Tag: Books and literature

Daniel Immerwahr: The Strange, Sad Death of America’s Political Imagination // AV Lecture: How to Hide an Empire

The world didn’t expect much from Edward Bellamy, a reclusive, tubercular writer who lived with his parents. Yet if he lived small, he dreamed big, and in 1888 he published a phenomenally successful utopian novel, Looking Backward, 2000-1887. It told of a man who fell asleep in 1887 and awoke in 2000 to electrified cities,… Read More Daniel Immerwahr: The Strange, Sad Death of America’s Political Imagination // AV Lecture: How to Hide an Empire

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Chandan Gowda: The humanism of Siddalingaiah (1954-2021)

Poet, folklorist, orator, teacher, legislator, administrator and co-founder of the Dalit movement in Karnataka, Siddalingaiah’s many-layered engagement with the life of the state defies easy characterisation. Indispensable for a historian of contemporary morality in Karnataka, Siddalingaiah’s work is an elaboration of a rich vision of humanism. His debut book of poetry, Holey-Maadigara Haadu (The Song of… Read More Chandan Gowda: The humanism of Siddalingaiah (1954-2021)

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Kabir’s search for solitude resembles our search for privacy in totalitarian times

An excerpt from Kabir, Kabir: The Life and Work of the Early Modern Poet-Philosopher – by Purushottam Agrawal.    Why were Kabir’s detractors “forced” to escalate matters up to the sultan? Mostly because they were smarting from having failed so miserably to check his influence themselves. Kabir’s fame was sky- rocketing, despite his obvious lack… Read More Kabir’s search for solitude resembles our search for privacy in totalitarian times

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‘It is obscene’: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie pens blistering essay against social media sanctimony

Sometimes… silence makes a lie begin to take on the shimmer of truth…   Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has written a detailed essay about the conduct of young people on social media “who are choking on sanctimony and lacking in compassion”, who she says are part of a generation “so terrified of having the wrong opinions that… Read More ‘It is obscene’: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie pens blistering essay against social media sanctimony

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Book review – EXTRA LIFE: A Short History of Living Longer

Until a couple of centuries ago, more than a quarter of children died before their first birthday, around half before their fifth. In “Extra Life,” Steven Johnson, a writer of popular books on science and technology, tells the stories behind what he calls, in an understatement, “one of the greatest achievements in the history of… Read More Book review – EXTRA LIFE: A Short History of Living Longer

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Sally Bayley: The Shakespeare tragedy that truly speaks to us now

In 2021, as we approach Shakespeare’s putative birthday tomorrow, there are more profound reasons why his character is pertinent. During this difficult year of lockdowns and isolation, Falstaff has emerged in my mind as a potent symbol of dispossession and social misfortune    There may be Shakespeare characters who are more celebrated, or whose tragedies… Read More Sally Bayley: The Shakespeare tragedy that truly speaks to us now

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Book review – Shadow lengthens: The ‘Gujarat Model’ has gone national

I have been reading a new book on the Gujarat riots of 2002 titled Undercover: My Journey Into the Darkness of Hindutva. It is written by Ashish Khetan, who did some excellent reporting on the aftermath of the riots, particularly on the process by which the perpetrators went unpunished. Undercover is an important resource for scholars seeking to… Read More Book review – Shadow lengthens: The ‘Gujarat Model’ has gone national

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