Episode 26: Debating Women’s Citizenship in India: 1930–1960 – In conversation with Historian Annie Devenish
Women’s citizenship in India is a deeply contested subject. Even in the decades preceding independence, a generation of women leaders in India was closely engaging with the Indian state and society, negotiating ideas of citizenship and gender justice across various public spheres. These women leaders did not all share the same views. They were often…
Episode 25: The Diaspora’s Fight Against India’s Emergency- In conversation with Sugata Srinivasaraju
Fifty years on, the story of the Emergency proclaimed by Indira Gandhi (1975–77) has been told and retold, in popular histories, academic studies, memoirs. But one story has remained almost entirely untold: the resistance mounted from abroad by a small, largely unknown group of Indian diaspora who had no political affiliation or ties to any…
Episode 24: Carrying Worlds Across Languages- In conversation with Daisy Rockwell
Daisy Rockwell is an author, translator, and painter based in the United States, who translates from Hindi and Urdu into English, and has brought some of the most significant voices of South Asian literature to readers across the world. Her translation of Geetanjali Shree’s Tomb of Sand won the International Booker Prize in 2022, the…
Episode 23: What Women Want: Understanding The Female Voter in Modern India- In conversation with Ruhi Tewari
In the long history of post-Independence India, the woman voter was invisible, rarely spoken about and almost never listened to. But today, something has changed. Women are voting in greater numbers than ever before, making independent choices and holding politicians accountable. Journalist Ruhi Tewari draws on two decades of travelling across various states in India,…
Episode 22: A Woman of No Consequence: Memory, Letters and Resistance in Madras- In conversation with Kalpana Karunakaran
What does it mean to recover the life of a woman who called herself a ‘humble housewife tied to mundane work’? In this episode, I am in conversation with Kalpana Karunakaran to discuss her book, ‘A Woman of No Consequence: Memory, Letters and Resistance in Madras’, a remarkable excavation of the life of Pankajam, a…
Episode 21: Faith and Fury: COVID Dispatches from India’s Hinterlands- In conversation with Jyoti Yadav
In this episode of Navigating India, released on March 22nd, 2026, exactly six years after India observed the Janta Curfew, an initiative by the Government of India to combat COVID, we are joined by journalist Jyoti Yadav to discuss her book ‘Faith and Fury: Covid Dispatches from India’s Hinterlands’. While much of India locked itself…
Episode 20: Periyar: The Life and Times of an Iconoclast: In conversation with A. R. Venkatachalapathy and Karthick Ram Manoharan
Why is Periyar E.V. Ramasamy Naicker, who passed away over half a century ago, still a controversial yet unavoidable and crucial figure in Tamil Nadu? While this year marks 100 years of the Self-Respect Movement, initiated by Periyar, he was also labelled anti-national, anti-Hindu, anti-Brahmin, and anti-Dalit, generating extreme hate and accusations. Who was Periyar?…
Episode 19: The Unexpected Force of Non-violence: In conversation with Manash Firaq Bhattacharjee
Gandhi’s method of non-violence faced significant challenges after Jinnah’s declaration of Direct Action Day, continuing until the partition and beyond. The miracle of non-violence seemed to fade, leaving peace as a fleeting hope. To counter the violence, Gandhi walked through areas devastated by violence- Noakhali, Bihar, Calcutta, and Delhi in the last fifteen months of…
Before Mamdani, there was Meherally
There is much traffic on internet about Zohran Mamdani, newly elected mayor of New York City, who describes himself as a democratic socialist and won in the city that was the capital of capitalism. One observer went on to ask if his win was a referendum on capitalism. While this is too early to answer,…
Episode 18: The Dravidian Pathway: How the DMK Redefined Power and Identity in South India- In Conversation with Vignesh Rajahmani
How did a transformative socio-cultural movement become an electorally successful political force? To answer this question, we have with us Vignesh Rajahmani. In his book, ‘The Dravidian Pathway’, he illustrates how the Dravidian movement transformed into an electorally viable political party, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). We also explore the ideas of the Dravidian-Tamil ethos,…
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