Revisiting Rana Safvi’s Delhi trilogy shows how her books capture long-term history, not moments

From the first city of Delhi to the living city, Safvi maps changes across centuries with depth and precision.

Avik Chanda

· Jan 29, 2022 · 05:30 pm

‘For a fuller understanding of modern India, we must also investigate the princely states’

An interview with Manu Pillai, whose latest book addresses the role played by the princely states during the freedom movement.

Avik Chanda

· Oct 23, 2021 · 12:30 pm

Re-reading ‘Empress’: As a feminist historian, Ruby Lal offers a scholarly look at Nur Jahan’s life

Yet, is the feminist mode the only way of studying this text?

Avik Chanda

· Sep 26, 2021 · 05:30 pm

This book breaks new ground in history by bringing together Mughal politics and Sufi spiritualism

Muzaffar Alam’s ‘The Mughals and the Sufis’ is a remarkable and original work of scholarship.

Avik Chanda

· Aug 28, 2021 · 08:30 am

‘The Sanskrit texts divided horses into castes, just as they divided people’: Wendy Doniger

An interview with the author of ‘Winged Stallions and Wicked Mares’.

Avik Chanda

· Aug 15, 2021 · 05:30 pm

Interview: Dipesh Chakrabarty on how climate change upends long-standing ideas of modernity

‘Questions arise when we assume that technology can keep solving problems regardless of the nature of the problem.’

Avik Chanda

· Jul 03, 2021 · 12:30 pm

‘I love English, French. But I chose Bengali as a creative medium’: Trilingual writer Chinmoy Guha

An interview with Sahitya Akademi award winner Chinmoy Guha.

Avik Chanda

· Apr 19, 2020 · 06:30 pm

Kunal Basu’s latest novel in English depicts a search for motherhood as much as one for a mother

In ‘Sarojini’s Mother’, an adopted daughter returns to Kolkata in search of her biological mother.

Avik Chanda

· Mar 07, 2020 · 05:30 pm

A new book chronicles the life of Dara Shukoh, the heir apparent to Shah Jahan whom Aurangzeb killed

An excerpt from Avik Chanda’s account of the life and death of Shah Jahan’s eldest son.

Avik Chanda

· Nov 19, 2019 · 07:30 am