Sushant Singh
@sushantsingh.bsky.social
Lecturer, Yale University || Consulting Editor, The Caravan
[More: http://tiny.cc/YaleSushant]
Earlier: Indian Army || Indian Express || Centre for Policy Research
Books: Mission Overseas || Note by Note: The India Story 1947-2017
[More: http://tiny.cc/YaleSushant]
Earlier: Indian Army || Indian Express || Centre for Policy Research
Books: Mission Overseas || Note by Note: The India Story 1947-2017
His is a modern, multi-faith family grounded in progressive values—precisely the kind of modern Muslim the Hindu Right wants to delegitimise. Acknowledging Zohran could mean acknowledging an Indian legacy that Modi is trying to bury.
November 11, 2025 at 4:57 PM
His is a modern, multi-faith family grounded in progressive values—precisely the kind of modern Muslim the Hindu Right wants to delegitimise. Acknowledging Zohran could mean acknowledging an Indian legacy that Modi is trying to bury.
I write @themorningcontext.bsky.social: "The convergence of economic anxiety, cultural resentment, and political opportunity has created ideal conditions for anti-Indian sentiment to flourish. The far-right has successfully reframed Indian-American success... into an invasion narrative."
November 7, 2025 at 7:43 PM
I write @themorningcontext.bsky.social: "The convergence of economic anxiety, cultural resentment, and political opportunity has created ideal conditions for anti-Indian sentiment to flourish. The far-right has successfully reframed Indian-American success... into an invasion narrative."
"Modi’s response to this crisis is to avoid rooms where Trump might be present. This strategy of evasion cannot hold.
...India needs its prime minister to show up, to defend its interests, to negotiate from whatever strength remains, and to stop pretending..."
My piece in The Telegraph, Kolkata
...India needs its prime minister to show up, to defend its interests, to negotiate from whatever strength remains, and to stop pretending..."
My piece in The Telegraph, Kolkata
October 31, 2025 at 3:06 AM
"Modi’s response to this crisis is to avoid rooms where Trump might be present. This strategy of evasion cannot hold.
...India needs its prime minister to show up, to defend its interests, to negotiate from whatever strength remains, and to stop pretending..."
My piece in The Telegraph, Kolkata
...India needs its prime minister to show up, to defend its interests, to negotiate from whatever strength remains, and to stop pretending..."
My piece in The Telegraph, Kolkata
"The blood spilled in Leh is the price paid by people whose only crime was believing that they deserved to be heard by their own government. A government that shoots its own citizens for demanding their constitutional rights has lost all moral authority. The question is whether anyone still cares."
October 19, 2025 at 2:29 PM
"The blood spilled in Leh is the price paid by people whose only crime was believing that they deserved to be heard by their own government. A government that shoots its own citizens for demanding their constitutional rights has lost all moral authority. The question is whether anyone still cares."
"If India is poorly governed, economically fragile, geopolitically unmoored or socially divided, the diaspora cannot compensate for those weaknesses. Perhaps it is not even interested in doing so and it should not be expected to." [N/N]
October 11, 2025 at 12:49 PM
"If India is poorly governed, economically fragile, geopolitically unmoored or socially divided, the diaspora cannot compensate for those weaknesses. Perhaps it is not even interested in doing so and it should not be expected to." [N/N]
Israel’s narrative—a small democracy surrounded by enemies, with Holocaust memory as its moral reference—resonates in US political culture. India’s narrative is murkier: a rising power with internal contradictions, communal tensions, democratic backsliding, high unemployment and authoritarianism.
October 11, 2025 at 12:49 PM
Israel’s narrative—a small democracy surrounded by enemies, with Holocaust memory as its moral reference—resonates in US political culture. India’s narrative is murkier: a rising power with internal contradictions, communal tensions, democratic backsliding, high unemployment and authoritarianism.
"Comparing Indian-American influence to Jewish American political power reveals not just a gap but a chasm. It exposes uncomfortable truths about race, money, the evolution of institutions and diaspora politics itself."
October 11, 2025 at 12:49 PM
"Comparing Indian-American influence to Jewish American political power reveals not just a gap but a chasm. It exposes uncomfortable truths about race, money, the evolution of institutions and diaspora politics itself."
"Ultimately, the operational impact of the Saudi Arabia-Pakistan defense pact may prove more modest than initial assessments suggest. Pakistan has a well-documented history of overplaying a strong hand, from its relationship with the United States to its early partnership with China."
October 9, 2025 at 2:31 PM
"Ultimately, the operational impact of the Saudi Arabia-Pakistan defense pact may prove more modest than initial assessments suggest. Pakistan has a well-documented history of overplaying a strong hand, from its relationship with the United States to its early partnership with China."
"This systematic complicity isn’t accidental. Research by
Joyojeet Pal et al demonstrates how Indian sportspeople systematically align with ruling party initiatives, unlike their American counterparts who engage critically with political issues." [N/N]
Joyojeet Pal et al demonstrates how Indian sportspeople systematically align with ruling party initiatives, unlike their American counterparts who engage critically with political issues." [N/N]
October 1, 2025 at 1:32 PM
"This systematic complicity isn’t accidental. Research by
Joyojeet Pal et al demonstrates how Indian sportspeople systematically align with ruling party initiatives, unlike their American counterparts who engage critically with political issues." [N/N]
Joyojeet Pal et al demonstrates how Indian sportspeople systematically align with ruling party initiatives, unlike their American counterparts who engage critically with political issues." [N/N]
"It is no surprise that every major cricket decision in India now serves BJP interests. What we witnessed during the Asia Cup was thus inevitable. It was sport subordinated entirely to political propaganda. This raises profound questions about Indian cricket’s moral leadership."
October 1, 2025 at 1:31 PM
"It is no surprise that every major cricket decision in India now serves BJP interests. What we witnessed during the Asia Cup was thus inevitable. It was sport subordinated entirely to political propaganda. This raises profound questions about Indian cricket’s moral leadership."
“For a foreign policy premised on diaspora and bipartisan bonds, this is a very public reckoning. The assets Modi so loudly counted on were never tested before. When the time came, they failed.”
I write in The Telegraph (Kolkata) on how all those Modi has hailed in the US didn’t speak for India.
I write in The Telegraph (Kolkata) on how all those Modi has hailed in the US didn’t speak for India.
September 26, 2025 at 7:47 AM
“For a foreign policy premised on diaspora and bipartisan bonds, this is a very public reckoning. The assets Modi so loudly counted on were never tested before. When the time came, they failed.”
I write in The Telegraph (Kolkata) on how all those Modi has hailed in the US didn’t speak for India.
I write in The Telegraph (Kolkata) on how all those Modi has hailed in the US didn’t speak for India.
"The matches against Pakistan serve Modi's political needs perfectly - providing hyper-nationalist theatre that drip-feeds hatred and enmity against the neighbour. This calculated cynicism represents the death of sport and the triumph of performative politics. ...This is not cricket. It never was."
September 16, 2025 at 2:16 AM
"The matches against Pakistan serve Modi's political needs perfectly - providing hyper-nationalist theatre that drip-feeds hatred and enmity against the neighbour. This calculated cynicism represents the death of sport and the triumph of performative politics. ...This is not cricket. It never was."
"What unfolds in Dubai over the next few days will not be sport. It will be another episode in the ongoing theatre of toxic Hindu nationalism, where the primary audience is domestic and the primary purpose is political."
September 16, 2025 at 2:14 AM
"What unfolds in Dubai over the next few days will not be sport. It will be another episode in the ongoing theatre of toxic Hindu nationalism, where the primary audience is domestic and the primary purpose is political."
India is not inevitably destined for state collapse, but current trends are concerning. The Modi govt’s response to growing vulnerabilities—further centralisation, institutional capture & digital shutdowns—appears to be exacerbating underlying problems...explosive conditions a small spark can kindle
September 14, 2025 at 5:27 PM
India is not inevitably destined for state collapse, but current trends are concerning. The Modi govt’s response to growing vulnerabilities—further centralisation, institutional capture & digital shutdowns—appears to be exacerbating underlying problems...explosive conditions a small spark can kindle
"Nepal's burning parliament should serve as a wake-up call. If India cannot maintain influence with its closest neighbour, one with which it shares open borders and deep cultural ties, its claims to regional leadership ring hollow."
September 12, 2025 at 8:50 PM
"Nepal's burning parliament should serve as a wake-up call. If India cannot maintain influence with its closest neighbour, one with which it shares open borders and deep cultural ties, its claims to regional leadership ring hollow."
"With 1,751 km of open border, every tremor in Kathmandu reverberates through India's border states. Yet this acknowledgment of vulnerability comes without any clear strategy to address the underlying causes of regional discontent."
September 12, 2025 at 8:49 PM
"With 1,751 km of open border, every tremor in Kathmandu reverberates through India's border states. Yet this acknowledgment of vulnerability comes without any clear strategy to address the underlying causes of regional discontent."
Sankarshan Thakur, an unparalleled chronicler of our times. RIP.
(Yale hosted him last October as a Poynter Fellow. I was in the discussion on the state of Indian journalism.)
(Yale hosted him last October as a Poynter Fellow. I was in the discussion on the state of Indian journalism.)
September 8, 2025 at 12:21 PM
Sankarshan Thakur, an unparalleled chronicler of our times. RIP.
(Yale hosted him last October as a Poynter Fellow. I was in the discussion on the state of Indian journalism.)
(Yale hosted him last October as a Poynter Fellow. I was in the discussion on the state of Indian journalism.)
"In such a fast-moving whirlpool, India's predicament reflects not just diplomatic misjudgement but systemic weakness. The world is between orders, in a state of productive disorder.... India attempts to navigate this transition but lacks the domestic strength to wield meaningful global influence."
September 5, 2025 at 8:52 PM
"In such a fast-moving whirlpool, India's predicament reflects not just diplomatic misjudgement but systemic weakness. The world is between orders, in a state of productive disorder.... India attempts to navigate this transition but lacks the domestic strength to wield meaningful global influence."
An extraordinarily high number of gallantry awards were given this Independence Day, but no citations of their acts were released. PM didn't even mention those soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice during Op Sindoor. This choice of spectacle over substance is dangerous.
I write in the Telegraph
I write in the Telegraph
August 21, 2025 at 3:54 AM
An extraordinarily high number of gallantry awards were given this Independence Day, but no citations of their acts were released. PM didn't even mention those soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice during Op Sindoor. This choice of spectacle over substance is dangerous.
I write in the Telegraph
I write in the Telegraph
As you hoist the national flag today, embrace the uncomfortable truth that global respect is earned through bold and principled action, not rhetoric or chest thumping. Or through GDP figures alone.
August 15, 2025 at 6:14 AM
As you hoist the national flag today, embrace the uncomfortable truth that global respect is earned through bold and principled action, not rhetoric or chest thumping. Or through GDP figures alone.
In the print edition of the newspaper today
August 15, 2025 at 6:04 AM
In the print edition of the newspaper today
And the conclusion
August 12, 2025 at 1:21 PM
And the conclusion
On domestic politics.
August 12, 2025 at 1:21 PM
On domestic politics.
And a couple of points to highlight the logical contradiction in his assertion that the political leadership placed no constraints on the operations of the military on the first night.
August 10, 2025 at 9:30 AM
And a couple of points to highlight the logical contradiction in his assertion that the political leadership placed no constraints on the operations of the military on the first night.
The CAS speech carries risks that go beyond the IAF or the Modi govt, and he and his staff would have done better to remember the two fundamental dictums of strategic communication in the modern era.
August 10, 2025 at 9:30 AM
The CAS speech carries risks that go beyond the IAF or the Modi govt, and he and his staff would have done better to remember the two fundamental dictums of strategic communication in the modern era.