From the Ruins of Empire

Pankaj Mishra's provocative account of how China, India and the Muslim World are remaking the world in their own image - shortlisted for the Orwell Prize 2013 SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE 2013 Viewed in the West as a time of self-confident progress, the Victorian period was experienced by Asians as a catastrophe. As the British gunned down the last heirs to the Mughal Empire or burned down the Summer Palace in Beijing, it was clear that for Asia to recover a new way of thinking was needed. Pankaj Mishra re-tells the history of the past two centuries, showing how a remarkable, disparate group of thinkers, journalists, radicals and charismatics emerged from the ruins of empire to create an unstoppable Asian renaissance, one whose ideas lie behind everything from the Chinese Communist Party to the Muslim Brotherhood, and have made our world what it is today. Reviews: 'Arrestingly original ... this penetrating and disquieting book should be on the reading list of anybody who wants to understand where we are today' John Gray, Independent 'A riveting account that makes new and illuminating connections ... deeply entertaining and deeply humane' Hisham Matar 'Fascinating ... a rich and genuinely thought-provoking book' Noel Malcolm, Sunday Telegraph 'Provocative, shaming and convincing' Michael Binyon, The Times 'Lively ... engaging ... retains the power to shock' Mark Mazower, Financial Times 'Subtle, erudite and entertaining' Economist, New Delhi About the author: Pankaj Mishra is the author of Butter Chicken in Ludiana , The Romantics , An End to Suffering and Temptations of the West . He writes principally for the Guardian , The New York Times , London Review of Books and New York Review of Books . He lives in London, Shimla and New York.

Pankaj Mishra's provocative account of how China, India and the Muslim World are remaking the world in their own image - shortlisted for the Orwell Prize 2013 SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE 2013 Viewed in the West as a time of self-confident progress, the Victorian period was experienced by Asians as a catastrophe. As the British gunned down the last heirs to the Mughal Empire or burned down the Summer Palace in Beijing, it was clear that for Asia to recover a new way of thinking was needed. Pankaj Mishra re-tells the history of the past two centuries, showing how a remarkable, disparate group of thinkers, journalists, radicals and charismatics emerged from the ruins of empire to create an unstoppable Asian renaissance, one whose ideas lie behind everything from the Chinese Communist Party to the Muslim Brotherhood, and have made our world what it is today. Reviews: 'Arrestingly original ... this penetrating and disquieting book should be on the reading list of anybody who wants to understand where we are today' John Gray, Independent 'A riveting account that makes new and illuminating connections ... deeply entertaining and deeply humane' Hisham Matar 'Fascinating ... a rich and genuinely thought-provoking book' Noel Malcolm, Sunday Telegraph 'Provocative, shaming and convincing' Michael Binyon, The Times 'Lively ... engaging ... retains the power to shock' Mark Mazower, Financial Times 'Subtle, erudite and entertaining' Economist, New Delhi About the author: Pankaj Mishra is the author of Butter Chicken in Ludiana , The Romantics , An End to Suffering and Temptations of the West . He writes principally for the Guardian , The New York Times , London Review of Books and New York Review of Books . He lives in London, Shimla and New York.

A Financial Times and The Economist Best Book of the Year and a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice A SURPRISING, GRIPPING NARRATIVE DEPICTING THE THINKERS WHOSE IDEAS SHAPED CONTEMPORARY CHINA, INDIA, AND THE MUSLIM WORLD A little more than a century ago, independent thinkers across Asia sought to frame a distinct intellectual tradition that would inspire the continent's rise to dominance. Yet this did not come to pass, and today those thinkers--Tagore, Gandhi, and later Nehru in India; Liang Qichao and Sun Yat-sen in China; Jamal al-Din al-Afghani and Abdurreshi al Ibrahim of the Ottoman Empire--are seen as outsiders within the main anticolonial tradition. But as Pankaj Mishra demonstrates in this enthralling portrait of like minds, Asia's revolt against the West is not the one led by faith-fired terrorists and thwarted peasants; rather, it is rooted in the ideas of these once renowned intellectuals. Now, when the ascendency of Asia seems possible as never before, From the Ruins of Empire is as necessary as it is timely--a book indispensable to our understanding of the world and our place in it.

A Financial Times and The Economist Best Book of the Year and a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice A SURPRISING, GRIPPING NARRATIVE DEPICTING THE THINKERS WHOSE IDEAS SHAPED CONTEMPORARY CHINA, INDIA, AND THE MUSLIM WORLD A little more than a century ago, independent thinkers across Asia sought to frame a distinct intellectual tradition that would inspire the continent's rise to dominance. Yet this did not come to pass, and today those thinkers--Tagore, Gandhi, and later Nehru in India; Liang Qichao and Sun Yat-sen in China; Jamal al-Din al-Afghani and Abdurreshi al Ibrahim of the Ottoman Empire--are seen as outsiders within the main anticolonial tradition. But as Pankaj Mishra demonstrates in this enthralling portrait of like minds, Asia's revolt against the West is not the one led by faith-fired terrorists and thwarted peasants; rather, it is rooted in the ideas of these once renowned intellectuals. Now, when the ascendency of Asia seems possible as never before, From the Ruins of Empire is as necessary as it is timely--a book indispensable to our understanding of the world and our place in it.