The Permitted Hours: Muslim Life in India’s Hindu Nationalist Laboratory (Memoir) set for publication in 2028 by Haymarket Books
The Permitted Hours: Muslim Life in India’s Hindu Nationalist Laboratory is a memoir by an Indian American Muslim journalist about witnessing one of the most violent episodes in Indian history, the 2002 Gujarat riots. A decade later, he returns to India, only to find it more exclusionary and violent than before. The result is a book that reflects on home—on finding it and being rejected by it.
“In May 2026, I sold my book The Permitted Hours to Haymarket Press in the US and to Context Books in India. This director’s grant could not have come at a more critical time. It will help me hire a fact checker and travel to India to meet with my India editor. Reaching this final stage of my book would not be possible without the continued and generous support of The de Groot Foundation.”
Zahir Janmohamed is an assistant professor of English at Bowdoin college. He received his MFA in fiction at the University of Michigan where he received awards in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and playwriting. In 2019, the podcast he co-founded about food, race, gender, and class called Racist Sandwich was nominated for a James Beard Award. His articles have appeared in The New York Times, Foreign Policy, Guernica, The Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, Newsweek, and many other publications. Prior to beginning his writing career, he worked at Amnesty International and in the US Congress.
Visit Zahir’s website: www.zahirjanmohamed.com
Find Zahir on Instagram: @zahirjanmohamed