Mayank Chhaya

Mayank Chhaya

About Mayank Chhaya

The writer is a Chicago-based journalist, author and filmmaker

More From Mayank Chhaya

Ela Bhatt: One of India’s most consequential campaigners for women's empowerment and societal harmony

Today SEWA has some 2.1 million members making it the single largest trade union of its kind in India serving and representing self-employed women workers in 18 states

Starvation, poverty and all-round despair: Afghanistan and its people face a bleak future

If the Taliban’s original purpose in taking over Kabul last year was to gradually gain some international recognition for what it calls the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, it now stands fully destroyed

Sri Lanka’s spectacular uprising: Dismantling of its most powerful political family

Instability in Sri Lanka is not in India’s interests but at the same time it offers New Delhi an opportunity to help its strategic neighbour emerge from the epic mess it finds itself in, writes Mayank Chhaya for South Asia Monitor

Gandhi, 1918 flu pandemic and COVID19

In sheer statistical terms, the 1918 flu pandemic and the COVID-19 pandemic are not comparable.

Geetanjali Shree first Indian to win International Booker Prize: Will it open doors for translations of great literature in all Indian languages?

Shree winning the International Booker Prize may be a cause for celebration in India and among the world of Hindi publishers. However, as Sanjaya Kumar Singh, a well-known Hindi journalist, writer and editor, said on Facebook, “Indian publishers have contributed nothing to Geetanjali Shree winning the Booker. She won despite them and not…

A film on Kashmir reignites old wounds

Beyond the number of deaths and whether to define the Pandits’ barbaric displacement as genocide, this is a chapter of contemporary Indian history that has received woefully inadequate media and scholarly attention, writes Mayank Chhaya for South Asia Monitor

Modi's hold over India's national politics unlikely to diminish soon; Kejriwal emerges as a prospective national opposition leader

In the wake of the result in Uttar Pradesh, it is clear that 2024 is for Modi to lose since there does not appear to be any comparable singular figure who can defeat him, writes Mayank Chhaya for South Asia Monitor

An adrift Congress in India is a serious problem for democracy

It takes no great political intelligence to point out that a tumultuous democracy like India desperately needs a credible national counter to Modi’s BJP, writes Mayank Chhaya for South Asia Monitor

Politically expedient histories: When fringe threatens to become mainstream in India

Kangana Ranaut is just one offshoot of an ecology where fact and truth have been systematically torn away from the national discourse to be replaced by ideologically tailored half-truths and lies, writes Mayank Chhaya for South Asia Monitor

Will Afghanistan provide the strategic depth that Pakistan has long been seeking against India?

Beijing will quickly establish a ruthlessly transactional and pragmatic relationship to exploit Afghanistan’s rich mineral resources as well expand its much-cherished Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) from Pakistan, writes Mayank Chhaya for South Asia Monitor