NB: A beautiful and profound meditation on some of the deepest insights of Indian culture. Thank you Professor Mehta. DS Both reached the same uncomfortable truth — the moral exemplar often stands outside the logic of power This year, Gandhi Jayanti and Vijayadashami coincide. Gandhi Jayanti has long been marked by formal pieties, yet it… Read More Pratap Bhanu Mehta: The loneliness of Ram and Gandhi
Akbar ने संत दादू-दयाल से 40 दिन क्या बातचीत की थी. Dadu Dayal ने Akbar से मिलने से क्यों मना किया? An insightful discussion with Purushottam Agrawal on his recent book (So Says Jan Gopal), the Bhakti Movement, Akbar, history, and modern-day politics. Aditya Sangwan in conversation with Professor Purushottam Agrawal An excerpt from So… Read More Akbar ने संत दादू-दयाल से 40 दिन क्या बातचीत की थी ? Aditya Sangwan in conversation with Professor Purushottam Agrawal
First posted October 27, 2011 ‘The essay is a marvellous account of the hundreds of ways in which the Ramayana has been told, complete with examples of this narrative diversity. I can’t imagine that the vice-chancellor, a member of that urbane cohort, the Class of ’75, wanted the essay removed because he agreed with the Akhil Bharatiya… Read More Mukul Kesavan: Delhi University and the purging of Ramanujan
By Tora Agarwala in East Khasi hills, Meghalaya Excited chatter and the clattering of steel plates drown out the din of the monsoon rains: it is lunchtime in Laitsohpliah government school in the north-east Indian state of Meghalaya. The food has been cooked on-site and is free for everyone, part of India’s ambitious “midday meal”… Read More Fish mint, Himalayan chives and berry pickle: how wild ingredients are transforming school dinners in India
Rajmohan Gandhi, who just turned 90, edited a brave magazine during the Emergency and fought an election against Rajiv Gandhi Ramachandra Guha Mahatma Gandhi had four sons. He bullied the two oldest children, Harilal and Manilal, and condescended to the third, who was named Ramdas. But by the time his youngest son, Devadas, was born,… Read More A tribute to Rajmohan Gandhi, the writer with deep insights into India’s past
Visionary filmmaker of eight Hindi movies, Guru Dutt (1925 – 1964) whose socially conscious work explored various human experiences left a cultural impact that continues to inspire generations. Jinhen Naaz Hai Hind Par – Guru Dutt, Mohammed Rafi, Pyaasa Song By C. Uday Bhasker / Sapan News As film aficionados around Southasia and the diaspora remember… Read More Remembering Guru Dutt in his birth centenary year: A resurrected genius
First posted November 29, 2019 NB: This is a magnificient contribution to Indian historiography. Rahul Sagar and his collaborators deserve the thanks of the Indian public and indeed of all those interested in an honest exploration of the past. DS Starting in the early nineteenth century, ambitious Indians began flocking to newly-founded schools and colleges offering instruction… Read More Ideas of India Archive
Chandan Gowda After publishing several major Kannada stories in Prajavani and other publications in Mysore state, the nineteen-year-old Rajalakshmi N. Rao published The Rain, her scintillating debut story in English, in The Illustrated Weekly of India in late 1954. On the heels of the buzz around this story by a Kannada writer, B R Nagaraj,… Read More A precious discovery: The Living Stream
While much has been written about the Modi regime’s economic failures and diplomatic missteps, the most insidious damage lies elsewhere – in the corrosion of India’s socio-cultural fabric. Anand Teltumbde on the experience of being in jail for 31 months in the Bhima Koregaon case Anand Teltumbde There was a short-lived euphoria last month when… Read More India’s Social Regression Under Modi’s Eleven Years May Not Be Mendable
Translator Deepa Bhasthi’s pick of 12 of Mushtaq’s ‘life-affirming’ tales about women’s lives in southern India becomes the first short story collection to win the £50,000 award Lucy Knight Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq, translated by Deepa Bhasthi, has won this year’s International Booker prize for translated fiction, becoming the first short story collection to take the… Read More ‘Radical translation’ of Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq wins International Booker prize
After the truth-shower 