By Khalid Jawed. Translated from the original Urdu by A Naseeb Khan

Creating an absurdist world, it is not love but rather hatred and lust that are the clearer emotions in the novel. ‘The lines of love perpetually spiral into a whirlpool. Hatred and lust are better for they never fall prey to misunderstanding and doubt. Their manoeuvres, principles and rules are transparent…. It is love alone that remains trapped in doubt and suspicion, perpetually soaked in fear.’ The narrator celebrates lust.


Reviewed by: Mohammad Asim Siddiqui
By Sannapureddy Venkatarami Reddy. Translated from the original Telugu by Narasimha Kumar

it becomes his own creation. The first chapter in the source text raises some fundamental questions the novel raises, of the following of the traditional occupation of tending sheep versus taking up modern jobs and the priorities of people of different generations in the same family. The translator chooses to begin with chapter two in the source text. Unlike the source text that makes the entry of the tiger surreptitiously, even the word tiger is not directly used by the novelist until the fifth chapter and he prefers to use instead the word pedda nakka, the big fox;


Reviewed by: M Sridhar and Alladi Uma
By Tho Mu Si Ragunathan. Translated from the Tamil original by Peer Mohamed Azees

Also, the translator Peer Mohamed Azees, might have done well to have given the meaning of those words that require an explanation the very first time they occur, especially the names of the various literary magazines that Pudumaipithan worked for. Also, it isn’t till page 30 that we are informed that Pudumaipithan means ‘the one crazy about the modern’. Equally inexplicably, a glossary is missing;


Reviewed by: Rakhshanda Jalil
By Satish Alekar

In substance, the government dominated over society in all the spheres of activities during the pandemic. Alekar further suggests that constitutionalism that respects the division of powers between the legislative, executive and judicial organs of the state and operates through mechanisms of checks and balances has been gradually on the wane in India since 2014.


Reviewed by: Rajen Harshé
By Raj Gauthaman. Translated from the original Tamil by S. Theodore Baskaran

The essay on religion from Dalit perspective underscores the significance of religion for Dalits. Moving away from the atheistic and rationalistic critique of Brahminical Hinduism, Gauthaman asserts the significance of folk deities (non-Brahminic) in strengthening Dalit struggle against Brahminism and caste.


Reviewed by: Parthasarathi Muthukkaruppan
By M. V. Venkatram. Translated from the Tamil original by Sumi Kailasapathy

Thus, it was that the Parsis found a home in Gujarat and Jewish traders in Kochi. Within India itself, communities migrated for economic and religious reasons. The weavers of Saurashtra fled their native land after Ghazni destroyed the Somnath temple.


Reviewed by: Lakshmi Rajagopalan