What stand apart from these Ramayana- and Mahabharata-oriented versions are the Jain and Buddhist oriented Tamil epics, Silappadikaram and Manimekalai. The other distinct feature about these two works is that they portray ordinary folk as the main characters, and the ebb and flow of their fortunes. The tragedy of Silappadikaram is overwhelming in its pathos and fearsomeness.
It is no difficult task for the historian to trace the arc of colonial violence across the landscapes of the global South. The afterlives of Empire leave their marks everywhere: etched into soil, folded into language and embedded in law. The exploitation of clove trees in the Moluccas, the Indian state’s bureaucratic indifference to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the wake of natural disaster,
Through her study of several issues of Sarita, Mandhwani emphasizes that it was, by nature, contemporaneous, modernizing and multi-dimensional; collapsed distinctions between genders and also public and domestic spaces; commented on social and familial structures; eschewed linguistic chauvinism and a homogenized nationalistic sensibility; questioned mythic beliefs and even reconfigured practices of gendered reading by means of a range of literary, non-fictional and critical pieces and advisories.
Sweet Malida is a deeply moving and sensory offering. It gives readers an intimate look into the world of the Bene Israel, a small but ancient community in India. Zilka Joseph pays tribute to her growing up as a Jew in Mumbai and Kolkata, two very multicultural cities. Her childhood memories are intertwined with the…
Inquilab’s narrative privileges the political movement led by Gandhi and the Congress, and evades the vast complexities of social and political turmoil that India experienced. One only has to look at similar other contemporary literary work—particularly the writings by Munshi Premchand such as Seva Sadan, Rangbhoomi,
Today, that same Majnu Ka Tila, now ‘MKT’ to Gen Z, features in Ankush Saikia’s ‘Chang Town’, where Northeastern students navigate racism, longing, and identity in the capital’s northern campuses. The two stories could not be more different in form or sentiment, yet together they trace a micro-history of urban transformation: a city seen through the same coordinates, altered by time. There are many such resonances across the book. Jalil’s Introduction wisely sets them up. Stories in Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi, English and Malayalam reflect Delhi’s many avatars—as imperial capital, partition city, bureaucratic core, queer subculture, site of migration and protest.