/
India’s Chilling Lesson for the Left
The New Republic, May 2019
https://newrepublic.com/article/154013/indias-chilling-lesson-left
A Model Businessman
The New Republic, April 2018
https://newrepublic.com/article/147377/model-businessman-dave-eggers-misses-story
What the Bolsheviks Saw
The Baffler, November 1, 2017
https://thebaffler.com/contraband/what-the-bolsheviks-saw-deb
Yesterday’s Liberal
The Baffler, September 25, 2017
https://thebaffler.com/contraband/yesterdays-liberal-deb
Mind Out of Time
The Baffler, August 15, 2017
https://thebaffler.com/contraband/mind-out-of-time-deb
Partition, 70 Years On
The Guardian, August 5, 2017
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/aug/05/partition-70-years-salman-rushdie-kamila-shamsie-writers-reflect-india-pakistan
Right to Burn
The Baffler, July 10, 2017
https://thebaffler.com/contraband/right-to-burn-deb
Do Grants, Professorships and Other Forms of Institutional Support Help Writers but Hurt Writing?
The New York Times Book Review, July 7, 2017
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/22/books/review/are-domestic-responsibilities-at-odds-with-becoming-a-great-artist.html
Stranger Than Fiction
The Baffler, June 5, 2017
https://thebaffler.com/contraband/stranger-than-fiction
Gods of War
The Baffler, May 1, 2017
https://thebaffler.com/contraband/gods-of-war
The Rise of the Global Novelist
The New Republic, April 2017
https://newrepublic.com/article/141676/rise-global-novelist-adam-kirsch-review
The Art of War
The Baffler, April 6, 2017
https://thebaffler.com/contraband/the-art-of-war
Accessorized for the Apocalypse
The Baffler, March 13, 2017
https://thebaffler.com/contraband/accessorized-for-the-apocalypse
Borderline Delusion
The Baffler, February 16, 2017
https://thebaffler.com/contraband/border-benjamin-deb
Which Dystopian Novel Got It Right: Orwell’s 1984 or Huxley’s Brave New World?
The New York Times Book Review, February 13, 2017
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/13/books/review/which-dystopian-novel-got-it-right-orwells-1984-or-huxleys-brave-new-world.html
The Festival of Compromise
The Baffler, January 25, 2017
https://thebaffler.com/contraband/jaipur-deb
A Tax On Shivering
The Baffler, January 9, 2017
https://thebaffler.com/contraband/john-berger-deb
Back To the Future
Dissent, Winter 2016
https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/william-gibson-cyberpunk-fiction
Are Domestic Responsibilities at Odds With Becoming a Great Artist?
The New York Times Book Review, November 22, 2016
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/22/books/review/are-domestic-responsibilities-at-odds-with-becoming-a-great-artist.html
Why Do So Many Contemporary American Authors Send Their Characters Abroad?
The New York Times Book Review, August 2, 2016
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/07/books/review/why-do-so-many-contemporary-american-authors-send-their-characters-abroad.html
Unmasking Modi
The New Republic, June 2016
https://newrepublic.com/article/133014/new-face-india-anti-gandhi
Which Subjects are Underrepresented in Contemporary Fiction?
The New York Times Book Review, April 12, 2016
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/17/books/review/which-subjects-are-underrepresented-in-contemporary-fiction.html
Is Legitimate Satire Necessarily Directed at the Powerful?
The New York Times Book Review, November 3, 2015
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/08/books/review/is-legitimate-satire-necessarily-directed-at-the-powerful.html
How Does an Author’s Reputation Shape Your Response to a Book?
The New York Times Book Review, October 6, 2015
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/11/books/review/how-does-an-authorsreputation-shape-your-response-to-a-book.html
Where The Dead Refuse to Vanish
The New Republic, September 2015
https://newrepublic.com/article/122675/where-dead-refuse-vanish
Why Get an MFA?
The New York Times Book Review, August 18, 2015
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/23/books/review/why-get-an-mfa.html
What Are the Consequences of Our Cultural Obsession with Newness?
The New York Times Book Review, July 14, 2015
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/19/books/review/what-are-the-consequences-of-our-cultural-obsession-with-newness.html
Those Mythological Men and Their Sacred, Supersonic Flying Temples
The New Republic, June 2015
https://newrepublic.com/article/121792/those-mythological-men-and-their-sacred-supersonic-flying-temples
Delhi Needs Another Hero
The Baffler, February 18, 2015
https://thebaffler.com/latest/delhi-needs-hero
Death of an Enemy: Warren Anderson, 1990-2014
The Baffler, November 10, 2014
https://thebaffler.com/latest/death-enemy-warren-anderson-1920-2014
The Worst Industrial Disaster in the History of the World
The Baffler, No. 26, Fall 2014
https://thebaffler.com/salvos/worst-industrial-disaster-history-world
“What is India? Why India’s Boom Years Have Been a Bust”
The Nation, October 6, 2014.
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/what-india/
Commencement
The Baffler, May 27, 2014
https://thebaffler.com/latest/commencement
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S18OLExYMV0
Capitalism: A Ghost Story”
Bookforum, April 2014
https://www.bookforum.com/interviews/arundhati-roy-with-siddhartha-deb-13124
India’s dynasty-dominated politics has no space for dissent
The Guardian, April 9, 2014
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/09/india-dynasty-politics-dissent-hindu-feudal-elections
India’s Elite is Blinded by a Cultish Belief in Progress
The Guardian, February 19, 2012
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/feb/19/india-cultish-belief-progress
The Satanic Verses
Bookforum, Summer 2011
https://www.bookforum.com/print/1802/the-satanic-verses-1988-by-salman-rushdie-7787
Behind the Wheel, Moving Up
The New York Times, September 29, 2011
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/30/opinion/behind-the-wheel-moving-up.html
The Fear That Silences India’s Writers
The Guardian, July 15, 2011
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/jul/15/beautiful-damned-siddhartha-deb-india
Enemy Citizens
London Review of Books, January 2009
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v31/n01/siddhartha-deb/enemy-citizens
The Shadows of Mumbai
The Guardian, December 3, 2008
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/dec/03/comment-mumbai-terror-attacks-india
City of Shards
The Nation, November 13, 2008
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/city-shards-novels-elias-khoury/
On Revolution and the Novel
Bookforum, Summer 2008
https://www.bookforum.com/print/1502/reflections-2459
New Delhi must not again betray victims of Bhopal
The Guardian, September 5, 2007
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/sep/05/comment.india
We Are All Indians Now
The Observer Magazine, London, November 2006
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/nov/26/india.features
A Writer’s Life: George Pelecanos
The Daily Telegraph, London, April 13, 2005
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/3642121/A-writers-life-George-Pelecanos.html
Selected Book Reviews
Incarnations: India in Fifty Lives
The Guardian, March 26, 2016
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/mar/26/incarnations-india-50-lives-sunil-khilnani-review-boosterism
Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary
The Guardian, February 21, 2015
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/feb/21/sophia-princess-suffragette-revolutionary-anita-anand-review
Arctic Summer
The Guardian, February 28, 2014
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/feb/28/arctic-summer-damon-galgut-review
The Lowlands
New York Times Book Review, September 27, 2013
https://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/29/books/review/jhumpa-lahiris-lowland.html
How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia
Bookforum, Feb/Mar 2013
https://www.bookforum.com/print/1905/mohsin-hamid-sets-a-coming-of-age-tale-in-hypercapitalist-asia-10816
Where China Meets India
The Guardian, August 19, 2011
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/aug/19/where-china-meets-india-review
The Idea of England
The Nation, May 17, 2010
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/idea-england/
Prisoner of Privilege
Dissent, Summer 2010
https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/prisoner-of-privilege
Philosophical Investigations
The National, Abu Dhabi, May 28, 2009
https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture/books/philosophical-investigations-1.506762
The Philosopher’s Apprentice
The New York Times Book Review, March 23, 2008
https://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/23/books/review/Deb-t.html
Beethoven Was One-Sixteenth Black
The New York Times Book Review, December 16, 2007
https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/16/books/review/Deb-t.html
Diary of a Bad Year
Bookforum, November/December 2007
https://www.bookforum.com/print/1404/coetzee-s-protagonist-writes-barbed-provocative-essays-about-power-1385
ABC
The New York Times Book Review, September 2, 2007
https://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/02/books/review/deb-t.html
Tokyo Year Zero
The Daily Telegraph, London, August 4, 2007
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/fictionreviews/3667076/No-one-is-who-they-say-they-are.html
Varieties of Disturbance
The New York Times Book Review, May 27, 2007
https://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/27/books/review/Deb-t.html
The Spoils of Indian Democracy
The Nation, March 26, 2007
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/spoils-indian-democracy/
The Pesthouse
The Daily Telegraph, London, March 10, 2007
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/3663695/Manifest-destiny-in-reverse.html
Sacred Games
The Daily Telegraph, London, October 7, 2006
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/3655918/Lost-in-the-great-sprawl-of-Mumbai.html
Theft
The Daily Telegraph, London, June 10, 2006
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/3653199/The-genuine-article.html
America’s Psychos
The Daily Telegraph, London, October 1, 2005
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/3646933/Americas-psychos.html
Slow Man
The Daily Telegraph, London, September 3, 2005
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/3646291/Into-the-hall-of-mirrors.html
An uneven blend of genres
The Boston Globe, August 14, 2005.
http://archive.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2005/08/14/north_an_uneven_blend_of_genres/
Maximum City
The Daily Telegraph, London, February 12, 2005
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/3637011/Waiting-for-the-story-of-a-city-to-unfold.html
Subcontinental Homesick Blues
The Nation, December 27, 2004
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/subcontinental-homesick-blues/
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/subcontinental-homesick-blues/
A dark-adapted eye
The Boston Globe, May 21, 2004
http://archive.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2004/05/02/a_dark_adapted_eye/
Mind into matter
The Boston Globe, October 26, 2003
http://archive.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2003/10/26/mind_into_matter/
Who’s Under the Desk?
London Review of Books, March 2002
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v24/n05/siddhartha-deb/who-s-under-the-desk
