Beyond ‘State versus Maoists’: Two books that explain the complexities in Bastar

As a new government takes charge in Chhattisgarh, here are two books that go beyond the rhetoric.

Mieke van Hemert

 & 

Madhu Ramnath

· 6 hours ago

Being Muslim in the West: This crime fiction series set in Toronto shines as a beacon of hope

Ausmat Zehanat Khan’s series of crime novels starring Detective Esa Khattak counters the demonisation of Muslims by right-wing forces.

Amish Raj Mulmi

· 7 hours ago

Can writing about trauma and violence actually help in healing? Some writers have tried it

Some writers feel a sense of catharsis but the process can come with a heavy emotional and physical toll.

Urvashi Bahuguna

· 12 hours ago

A retelling of myths and folktales of India is a timely reminder of the country’s cultural diversity

In ‘The Blue Lotus’, Meena Arora Nayak reminds us of the incompleteness in accepting a single story when it comes to myths and folktales.

Urmi Chanda-Vaz

· 16 hours ago

This novel, told by an assassin, is a parable about Pakistan (and a murdered Nobel Prize winner)

Zarar Said’s novel, like Salman Rushdie’s ‘Midnight Children’ features a protagonist named Salim.

Zarar Said

· Yesterday · 05:30 pm

‘We can see the mountain of religion standing in our path:’ Bhagat Singh in 1928. (India in 2018?)

This article, which the revolutionary freedom fighter wrote in May 1928, is part of a new book of his writings.

Bhagat Singh

· Yesterday · 08:30 am

‘I am a Jewish-Kiwi-Anglo-Irish love jihadi, partnered with a Malayali from a Hindu Nair family’

In ‘Masala Shakespeare’, Jonathan Gil Harris explores the relationship between Shakespeare and India’s cultural traditions – and his own masala identity.

Jonathan Gil Harris

· Dec 13, 2018 · 05:30 pm

How did the ‘Ramayana’ and ‘Mahabharata’ come to be (and what has ‘dharma’ got to do with it)?

Devdutta Pattnaik’s ‘Ramayana Versus Mahabharata’ compares the two ancient epics closely if playfully.

Devdutt Pattanaik

· Dec 13, 2018 · 08:30 am

What makes Kahlil Gibran’s ‘The Prophet’ an enduring favourite over nearly 100 years?

This slim volume of 26 prose poems has been translated into over 50 languages.

Antonia Pont, The Conversation

· Dec 12, 2018 · 05:30 pm

‘He fasts, she feasts’: A writer on celebrating Ramzan as an inter-faith couple

In her new book of essays, ‘Immortal for A Moment’, Natasha Badhwar writes on love, marriage and family.

Natasha Badhwar

· Dec 12, 2018 · 08:30 am

An unexpected swayamvara: This novel recreates the story of Amba from the Mahabharata

An excerpt from Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan’s second book in the ‘Girls of the Mahabharata’ series.

Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan

· Dec 11, 2018 · 05:30 pm

‘Their toil and sacrifices’: Why Mushirul Hasan (1949-2018) wrote about prisoners in colonial India

A historian of colonisation, the Partition, and modern India, Mushirul Hasan published ‘Roads To Freedom’ in 2016. He died on December 10.

Mushirul Hasan

· Dec 11, 2018 · 08:30 am