Aditya Nigam is with the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies in New Delhi.

Anindita Dasgupta is a social historian who teaches in Kuala Lumpur.

Aseem Shrivastava has taught Economics in India and the US. He is based in New Delhi.

Bhuchung K Tsering is director of the International Campaign for Tibet, in Washington, DC. The views expressed in the article are his own.

Boria Majumdar, currently with La Trobe University in Victoria, Australia, is editor of several sports journals.

Christopher Smith is a desk writer with Mizzima News, in New Delhi.

C K Lal is a columnist for this magazine and for the Nepali Times.

Htein Lin is a Burmese visual and performance artist.

Mritiunjoy Mohanty is assistant professor of Economics at the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, on leave as a visiting scholar at the University of Quebec.

Neeta Singh is a social scientist with an interest in Malaysian law and society.

Niraj Lama, a former Darjeeling correspondent for The Statesman, is now a freelancer and political commentator.

Oishik Sircar is a human-rights lawyer and researcher, presently with the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto.

Rahul Tripathi is a migrant from the ‘Hindi heartland’, who teaches political science at Goa University.

Sankar Ray is a Calcutta-based freelance writer.

Shamshad Ahmad is a former foreign secretary of Pakistan, presently active in civil-society initiatives in Lahore.

Sohrab Hura is a New Delhi-based photojournalist.

Venantius J Pinto is an artist who moves between Bombay and New York.

Vivek Chibber is associate professor and director of graduate studies of the sociology department at New York University. His article is a revised version of a longer piece that originally appeared in Critical Asian Studies.

cover image Sohrab Hura