Literature and thinking about the world in the post-pandemic era: An interview with Tabish Khair

Abstract

This interview explores Tabish Khair’s literary works from 2000, which grapple with complex social conflicts relating to identity crises, violence, migration, diaspora, global capital, and fundamentalism. Khair discusses his novel The Body by the Shore, depicting how anti-immigration sentiment is influenced by neo-liberal capitalism and the unequal distribution of wealth and power. As an Indian writer living permanently outside India, for Khair, this includes an examination of belonging in a globalized world and the question of why national and cultural roots conflict with the routes open to those who migrate. Khair also discusses how issues of identity and belonging have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and how he perceives Islamic fundamentalism in the post-pandemic world. Finally, he reflects on the possible consequences of artificial intelligence, the relationship between capital and xenophobia, and how western critical acclaim (through, for example, the Booker Prize) can become self-limiting for Indian English fiction. © 2025 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.