Namit Arora is a writer, humanist, social critic, and travel photographer. He grew up in Gwalior—known for its historic fort, its epigraphic evidence of zero, and Tansen. This proximity to zero—or shunya, zilch, nada—delights him far more than it should. After IIT Kharagpur and a masters in computer engineering from Louisiana, he worked in Silicon Valley for two decades, at three startups and three big corporations. Whether this made him any wiser is debatable, but it did allow him to take social science courses of dubious practical value at Stanford and to live, work, or travel in scores of countries, with yearlong stints in London and Amsterdam. He quit this profession in 2013 for a life of reading and writing and returned to India. For two years, he volunteered with the Delhi government to tackle civic problems; he led the drafting of Delhi NCT’s solar energy policy and a task force on air pollution.
Namit’s writing has appeared in 3 Quarks Daily, The Wire, Scroll, Himal, The Caravan, The Baffler, The Humanist, The TLS, The Philosopher and many anthologies (see an archive of his articles and favorite books). He won the 3QD Arts & Literature Prize in 2011. For two years, 2004–06, he backpacked across 20 Indian states and began a photojournal that’s still growing. Over 15 museums, 40 academies and 60 publishers have licensed photos from his archive, which looks at global human cultures, animals, our wild earth, historical sites, museum objects, etc. His videography includes River of Faith, a film on the Kumbh Mela. He taught at the Adianta School for Leadership & Innovation, and spoke at Nirmukta Thinkfest 2015 and TEDx Gurugram 2016.
Namit has authored four books: (1) Speaking of History: Conversation about Indian’s Past and Present (with Romila Thapar), (2) Indians: A Brief History of a Civilization, (3) The Lottery of Birth: On Inherited Social Inequalities, and (4) the novel A California Story (US) / Love and Loathing in Silicon Valley (India). In 2024, he wrote and anchored Indians, a history web series in ten episodes. He is on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Email.
