📚Southasia Review of Books - December 2024

📚 25 December 2024

Hello reader,

Welcome to another edition of the Southasia Review of Books!

In Himal’s pages this month, we have an essay by Ria Modak on Rabindranath Tagore’s much-loved Bengali primer, Sahaj Path. Nearly a century after their publication, the works remain integral to Bengali education, and continue to be used as supplementary textbooks in West Bengal’s schools. 

But in discovering new dimensions to both Tagore and his times, Ria questions the lessons that the volumes, through their romanticisation of village life, casual casteism and tacit sexism, intend to impart to their audience.

In case you haven’t shared your recommendations yet for the best books on Southasia from recent times, we’ve extended the deadline for submissions till 26 December!

This would involve recommending two or three books that you’ve read and enjoyed specific to Southasia, ideally published in the last 12 months or so. All you’ll need to share are a few lines (100 to 200 words) on why you’re recommending each book.

Please send that to me at shwethas@himalmag.com. The final list will be published on our website and shared on our social media channels in the coming week. 

📚 This month in Southasian publishing

Voices of Tibetans in exile

In Little Lhasa: Reflections in Exiled Tibet (Speaking Tiger, December 2024), Tsering Namgyal Khortsa writes about the lives and experiences of Tibetans in exile. Bringing together diverse voices from the community in Dharamsala, he narrates different aspects of their lives – from organising protests, filmmaking, to becoming writers and much more.

[For more on new Tibetan writing and the truths of exile, take a look back at a review essay from Himal’s pages where Amish Raj Mulmi unpacks how a generation of Tibetan writers are laying claim to the voice of exile and pushing back against the fetishisation of Tibet by the West.]

How a Southasian archipelago shaped the Chinese empire

Discovered but Forgotten: The Maldives in Chinese History, c. 1100-1620 by Bin Yang (The University of Chicago Press, December 2024) is a pioneering account of China’s relations with the Maldives and Sino-Indian Ocean interactions from ancient times through the late Ming era, offering new ways to understand Chinese maritime exploration and global histories of the Indian Ocean. 

Explorations of cannabis

Cannabis has been used in a variety of ways in the Subcontinent for centuries, with references to the plant found in some of the region’s earliest written texts and myths. Out this month, Ananda: An Exploration of Cannabis in India by Karan Madhok (Aleph Book Company, December 2024) delves into the medical, scientific, spiritual and recreational uses of the plant, the central place it occupies in the region’s counterculture, as well as the upside and problems of decriminalising cannabis in India. 

Also published this year, Akshaya Bahibala’s Bhang Journeys: Stories, Histories, Trips and Travels (Speaking Tiger, April 2024), records his travels and exploration of bhang and cannabis stories across the state of Odisha in eastern India, shedding light on the history of bhang in Odisha’s culture, the myths and legends associated with it, its legal journey, and the political complexities of trade and prohibition. 

Histories of Buddhism and Buddhist art

In Making a Canon: Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, Sri Lanka, and the Place of Buddhist Art (The University of Chicago Press, December 2024), Janice Leoshko examines how the renowned philosopher’s experience as a geologist for the British Empire in Sri Lanka shaped his understanding of Southasian Buddhism, art and religion, and how he influenced the direction of Southasia’s wider Buddhist visual canon. 

The story of Buddhism is also enshrined within the ancient stupas, temples, monasteries and caves in India. Shashank Shekhar Sinha’s Casting the Buddha: A Monumental History of Buddhism in India (Pan Macmillan India, December 2024) looks at how these sites play a key role in global and Southasian politics by establishing India as a guardian of Buddhism and a diplomatic ally to its Buddhist neighbours. 

Another recent book, Democracy’s Dhamma: Buddhism in the Making of Modern India, C. 1890-1956 (Cambridge University Press, July 2024) by Gitanjali Surendran, situates anti-colonial and anti-caste thought in India, and the project of Indian democracy itself, within the context of the country’s rediscovery of its Buddhist heritage. 

[Read Gajendran Ayyathurai’s review essay for Himal on how Dust on the Throne by Douglas Ober focusses on overlooked aspects of Buddhism in Southasia and beyond, highlighting casteless and anti-caste legacies connecting ancient and modern Buddhists.]

📚 What I’m Reading

This month I finished reading two of my most anticipated debut novels of 2024, and they did not disappoint.

Weena Pun’s Kanchhi (Hachette India, September 2024) pulled me in with the question of the protagonist’s disappearance. Against the backdrop of the Maoist insurgency, this coming-of-age story follows Kanchhi and her mother Maiju negotiating life and societal pressures in rural Nepal. And as much as the book looks closely at women’s place in Nepali society, it also captures the realities of girlhood, bringing forward long-ignored perspectives that recent novels like Smriti Ravindra’s The Woman Who Climbed Trees uncover. 

Amma (Moa Press, March 2024) is an astonishing and complex novel by the Sri Lankan-Pākehā writer Saraid de Silva. Following three generations of Sri Lankan women – Annie, her mother, Sithara, and her grandmother Josephina – whose stories, taking us from 1950s Singapore to present-day London and New Zealand, look at shared rage, generational trauma and family histories that bind them across borders, times and cultures.

What should I read next? Tell me about the books you read this month or any books on your year-end reading list. Write to me at shwethas@himalmag.com.

Until next time, happy holidays and happy reading! 

Shwetha Srikanthan
Associate Editor, Himal Southasian

Thank you for reading the Southasia Review of Books. Are there any authors or new books you would like to see featured? We would love to hear from you. Please write to me at shwethas@himalmag.com.