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

| 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

| 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

| 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

| 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

| 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

| 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

| Feb 03, 2023

Of jujube vines, maishals and Kamatapur

Reading Rajbanshi poetry in English.

| Sep 06, 2022

The craft of writing

T Padmanabhan’s art in Malayalam literature.

| Jun 07, 2022

“No Sasikala, please”

On the filmic representation of Jayalalithaa and what is lost in translation.

| Mar 11, 2022

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Latest Articles

In Mizoram, a refugee crisis highlights Mizo tribal affinities and hostility

Shared Zo identity has Mizos extending hospitality to Chin and Kuki-Chin refugees from Myanmar and Bangladesh. More remarkable is that Chakmas, mistreated by the Mizo majority in Mizoram, have welcomed Kuki-Chin refugees too

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

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