Dalit Kitchens of Marathwada, Shahu Patole, translated from the Marathi by Bhushan Korgaonkar
A landmark publication in Marathi, Shahu Patole’s book Anna He Apoorna Brahma was the first-ever work to document Dalit food history through the culinary practices of two Maharashtrian communities – Mahar and Mang. Fashioned as a memoir with recipes, it explores the politics of maintaining social divisions through food along with a commentary on caste-based discrimination – what food is sattvic (pure) or rajasic (fit for a king), what is tamasic (sinful) and why.
Now translated as Dalit Kitchens of Marathwada, this book presents the poor man’s patchwork plate, one devoid of oil, ghee and milk, and comprising foods not known to savarna dictionaries. It also examines Hindu scriptures that prescribe what each varna should eat – and questions the idea that one becomes what one eats. From humble fare to festive feasts, the recipes carefully woven into the narrative show you the transformative power of food in connecting communities and preserving cultural identity.
At the Jincheng Hotel: Perspectives on Modern Indian Art, KG Subramanyan
In 1985, KG Subramanyan visited China on an invitation from the China Artists Association, exploring Beijing, the Dunhuang caves, Xinjiang, Shaanxi and Guangdong. Rather than its old monuments and new cities, what caught his eye were China’s landscapes and the quotidian scenes of life in its small towns and villages.
During his travels, he preferred to make visual impressions rather than elaborate drawings. Upon returning to Santiniketan, he used these visual notes to produce a large body of ink works on card-sized handmade paper, as well as a few paintings, registering his recollections with precise calligraphic economy.
The present volume brings together some of these drawings and paintings, along with Subramanyan’s writings on China, giving us a rare insight into this cross-cultural interaction.
Dalithan: An Autobiography, KK Kochu, translated from the Malayalam by Radhika P Menon
Growing up in a village called Madhuraveli in a flood-prone region of Kottayam district, fishing in the clear waters of nearby canals and eating wild fruit, Kochu was also a promising student, reading everything he could lay his hands on. The boy, troubled by the unquestioning submission to their Namboodiri landowners, distinguished himself by his curiosity, keenly observing the present and preserving in his young mind precious oral histories of Pulaya life. His thirst for knowledge would sustain him through the endless years of tragedy for the family and periods of unemployment, but also lead him to study – and work towards ending – the marginalisation of the lower-castes and the erasure of their contributions to society.
Starting out as a Naxalite in college, he would go on to form a Communist Youth Front, sympathetic though not affiliated to them. Working with leading figures in the cultural and political space, as well as many that rarely find mention in written histories, he would move from a Maoist to a self-consciously Ambedkarite path of anti-caste struggle, a perspective that would guide him in subsequent efforts to build unity among Dalits, Adivasis and minority groups.
Kochu’s life and work, as both a writer and social activist, challenges dominant narratives – of the Congress as well as the Communists – that exclude the Dalit experience. Among his most significant works, his autobiography is not merely a gritty story of the life of an individual, but a history of modern Kerala written from a subaltern perspective.
Shikwa-e-Hind: The Political Future of Indian Muslims, Mujibur Rehman
According to the Indian Constitution, Indian Muslims are treated as political equals, which is what India’s secular polity promised after its independence, encouraging more than 35 million Indian Muslims at the time of Partition to choose India as their motherland over Pakistan. However, the supposed relationship of equality between Hindus and Muslims as scripted in the constitution is being increasingly replaced by the domineering tendencies of a Hindu majority in India today.
The author describes the current state and position of Indian Muslims (the seeds for which were sown when the BJP came to power in 2014) as the third political moment; the second he believes was in 1947 when the community was given equal status in the Indian Constitution; and the first, was in 1857 when Indian Muslims learnt to live under the British colonial state. As he states, there is no denying that political circumstances for Indian Muslims were not completely ideal or full of democratic energy prior to the rise of the Hindu Right in the late 1980s. With numerous layers defined by language, ethnicity, region, etc., Muslims have the most heterogeneous identity, representing India’s quintessential diversity. And yet, Muslims are perceived as the most enduring well-grounded threat to the majoritarian project of the Hindu Rashtra.
Indian Muslims are perceived or presented as perpetrators of violence and violators of law, even if they are at the receiving end. They are viewed as an internal enemy, who need to be dealt with for political, social, historical, and ideological reasons.
Going forward, the community must formulate the language of democratic rights of Indian Muslims as equal citizens and define the ethics of human dignity in their struggle to reassert their place in India’s political power structures at all levels: from panchayat to Parliament. While the economic future or cultural rights of Indian Muslims have been debated since 1947, it is the political future that demands attention because only as an equal and participatory community in the politics of the nation, can economic and cultural futures be addressed. This book explores the political future of Indian Muslims in this context.
A Green Day, Jeevesh Gupta, Chittranjan Dubey, Anandajit Goswami
The essays in this book are first-person narratives of grassroots and global environmental movements that have persuaded policymakers and mobilised communities to take note of the worsening state of the natural order. From the Global South to the Global North, change advocates and those experiencing the thick of the emergency revisit the tipping points in their activism journey, lay out harsh truths about the extent of damage caused and offer scalable solutions to combat the mounting crisis. Outlining their rage, despair, fears and hope for the future, the campaigners underscore that there may be reasons to be optimistic despite the dreary reality we find ourselves in. While calling for collective action, these wide-ranging, inspiring and urgent stories reflect a diverse landscape of climate activism and are enough evidence that a sea change is possible.
Unashamed: Notes From the Diary of a Sex Therapist, Neha Bhat
Unashamed delves deep into the psychological landscape of shame, unravelling the roots that bind individuals and communities to outdated norms. Through engaging anecdotes, relatable case studies, and her own experiences as a sex therapist, Bhat provides a roadmap for individuals seeking to understand, accept, and celebrate their unique sexual identities.
