Bookshelf
Albert Luthuli (1898-1967) became South Africa’s leading advocate of Mahatma Gandhi’s nonviolent civil disobedience techniques, framed apartheid as a crime against humanity. Robert Vinson’s biography hints at how liberation histories might be reframed to better address the problems of the present. Christopher Lee reviews …[Read More]…
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Chowdhury and Keane take us on a detailed excursion into the heart of India’s darkness, its slide into what they term elective despotism. Illuminating surely but does it spell democracy’s failure? Ashoak Upadhyay doesn’t think so. …[Read More]…
Bookshelf
Sukrita Paul Kumar introduces the reader to a forthcoming series on Indian writing, ‘Writer in Context’ she is co-editing with Chandana Dutta. The first two volumes, on Krishna Sobti and Joginder Paul respectively are out …[Read More]…
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,An anthology of Punjabi plays from both sides of the border that recall the horrors of Partition and the binding cordiality that persists amongst Hindus Muslims and Sikhs in divided Punjab. Extracts from the Introduction by Atamjit …[Read More]…
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Tomb of Sand marks Hindi novelist Geetanjali Shree’s latest fiction Ret Samadhi’s rendition into English by Daisy Rockwell. Both, texts, finds Mayank Jain Parichha are unique in their innovativeness and use of non-linearity to unfold the narrative. …[Read More]…
Bookshelf
Chandana Dutta and Abu Zahir Rabbani profile Joginder Paul and his legacy for Sahitya Akademi series on Makers Of Indian Literature. In the second book by Chandan Dutta she engages with Krishna Paul. Both reviewed by Ranjana Kaul.…[Read More]…
Bookshelf
With a deft combination of data and personal interviews Vivan Marwaha offers glimpses of what the young want, and what they get–a surfeit of degrees, dreams and despair. Review by Ashoak Upadhyay…[Read More]…
Bookshelf
In her latest novel, Alka Saraogi weaves history, myth, geography and boundaries as metaphor for frailties and divisions into a story of flawed protagonists, of Kulbhushan Jain, shrugged off as an outsider who wants to be in. Translated by Nandini Bhattacharya, …[Read More]…
Bookshelf
These stories by Ambai translated by GJV Prasad from Tamil, resonate with love in its avatars, parental, carnal, divine; never explained just experienced. Pradeep Trikha reviews.…[Read More]…
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A.J. Thomas reviews Tea: A Concoction of Dissonance by poets P. Ahilan and Geetha Sukumaran and artist Vaidekhi who create poem-pictures of tea-meditations in this bi-lingual compilation translated by Vidhya Sreenivasan. …[Read More]…
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Set in the 18th century North India . Ruth Vanita’s novel, narrated by a courtesan-poet about her life-changing love for another courtesan-poet, weaves an exquisite web of conversations, songs as memories.…[Read More]…
Bookshelf
Climate destruction, not change, and an endemic pandemic mark our dreadful times. An artist cannot look away and Sudeep Sen confronts the nightmare upon us with his poetry, camera and hope. Suhasini Vincent reviews Anthropocene…[Read More]…
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Madhav Hada in this translation by Pradeep Trikha revisits long-neglected historical records and her poetry to reveal the real Meera Bai, less a romantic ascetic poet of legend, more an independent woman of substance. Reviewed by GJV Prasad
…[Read More]…
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In these two extracts from Land Lust, Joginder Paul traces the history of colonial Kenya through multiracial characters drawn with fine brushstrokes. The Slump translated by Chandana Dutta; Jambo Rafiqui by Usha Nagpal…[Read More]…
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Odia novel Maya Purush by Paramita Satpathy is a first-person narrative of a man who feels he is nothing, an illusion, as he leads a dual life. The first chapter of forthcoming translation by Anuradha Sen …[Read More]…
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Final Wishes is the original, first chapter of Paul Zacharia’s novel, in English. Dropped by common consent as the author explains in his Note it sets the stage teasingly enough for a fantasy about the art of lying, peopled by improbably ‘real’ characters ” …[Read More]…
Bookshelf
The Gollancz Book of South Asian Science Fiction (2019), a first-of-its-kind compilation offers a fascinating display of South Asian writing. In the Introduction, Tarun K. Saint takes us on a journey over its rich past and the exciting future of this genre..…[Read More]…
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A very timely parable on the need to distinguish between ‘humanitarian’ and the ‘human’, Manjula Padmanabhan’s one act play entertains and provokes.…[Read More]…
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An excerpt from her forthcoming novel Ret Samadhi offers a glimpse of what to expect from Geetanjali Shree; translated as Tomb of Sand by Daisy Rockwell……[Read More]…
Bookshelf
In late 17th century Mewar miniaturist Allah Baksh illustrated the Gita. K.P. Shankaran reviews Alok Bhalla and Chandra Prakash Deval’s book that puts together for the first time the artist’s luminous work .…[Read More]…
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In this conversation with Sukrita Paul Kumar, Jeelani Bano offers an insight into the impulses that drive her fiction, her journey towards her vocation, the emptiness of the ‘award culture’……[Read More]…
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For Pankaj Dutt reading Victory Colony 1950 rekindled memories of his search for meaning, as a student, at a refugee camp in 1971; it brings to life ghosts of a past he thought was long past. …[Read More]…
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In conversation with Sukrita Paul Kumar, Urdu and Hindi writers discuss their art, modernity/tradition, the critic and much more. Extracts of her conversations with Qurratulain Hyder and Nirmal Verma. …[Read More]…
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Spain’s Moorish past—La Convivencia—an inspiration for multiple faiths to live together comes to life in this multi-dimensional novel. Bhaswati Ghosh talks with Joyce Yarrow, author of Zahara and the Lost Books of Light. …[Read More]…
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Writing in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, Vinay Lal takes us into the interstices of this pandemic and its forebears. Ashoak Upadhyay reviews the work
…[Read More]…
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Arup Chatterjee’s homage to the Indian Railways recalls those epiphanies that opened up for Darius Cooper . all over again, his own private operatic love affair with the “black beauties.” …[Read More]…
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An excerpt from her debut novel in which Bhaswati Ghosh chronicles how Partition’s victims, unwanted on either side of the border built their lives and shaped the socio-cultural landscape of Calcutta. …[Read More]…
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In this extract from his family saga, Saeed Ibrahim chronicles a tragedy foretold with brushstrokes that trace a life of routine grounded in communal harmony and tradition. …[Read More]…
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Tagore’s Gharey, Bairey was written over a century ago but the issues that propel the narrative and define the characters remain as relevant today as back then. Pankaj Dutt scans some of them.…[Read More]…
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A southern Sinhala polity keen to ease its collective conscience may embrace institutionally sanctioned silence says Harshana Rambukwella but Ahilan’s poetic visions seek remembrance.…[Read More]…
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The pandemic reveals the intimacies between vaccine lobbies and the media that create, says Padmaja Challakere, both fear and valorized medicine. In Camus’ work she finds links between an agreement to fear and passive compliance to authority. And what it takes to be human.…[Read More]…
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Three texts whose readings may shed some light on questions rarely pondered as victims of a gross, violent materialism. Readings for the perplexed seething isolation forced on us by a microbe.…[Read More]…
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Two texts, two visions of the evolving self and poetic futures. Murali Sivaramakrishnan looks for parallels and differences in the radical gaze of a mystic and a Marxist.…[Read More]…
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An invaluable eye witness indictment of police brutality on students and faculty at the Aligarh Muslim University in December by a team of civil society members.…[Read More]…
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In this age of power politics that breeds delusions and falsehoods we dance to the roiling chants of communal violence, stripped of all humanity. Mahatma Gandhi,appears with a lantern,the last man standing in this bleeding darkness says Ashoak Upadhyay. …[Read More]…
The Missing Part!
Bookshelf
In the conversations between Gora and Gandhi over the existence of God we missed out one important participant. U.R. Sane points out the importance of K.G. Mashruwala’s Introduction to that dialogue. So here it is.…[Read More]…
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In the conversations between Gora and Gandhi you can hear the sounds of empathy, mutual learning and respect for diverse paths to a common humanity. …[Read More]…
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In “Almost Home” Githa Hariharan in “one of the most militarized places in the world” meets a cross section of Kashmiris and gathers shades of absences–of azaadi, of choices—and the presence of armed intruders, burnt houses, rigged elections. …[Read More]…
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In this review of “Alternative Futures” G Sajan surveys the dismal present and finds hope for better futures in the viewpoints that cover a wide spectrum of possibilities. …[Read More]…
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Each passing day provides us appalling and tragic evidence of shackled humanity and incurable traumas. Does the future mean more of the same? In this collection of essays editors Kothari and Joy bring together themes of alternative futures, traces of which were and are, already upon us. Their Introduction maps out the visions of possible futures and redemptive choices.…[Read More]…
Bookshelf
Priya Sarukkai Chabria talks with Mrinalini Harchandrai about her obsession with Andal’s poetry that led to a unique translation project with Ravi Shankar. “Sangam poetics” allows her to offer multiple versions of the goddess-poet’s songs of sacred-erotic love.…[Read More]…
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Manto’s women are a metaphor for the Bombay of the 1940s that welcomed anyone willing to pay for the pleasures it offered them. The place teemed with a vibrant cosmopolitanism. …[Read More]…
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In his work on the absence of moral sensibilities in education, Avijit Pathak meditates on its impact on young minds as rampant consumerism and competition turn students into mere commodities themselves. He is not a pessimist though and suggests ways to a moral recovery. The Introduction from the book outlines the universe of the problematic. …[Read More]…
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A meditation on Kedarnath Singh’s poetic visions by Darius Cooper who explores the blank page’s ancientness in which there is love and emptiness in which one can glimpse freedom.…[Read More]…
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In this seminal essay, the late D.R. Nagraj journeys to the intersection of the Gandhi-Ambedkar encounters of the 1930s, investigates their metaphors and meanings and discovers a discourse of Dalit emancipation in “the village-centric vision of Gandhi” whetted by Ambedkar’s distrust of its “romantic excesses.” In their differences, Nagraj finds a “dynamic unity”. …[Read More]…
Bookshelf
The state, not the people, is the source of the Constitution. In a fascinating excavation of the political philosophy of the Indian State after 1947, Mithi Mukherjee discovers that its foundations derive from an “imperial discourse of justice-as-equity. …[Read More]…
Bookshelf
In Ajay Navaria’s book “Unclaimed Terrain” polyphonic voices of resistance and self-hood express Dalit experiences in ‘modern’ India. His stories paint carnivals of the dialogic imagination says Ashoak Upadhyay.