By Angellica Aribam & Akash Satyawali

Gilchrist Gardens, Ammu’s residence in Madras, was the site for her social life and later a hub for Congress political activities. She was a founding member of the Women’s India Association (WIA) along with Annie Besant, Malathi Patwardhan and others. The WIA addressed the many ills of child marriage, Devadasi system, widow remarriage, divorce, inheritance, and advocated for female suffrage. Ammu introduced Lakshmi to politics, was a votary of the Sarada Bill and in time stood for elections and won a seat in the Madras Corporation. Ammu was vocal about her critique of caste, not sparing Jawaharlal Nehru for adopting the title ‘Pandit’.


Reviewed by: Malavika Menon
Edited by Dr. Indira Nityanandam, Dr. Kshipra Purani, Dr. Minnie Mattheew, Dr. Namita Sharma

Pranav Joshipura and Swati Vyas (Kapadia) portray the pain of Indo-Fijian communities in their essays, ‘Issue of Land and Indo-Fijian Reality’ and ‘The Displaced Migrants of Fiji’. Here, the ghosts of colonial exploitation are palpable. In these essays, land is more than soil—it is life, home, and memory, torn away under the weight of foreign rule. Their work offers a haunting reminder that colonization’s scars do not fade with time, binding generations to loss and dislocation.


Reviewed by: Intaj Malek
By Manzu Islam

Nationalism, a recurring motif in the novel, is presented as both a unifying ideology and a vehicle for violence and marginalization. Through the lived experiences of his characters, Islam interrogates how nationalist discourses justify systemic exclusion, displacement, and cultural erasure. It also reflects how even such a unifying force could not cut across social boundaries like caste.


Reviewed by: Parvin Sultana
By Kuvempu. Translated from the original Kannada by Vanamala Viswanatha

Translating 760 pages or more of intricate detailing of human lives and the vicissitudes of Malnad natural environs that enfold these lives is no mean task. Kuvempu is first and foremost a poet, therefore he and his work have to emerge poetic, vibrant, and buoyant in another language. The immediacy with which Kuvempu engages with Malnad life and the multiple patterns that he weaves, while straddling the caste, class, gender differences of a region have to be sustained in the translation and that again is not an easy task.


Reviewed by: Chitra Panikkar
By K.K. Kochu. Translated from the original Malayalam by Radhika P. Menon

Dalithan traces the socio-cultural history of the State of Kerala from a subaltern perspective. Sidelining himself, Kochu lays emphasis on the lost Dalit history and tries to reclaim it. Deliberating on the causes for fragmentation in Dalit memory, Kochu wonders whether the early nomadic lifestyle, and the constant displacements due to slavery and oppression, are the reasons behind the lost narratives. He recalls a poem of the Dalit emancipator Porkayil Appachan, which mourns the vanished history of the Dalits:


Reviewed by: Aazhi Arasi A
By Himani Bannerji

According to Bannerji, Tagore’s prose writings, including correspondence, are being read through new critical lenses to meet the need of our times. Three aspects of his socio-political thought become especially relevant from this point of view: his critique of nationalism and imperialism, including his assessment of various modes used and proposed for eradicating these; his universalist and humanist understanding of the politics of freedom and civilization; and lastly, the connection between the previous two issues and his modernism, as expressed by his philosophy and his projects of social reform.


Reviewed by: Somdatta Mandal