12 years of Prakriti Excellence in Contemporary Dance Awards: Providing a Platform for Young Indian Dancers
Dancers in India’s contemporary dance landscape stretch the field’s meagre resources to grand ends, working alone and together, juggling any available space, time, and funding to sustain their practice. Any emergency throws their carefully wrought budgets and lives into chaos. In 2017, the dancer and choreographer Diya Naidu found herself
Saikat Majumdar: ‘The scariest thing is the chance to live by your own convictions’
aikat Majumdar is one of the most talked about writers in India today. The author of critically acclaimed novels such as Silver Fish, The Firebird, The Scent of God, and The Middle Finger as well as important non-fiction works like College: Pathways of Possibility and Prose of the World, Majumdar
50 Years of ‘Manthan’: How Shyam Benegal’s Landmark Film Offers An Opportunity To Revisit Caste-Class Dialect
Any discussion of Shyam Benegal’s classic Manthan (1976) often focusses on the fact that the film was crowdfunded by half a million milk producers of rural Gujarat and that it narrates the inspirational story of Verghese Kurien, the maverick persona behind India’s “White Revolution”. On the film’s 50th anniversary, when it
Tribute | Ismail Kadare (1936-2024): A writer who used metaphor and irony to reveal nature of tyranny
Novelist Ismail Kadare, who has died aged 88, used his pen as a stealth weapon to survive Albania’s paranoid communist dictator Enver Hoxha. His sophisticated storytelling—often likened to that of George Orwell or Franz Kafka—used metaphor and irony to reveal the nature of tyranny under Hoxha, who ruled Albania from
Bartholomaus Ziegenbalg: The Revolutionary Missionary Who Fought Caste Discrimination in Tamil Nadu
In the latest Assembly session, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin unveiled plans for a memorial hall in Tharangambadi (formerly Tranquebar) to honour Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg, the founder of the Protestant mission in India. This memorial will celebrate his remarkable contributions to Tamil literature, ensuring his legacy endures for generations to
Paperclip: Website Run by Seven Friends is Making Waves by Sharing Intriguing Stories from India’s Past to Counter Misinformation
“Stay curious!” is the tagline that comes at the end of all posts by Paperclip, a digital media house dedicated to storytelling run by a team of seven operating out of multiple locations, from Chicago to Kolkata. The description on its website reads: “Through captivating storytelling, Paperclip aims to inform,
Gandhi Ashram in Bihar’s Khoraitha, Which Played Pivotal Role in Independence Movement Lies in Shambles
At the height of the Independence struggle in 1920, a group of young freedom fighters from Bikram, in erstwhile Bihar, were training in arms and ammunition on an island in the Sone River in Dullahpur village in preparation for a secret mission. The Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar, in 1919,
Lengkhawm Exhibition Showcases Lamka’s Art and Traditions in New Delhi
An exhibition at India International Centre brings Lamka’s vibrant culture to life through a diverse array of paintings, photographs, and textiles. To depict the rich traditions of life through art forms is no mean feat but an exhibition at the India International Centre in New Delhi precisely manages to do
The More Thunderous the Chanting of Jai Sri Ram, the More Sita Fades Out: Ranabir Chakravarti
Ranabir Chakravarti finds the Sangh Parivar’s projection of the singularity of the mode of veneration of Ram in the tradition of the Ramcharitmanas problematic. | Photo Credit: By Special Arrangement Dissecting the Sangh Parivar’s muscular reimagining of Ram, historian Ranabir Chakravarti traces how this narrow view clashes with India’s rich
Mangifera Indica: Sopan Joshi’s New Book Details India’s Never-Ending Love Affair With the Mango
Sopan Joshi is an independent journalist and author based in Delhi. | Photo Credit: By Special Arrangement There is no other country that has a compulsive relationship with a fruit like India has with mangoes, said Sopan Joshi, journalist and author of the book Mangifera Indica: A Biography of the