How the pandemic has changed the idea of university literary communities dramatically

With the closure of physical space, there has been the opening up of wider spaces of another kind.

Saikat Majumdar

· Oct 14, 2020 · 08:30 am

Why the profusion of courses in India will not over-professionalise the practice of creative writing

The final part of a three-part series on the beginnings and the development of creative writing as a formal discipline in India.

Saikat Majumdar

· Sep 13, 2020 · 05:30 pm

How to build a creative writing programme as part of academic courses at an Indian university

The second in a three-part series on the beginnings and the development of creative writing as a formal discipline in India.

Saikat Majumdar

· Sep 06, 2020 · 05:30 pm

Can creative writing be taught in universities? Is it not in conflict with academic rigour?

The first of a three-part series on the beginnings and the development of creative writing as a formal discipline in India.

Saikat Majumdar

· Aug 30, 2020 · 12:30 pm

Kolkata’s commercial theatre was built on literature, but was looked down on by the intelligentsia

A new video captures a history through play and novel readings.

Saikat Majumdar

· Jun 20, 2020 · 03:30 pm

Eavan Boland (1944-2020): A tribute to the poet who wrote ‘Quarantine’, from a former colleague

The acclaimed Irish poet, author, and professor died on Monday, April 27, at the age of 75. Saikat Majumdar writes of their association.

Saikat Majumdar

· Apr 28, 2020 · 05:30 pm

In a world of professional critics of art and literature, is there still (or new) room for amateurs?

Multiple models of expertise are at play today, write Aarthi Vadde and Saikat Majumdar in their introduction to the book ‘The Critic as Amateur’.

Aarthi Vadde

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Saikat Majumdar

· Nov 05, 2019 · 07:30 am

Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd discusses violence, iconography and aesthetics in Hinduism

A conversation between scholar Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd and writer Saikat Majumdar.

Saikat Majumdar

· Apr 21, 2019 · 05:30 pm

Love, longing and lotus: This novel goes inside a boys’ school run by an order of monks

Saikat Majumdar’s new novel ‘Scent Of God’ brings together desire, religion and politics in an explosive narrative.

Saikat Majumdar

· Feb 06, 2019 · 08:30 am

With Indian liberals under attack, the idea of the free-thinking university is under threat

This collection of essays shows that the illiberalisation of a liberal education is a deeper tragedy in India than perhaps any other place in the world.

Saikat Majumdar

· Jan 12, 2019 · 05:30 pm

‘No Nation for Women’ flows with haunting lyricism born of pain, suffering and violation

Priyanka Dubey’s book ‘No Nation for Women’ is a significant example of the importance of form and style in non-fiction.

Saikat Majumdar

· Dec 29, 2018 · 07:30 am

Jnanpith winner Amitav Ghosh’s ‘The Shadow Lines’ showed how to take the vernacular into English

‘It was like the cast shadow of a Bangla upanyas re-imagined in English with disarming honesty, candour and craft.’

Saikat Majumdar

· Dec 21, 2018 · 08:30 am