‘The Dystopian Times’ by Appupen
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Book Review: In ‘Nehru’s India’, Aditya Mukherjee Counters False Narratives About India’s First Prime Minister
At a time when the forces of Hindutva are relentlessly denigrating Jawaharlal Nehru’s contribution to the freedom of our country and the first 17 years of nation-building in independent India, the historian Aditya Mukherjee brings welcome clarification to the debate largely by citing Nehru’s own words and expanding on their
INTERVIEW We Now Have Means to Actively Build a Community and Train and Help Emerging Translators: Daisy Rockwell
The creative partnership of Daisy Rockwell and Geetanjali Shree is embodied in Daisy’s moniker, Shree-Daisy. But before her International Booker–winning partnership with Geetanjali Shree, Rockwell had already translated and curated a panorama of epoch-defining Hindi-Urdu novels probing the heart-wounds of the subcontinent. Over the past two decades, Rockwell has brought
Geetanjali Shree Interview: Language as Protest in ‘Our City That Year
Geetanjali Shree’s 1998 novel, Hamara Shahar Us Baras, rendered into English by Daisy Rockwell as Our City That Year (Penguin, 2024), is the story of a communalising city as experienced by a vulnerable narrator grappling with the task of lending language to the self-estrangement of her secular friends. The narrator, who is not
How Colonial Rule and Christianity Transformed Modern Hinduism – Interview with Manu Pillai
Magisterial in its sweep, Manu S. Pillai’s Gods, Guns and Missionaries: The Making of The Modern Hindu Identity journeys through 400 years of colonial rule, examining how India’s encounter with Europe catalysed shifts in Hinduism, in theory and practice. Scrupulously researched and narrated with an authoritative ease, the book explores
Avtar Singh’s Into the Forest: An Exploration of Isolation, Loneliness, and Human Fragility During the COVID-19 Pandemic
A homeless person sleeps on a storefront during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, in Lyon, France, in 2020. | Photo Credit: Getty Images/ iStock There is a moment (around the 40-page mark) in Avtar Singh’s new novel, Into the Forest, that does not directly engage with the COVID-19 pandemic but
Island Novel About Sentinelese Tribe Draws Criticism for Ethical Concerns
In November 2018, a 26-year-old American missionary, John Allen Chau, made headlines when he ventured into the forbidden North Sentinel Island in the Andamans and got himself killed at the hands of what many call “the world’s most isolated” indigenous people, the Sentinelese. His was a foolhardy mission, disrespectful of
Freedom at Midnight Review: Book vs Web Series-Partition Through Two Lenses
Inside 10 Downing Street, the rhythms of a relentless clock fill the air. “May I have time to think?” Lord Mountbatten pleads, facing the burden of a crumbling empire. “You may,” Prime Minister Clement Attlee responds, “but be warned, Mountbatten—time is the one thing we’re running short of.” The ticking
Review: Payal Kapadia’s ‘All We Imagine as Light’ Challenges Traditional Film Criticism
Sometime in late November, you can feel Mumbai entering winter. Many can point to the exact day, the exact moment. It could be midnight at home when the skin suddenly prickles in the cool wind. It might be the night-time desire to actually cover yourself with a sheet. It might
Decriminalising Cannabis: Is it Time to Weed out Taboos and Embrace the Plant as India’s Cultural Gift to the World?
This year marked the 50th anniversary of the Hindi film Aap Ki Kasam, J. Om Prakash’s directorial debut starring Rajesh Khanna, Mumtaz, and Sanjeev Kumar in an unconventional romantic drama. The film was a major success, aided no doubt by its memorable soundtrack, which featured songs by the iconic composer