By Sanghadasagani Vacaka. Retold and translated from the original Prakrit by Sudhamahi Regunathan

Vasudevahindi also contains the story of the Ramayana, nestled in a chapter called ‘Madanavega Lamba’, narrated by someone called Dadhimukha who in the Valmiki Ramayana, is a minor monkey whose only role is telling Rama and Sugriva that the monkeys who are returning from the south must have been successful because drunk on honey, they have just destroyed the grove which was under his protection.


Reviewed by: Arshia Sattar
By Deeba Zafir

Chapter 1 provides the much-needed historical overview and discusses the contribution of lesser-known pioneers in this domain. While it is a critical commonplace to posit Hindi Dalit Writings as a post-Mandal phenomenon, Zafir traces, in a historical overview, Dayanand Batohi’s short stories, pre-dating them to even Satish’s ‘Vachan Baddh’, published in 1975 (hitherto believed to be the first Dalit short story in Hindi).


Reviewed by: B. Mangalam
Translated from the original Hindi by Awadhesh Tripathi

The book encapsulates the vision of a man whose faith in the spirit of oneness guided all his actions. It was his motherland that mattered to him. He was convinced that religious animosity and distrust must go, and caste barriers should be annihilated. Part one, ‘Self Portrait’, is a vivid account of Bismil’s childhood, life at home with his parents, adolescent years and the influence of his Gurudev Swami Somdevji. He also writes about his relationship with his mother. She was a constant source of encouragement to him.


Reviewed by: Ranu Uniyal
By Dhrubajyoti Borah. Translated from the original Assamese by the author

The novella also situates the miners’ struggles within the volatile identity politics of the region. Parallel to the strike, political agitation in distant Shillong against ‘infiltrators’ portrays the labourers’ demands for safety as an existential threat to the rights of indigenous tribals. The workers who are already marked as outsiders, become scapegoats for broader anxieties over demographic change.


Reviewed by: Parvin Sultana
Series edited by Mini Krishnan. Translated from the original Kannada by Susheela Punitha

‘The Idol that Chennappa Destroyed’ by Yarmunja Ramachandra shows us a picture of contemporary politics of the time. This is about Periyar’s ‘idol-breaking’ mass movement that originated in Tamil Nadu. It becomes a fanciful notion in the head of a wealthy, idle young man with no real ideological convictions. The poverty-stricken maker of clay idols in the village is sucked into this drama.


Reviewed by: S Jayasrinivasa Rao
Edited by Amit Chaudhuri

Any reader who has relative familiarity with the Bollywood film industry is sure to enjoy the next entry in this collection featuring Bollywood filmmaker Anurag Kashyap. In this interview excerpt, Kashyap candidly narrates the creative backstory of some of his box-office successes and misses such as Dev D (2009), Udaan (2010), The Lunchbox (2013), Sacred Games (2018), Lust Stories (2018), and more.


Reviewed by: Ann Susan Aleyas