Reviews

In ‘Agra’, a grim portrait of the repressed Indian man
Director Kanu Behl’s Hindi feature film examines the sexual obsession and frustration of men, mental health and the transactional nature of human relationships in a patriarchal society where space is in short supply
Anna M M Vetticad | May 30, 2023

When neoliberalism came to the Indian farm
With a focus on agricultural policy since the 1990s, 'Distress in the Fields' demonstrates how neoliberal interventions sowed the seeds of the crisis faced by farmers today
Tanya Matthan | May 27, 2023

“I write with the same hands that carried shit”: Reading Pandiyakannan’s ‘Salavaan’
The Tamil writer Pandiyakannan, the first novelist from the Kuravar community, offers an intimate portrait of the lives of manual scavengers
Ashik Kahina | May 25, 2023

The politics of democratic planning in postcolonial India
In Nikhil Menon’s ‘Planning Democracy’, the vision of economic planning shows the strain between technocracy and representative democracy in India
Sarath Pillai | Apr 25, 2023

Meena Kandasamy’s feminist intervention on the Tirukkural
The unparalleled Tamil classic’s third part, covering desire, was long overlooked, but Kandasamy’s new translation looks precisely at it to challenge convention
Kavitha Muralidharan | Apr 11, 2023

Whose Himalaya is it?
John Keay, Erika Fatland and Ed Douglas’ books on the Himalaya exhibit ways of seeing, or failing to see, the mountains and their people
Amish Raj Mulmi | Mar 01, 2023

Pandemics have always revealed the weakness of the Indian state
In 'Pandemic India', David Arnold offers a reflective study of Covid, cholera, plague, the Spanish flu and other historical mass contagions, from the time of the British Raj to the Modi government
Pratinav Anil | Feb 03, 2023

Of jujube vines, maishals and Kamatapur
Reading Rajbanshi poetry in English.
Rini Barman | Sep 06, 2022


“No Sasikala, please”
On the filmic representation of Jayalalithaa and what is lost in translation.
Lucky Issar | Mar 11, 2022
