New Delhi, Feb. 16 -- Pankaj Mishra wrote his new book, The World After Gaza, in the aftermath of the attack on Israel by the Palestinian nationalist organisation Hamas on 7 October 2023. Since then, the Palestinians have faced brutal retaliation from the Israelis. But the scope of his study goes beyond the politics of the Middle East, connecting the rise of authoritarian regimes in India, the US, and the world over.

At its heart, Mishra's book calls out the deeply racist ideology that has defined the creation of the monster that is the Middle East today. The catastrophic war of 1948, also referred to as the Nakba by Palestinians, saw a concerted move to uproot the original inhabitants of the land. It was followed by a project to redraw ...