Wild Fiction: Essays, Amitav Ghosh
Wild Fictions brings together Amitav Ghosh’s extraordinary writings on subjects he has dwelled on in the last 25 years: literature and language; climate change and the environment; human lives, travel and discoveries. The spaces that we inhabit, and the manner in which we occupy them, are a constant thread throughout this striking and expansive collection.
From the significance of the commodification of the clove to the diversity of the mangrove forests in Bengal and the radical fluidity of multilingualism, Wild Fictions is a refutation of imperial violence, a fascinating exploration of the fictions we weave to absorb history, and a reminder of the importance of sensitivity and empathy.
The World After Gaza, Pankaj Mishra
For the last 75 years, the Holocaust perpetrated by the Nazis has been understood in the West as the greatest atrocity – the ultimate demonstration of humankind’s capacity for evil. However, at the same time, for most people around the world – the “darker peoples”, in WEB Du Bois’ words – the main historical memory is that of slavery and colonialism, and the central event of the 20th century is decolonisation – freedom from the white man’s world.
The World After Gaza interrogates the violence in the Middle East in the context of these two duelling and polarising histories. Mishra reckons with the fundamental questions posed by our present crisis – how some lives are valued more than others, why the West supports Israel and why racist, far-right movements are surging in all major Western countries. He argues that at a moment when the world’s balance of power is shifting and a long-dominant Western minority has lost its sense of moral authority, it is critically important to enter the experiences and perspectives of the majority of the world’s population.
The Tamils: A Portrait of a Community, Nirmala Lakshman
Nearly 90 million people around the world identify as Tamil, a proud and ancient community with a unique language, history, and culture. The Tamil people have given India and the world some of its most iconic revolutionaries and political leaders, industrialists, philosophers, sportspeople, scientists, and mathematicians (including winners of the Nobel Prize), and celebrated writers, poets, dancers, musicians, and actors. The influence of the community on science, culture, religion, philosophy, art, architecture, literature, film, and politics has endured across millennia.
While the majority of Tamils live in South India, the diaspora is to be found in countries around the world – especially in Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Canada, the UK, and the USA where Tamil traditions thrive and assume new and interesting forms. A people of immense resilience, intellect, and creativity, the Tamils continue to leave an indelible mark on the world.
But who are the Tamils, really? How have they preserved a distinct cultural heritage while evolving across time and geographies? And what is the Tamil “gunam” or identity? How has Tamil culture endured even as it has evolved and mutated over centuries?
In The Tamils, author Nirmala Lakshman draws from a wealth of historical information, original research, and her own keen observations of the community that she is part of to craft a rich and expansive exploration of Tamil history, society, and culture.
Rama Bhima Soma: Cultural Investigations into Modern Karnataka, Srikar Raghavan
Karnataka is one of India’s most diverse states, as rich in literary and cultural traditions as it is in democratic struggles and political churns. The 20th century witnessed the birth of a modern Kannada renaissance, accompanied by the emergence of a powerful social conscience.
From the life and times of legends like Kuvempu and Shivaram Karanth; the fall of Socialism and the rise of the Hindu Right; the intellectual ruminations of UR Ananthamurthy, DR Nagaraj and MM Kalburgi; the wildly popular television serials of TN Seetharam and the community-centred one-woman theatre shows of Du Saraswathi; a brief history of Naxalism in Karnataka and glimpses of other complicated legacies of the 1970s’ Left – the book explores a wide sweep of Karnataka’s contemporary history and forging new connections.
Whistling in The Dark: Twenty-Five Queer Interviews, edited by R Raj Rao and Dibyajyoti Sarma
The interviewees in Whistling in the Dark represent a cross-section of India’s LGBTQI+ community – poets, artists, professors, students, activists, clerks and auto-rickshaw drivers; family men, gay couples, unmarried people and divorcees. The probing and incisive questions put to the respondents tease out narratives that go beyond the conventional and provide rare insight into the private lives of queer people in urban and small-town India.
Conducted at various times over more than two decades, the interviews show how little has changed despite legal victories for gay rights.
Pratap: A Defiant Newspaper, Chander Mohan and Jyotsna Mohan
The Urdu newspaper Pratap – and its Hindi counterpart Vir Pratap – had a long and eventful history. Launched by Mahashay Krishan on March 30, 1919, and ably carried on by his son Virendra and later his grandson Chander, it went on to cover all the major events during India's struggle for Independence and after, until it was shut down in 2017.
This book chronicles the exciting lives of the newspapers, their founder and his sons, as well as several landmark events in Indian history, from the Independence movement to the Emergency and Operation Blue Star. Their bold stance and courageous reporting drew censure and criticism from both the administration and certain segments of the public: the paper was shut down for a year by the British within twelve days of its launch, the founders and editors-in-chief were arrested multiple times and a parcel bomb was delivered to its office in 1984.
All information sourced from publishers.
