2026-10-22
1 小时 8 分钟I'm Dan Kurtz-Falen, and this is the Foreign Affairs Interview.
What kind of society does liberalism envision, right?
Liberal freedoms.
A kind of lightness of being where you don't live in fear.
You don't live in fear of being arrested by the state on arbitrary grounds.
You don't live in the fear of authoritarianism.
And I think one of the things that these protests are trying to do,
I think most importantly, the level of moral psychology and the liberal self,
is to say that the core of liberalism is to be able to breathe that air.
Where you are free from fear of arbitrary state power.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is facing his biggest challenge
since taking office in 2014. But in an essay in Foreign Affairs, Pratap Banu Mehta argues
that the youth protests that have swept Delhi don't just pose a test for Modi's authority.
They may also mark an inflection point for India itself.
The future of Indian democracy, Mehta writes,
hinges on whether this contest opens up more democratic space or leads to greater repression.
Deputy Editor Kanesh Tharoor spoke with Mehta on October 19th about Modi's power,
about what these protests can and cannot achieve,
and about what the battle in India means for the future of liberal democracy around the world.
Prathap, welcome back to the Foreign Affairs interview.