Viksit Bharat 2047 | Nope w/ Kunal Kamra ft Prabhu Mohapatra | 071

Historian Prabhu Mohapatra, Professor of Modern Indian History at the University of Delhi and a leading scholar of labour, migration, and colonial South Asia, joins us for a wide-ranging conversation on India’s future through the lens of its past. Drawing on decades of research into social and economic transformations, he explores historical patterns that continue to shape modern India. This episode examines how history informs policy, identity, and long-term national direction. A thoughtful discussion on understanding tomorrow through the lessons of yesterday. Follow: Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/kuna_kamra/ X (Twitter) – https://x.com/kunalkamra88/ Timestamps: 0:00 – Opening 0:20 – How future historians might judge our present 0:45 – Is history only about the past or also the future? 1:49 – 1918–19: Gandhi, World War I, and a forgotten catastrophe 3:34 – The Spanish Flu in India: 20 million deaths erased from memory 6:38 – The Politics of Memory and Forgetting in History 7:34 – COVID-19 deaths and how societies choose to forget 9:48 – Power, accountability, and political amnesia 12:03 – CAA protests, lockdowns, and the migrant worker crisis 14:06 – Invisible citizens: when the state has no data on people 16:21 – What will remain remembered 100 years from now? 17:01 – Events we forget vs events that shape centuries 19:00 – Living through historical transition without understanding it 21:03 – Automation, work, and why progress predictions fail 24:08 – Four forces shaping the future of history 24:50 – Climate change as the defining historical turning point 25:27 – Demographic change and the aging world 28:18 – The possible transformation of the nation-state 31:36 – Technology, AI, and the myth of inevitable progress 34:18 – Language, ideology, and how we misunderstand our own time 36:57 – Populism, fascism, and limits of political labels 44:49 – New archives: how future historians will study our era 45:36 – Memory vs forgetting: why both are necessary for societies 48:06 – Nations built through selective remembering and forgetting 50:37 – Beyond capitalism: imagining future forms of work and society 53:22 – Hope, uncertainty, and history’s long future Credits: • Research Head: Anirban Bhattacharya • Camera Operator / Mixing and Mastering / Intro Music — @Mahansangeet: https://www.instagram.com/hi_mahan/ • Camera Operator / Video Editor / Intro Animation — @RevantTalekar: https://www.instagram.com/revanttalekar • Camera Operator / Guest Logistics Coordinator — @VybhavSharma https://www.instagram.com/vybhavsharma/ • Production Assistant — Haran Shetty