Tag: Books
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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…
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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,…
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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?…
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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…
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Episode 17: Anti-Colonialism, Anarchism, and M.P.T. Acharya- In Conversation with Ole Birk Laursen
In 1908, an Indian revolutionary from Madras arrived in Marseille, France, and later travelled to Paris, London, Lisbon, New York, Berlin, and Russia with two main objectives: to unveil the brutality of British colonialism and to reject the idea of the universalisation of the nation-state. He made significant contributions to our understanding of resistance to…
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Episode 15: India, Pakistan, Burma and Beyond: A History of Partitions- In Conversation with Sam Dalrymple
As recently as 1928, a vast region spanning twelve of today’s Asian countries—India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma, Nepal, Bhutan, Yemen, Oman, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait—were bound together as a single entity known as the Indian Empire, or simply the Raj. In less than 50 years after 1928, this Indian empire was shattered by five…
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Episode 14: The Art of Translation- In conversation with N Kalyan Raman
In this episode, I am joined by N. Kalyan Raman, a celebrated translator of modern and contemporary Tamil fiction and poetry into English. Our conversation will explore his journey as a translator, the Tamil literary milieu, the process of text selection, the power and significance of translation, the dynamic between author and translator, the challenges…
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Episode 12: Spies, Lies and Allies: The Extraordinary Lives of Chatto and Roy
While India’s freedom struggle is often remembered for its nonviolent approach, remarkable individuals like Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad, Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaqulla Khan, Sukhdev, and Rajguru actively pursued revolutionary methods, conducting rebellious activities within India. Meanwhile, others ventured abroad, forging alliances, securing funds and weapons for Indian revolutionaries, assassinating British officials in London, conspiring against…