Mujib Mashal

Mujib Mashal is the South Asia bureau chief for The New York Times, leading our coverage of India and the diverse region around it. Based out of New Delhi, he works with a team of dedicated journalists to cover the major developments in India and several of its neighboring countries - Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and the Maldives. While his focus remains on the political and geopolitical trends at a time when India is coming into its own as an important international power, he also travels around the region to bring cultural and social stories of life in a complex and layered place. He has a degree in South Asian history from Columbia University, largely focused on the Indian independence movement. His more than a decade of experience in journalism has almost entirely been in South Asia. He covered Afghanistan for five years for The Times, focusing on the human toll of the war at the peak of the conflict there. For the past three years, he has reported from India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh. He started his journalism career as an intern with The Times in 2010, before moving on to work for Al Jazeera English in Doha, Qatar. For three years, he pursued magazine writing, contributing to The Atlantic, Harper’s and Time. He returned to The Times in 2015 as an international correspondent. He was born in Kabul, Afghanistan. He lived in the United States for eight years, where he attended high school and university. His life has been shaped by influences from the region he covers - from Indian music and cinema, to Urdu literature, to cricket, one of the most-watched sports in the world. As a Times journalist, he shares the values and adheres to the standards of integrity outlined in The Times’s Ethical Journalism handbook. He strives for accuracy over speed in what is a particularly complex place, especially at a time of heightened disinformation. He tries to reach out to every side of a story to understand the complexity, and to make sure we have done our utmost for fairness and giving people a chance to respond. The vastness of the region they cover also requires them to apply extreme caution in cross-checking information in corners they might not have immediate access to. He does not accept gifts, which at times can be difficult to communicate in a region where hospitality is a matter of pride. Contact him at mujib.mashal@nytimes.com.