Mukul Kesavan

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Mukul Kesavan (born 9 April 1957){{cite web|url=http://jmi.ac.in/upload/employeeresume/mkesavan.pdf|title=Employers Resume|access-date=2 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140915072230/http://jmi.ac.in/upload/employeeresume/mkesavan.pdf|archive-date=15 September 2014}}{{better source needed|date=April 2020}} is an Indian historian, novelist and political and social essayist. He was schooled at St. Xaviers' School in Delhi and then went on to study history at St. Stephen's College, and at the University of Delhi. He later attended Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge on an Inlaks scholarship, where he received an MLitt degree.

His first book, a novel titled Looking Through Glass (Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1994) received international critical acclaim.{{cite journal |last=Gerein |first=James |editor1-last=Riggan |editor1-first=William |editor2-last=Clark |editor2-first=David Draper |display-editors=etal |title=World Literature in Review: Asia & the Pacific |journal=World Literature Today |year=1997 |volume=71 |issue=1 |page=222 |jstor=40152780 |publisher=University of Oklahoma|doi=10.2307/40152780 }} In 2001 he wrote a political tract titled Secular Common Sense which was published by Penguin India. He teaches social history at Jamia Millia Islamia in Delhi.

Kesavan writes frequently about the game of cricket. His book on cricket, Men in White, was published by Penguin India in 2007.{{bulleted |1={{cite news |last=Ugra |first=Sharda |title=Men In White - Life lived via cricket |url=https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/society-the-arts/story/20070528-mukul-kesavans-men-in-white-a-book-of-cricket-748572-2007-05-28 |work=India Today |date=28 May 2007 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20220403205509/https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/society-the-arts/story/20070528-mukul-kesavans-men-in-white-a-book-of-cricket-748572-2007-05-28 |archive-date=3 April 2022 |url-status=live}} |2={{cite news |last=Parthasarathy |first=Vijay |title=Armchair view of Test cricket |url=https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-bookreview/armchair-view-of-test-cricket/article2267068.ece |work=The Hindu |date=31 July 2007 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20220403205457/https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-bookreview/armchair-view-of-test-cricket/article2267068.ece |archive-date=3 April 2022 |url-status=live}} |3={{cite news |last=Rajadhyaksha |first=Niranjan |title=Fifty overs... and counting |url=https://www.livemint.com/Leisure/Ib5CtMegHZLgTYQ5lAXLeI/Fifty-overs-and-counting.html |work=Hindustan Times |date=21 April 2007 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20220403205456/https://www.livemint.com/Leisure/Ib5CtMegHZLgTYQ5lAXLeI/Fifty-overs-and-counting.html |archive-date=3 April 2022 |url-status=live}} }} He also wrote a blog by the same name on ESPNcricinfo.

Kesavan is also the author of The Ugliness of the Indian Male and Other Propositions, published by Black Kite in 2008.{{cite news |last=Choudhury |first=Chandrahas |title=The male beauty myth |url=https://www.livemint.com/Leisure/sLmZDROUHM9b5R41ZaBfFK/The-male-beauty-myth.html |work=Mint |date=14 December 2007 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20241015194702/https://www.livemint.com/Leisure/sLmZDROUHM9b5R41ZaBfFK/The-male-beauty-myth.html |archive-date=15 October 2024 |url-status=live}} The book is a collection of essays on a wide variety of themes ranging from Indian films to Indian men to travel writing to political commentary. His latest book, titled Homeless on Google Earth (2013),{{bulleted |1={{cite news |last=Rose |first=Jaya Bhattacharji |title=Lucid yet forceful |url=https://www.thehindu.com/books/literary-review/lucid-yet-forceful/article5538031.ece |work=The Hindu |date=19 May 2016 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240926205022/https://www.thehindu.com/books/literary-review/lucid-yet-forceful/article5538031.ece |archive-date=26 September 2024}} |2={{cite news |last=Sinha |first=Arunava |title=Essay Does It |url=https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/entertainment-others/essay-does-it/ |work=The Indian Express |date=15 February 2014 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240926205014/https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/entertainment-others/essay-does-it/ |archive-date=26 September 2024}} |3={{cite news |last=Mukherjee |first=Uddalak |title=Soap, Rhinoceros and Orwell |url=https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/soap-rhinoceros-and-orwell/cid/177444 |work=The Telegraph |date=20 June 2014 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20241002182527/https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/soap-rhinoceros-and-orwell/cid/177444 |archive-date=2 October 2024 |url-status=live}} |4={{cite news |last=Desai |first=Santosh |title=On Guru Dutt's Passion |url=https://www.outlookindia.com/books/on-guru-dutts-passion-news-289572 |work=Outlook |date=5 February 2022 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20241002195250/https://www.outlookindia.com/books/on-guru-dutts-passion-news-289572 |archive-date=2 October 2024 |url-status=live}}}} published by Permanent Black, is a collection of several previous columns and opinion essays alongside some previously unpublished essays.

Kesavan is the co-editor of Civil Lines, a widely respected journal of Indian writing in English. In 2014, The New Republic included his Homeless on Google Earth in its list of the year's best books, describing Kesavan as "[a] novelist and essayist, a historian and poet, a social commentator and public intellectual, [who] commands an enviable following in the Anglophone world beyond America and Britain".{{cite magazine|url=https://newrepublic.com/article/120663/best-global-non-fiction-2014|title=Best global non-fiction 2014|magazine=The New Republic |access-date=2 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170517115249/https://newrepublic.com/article/120663/best-global-non-fiction-2014|archive-date=17 May 2017|url-status=live}}

His columns have appeared in The Telegraph[https://archive.today/20130203132449/http://www.telegraphindia.com/1051002/asp/opinion/story_5308810.asp], ESPNcricinfo, Outlook Magazine,{{cite web|title=Mukul Kesavan. outlookindia.com|url=http://www.outlookindia.com/author.asp?name=Mukul+Kesavan|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071013171652/http://outlookindia.com/author.asp?name=Mukul+Kesavan|archive-date=2007-10-13|access-date=2007-08-21}} Mint and several other periodicals and journals.

His mother, Dr. Chandrakanta Narain, was Punjabi, born in Lahore and brought up in Delhi.{{cite news|last=Kesavan|first=Mukul|date=28 March 2016|title=A different slogan|newspaper=The Telegraph|location=India|url=https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/a-different-slogan/cid/1448231#.VvkVEcvhXqA|url-status=live|access-date=1 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190302210359/https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/a-different-slogan/cid/1448231#.VvkVEcvhXqA|archive-date=2 March 2019}} His father B. S. Kesavan, a writer, was also the highly regarded curator of the National Library in Calcutta.

He lives in New Delhi with his wife, the UNDP lawyer Arundhati Das and their two children.