Southasia Review of Books podcast #12: Ari Gautier on the dark side of Pondicherry
Welcome to the Southasia Review of Books Podcast from Himal Southasian, where we speak to celebrated authors and emerging literary voices from across Southasia. In this episode, Shwetha Srikanthan speaks to Ari Gautier about his new short story collection, Nocturne Pondicherry, translated from the French by Roopam Singh (Hachette India, June 2024), and his novel, Lakshmi’s Secret Diary, translated by Sheela Mahadevan (Columbia University Press, September 2024).
Blending philosophy, retellings of Southasian mythology, and the little-known history of French colonialism in Pondicherry, Lakshmi’s Secret Diary tells the fictionalised story of a temple elephant seeking to escape captivity. Through Lakshmi’s journey, where she encounters a colorful cast of animals, both real and mythical, Ari Gautier provides a searing critique of the caste system and colonial rule and sheds light on the paradoxes of human-animal relations in India, where animals are both abused and worshiped.
In Nocturne Pondicherry, we see the city in altogether a different light. Ari’s immersive, dark and unsettling collection of short stories peels back layers of ghettoised Black Town where its ill-fated dwellers are at the mercy of caste oppression, anger, greed and lust.
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Episode notes:
Colonial continuities of the ‘good coloniser’: In ‘Unsettling Utopia’ Jessica Namakkal interrogates French occupation of India by Sohel Sarkar. Himal Southasian, February 2022.
Unsettling Utopia: The Making and Unmaking of French India by Jessica Namakkal (Columbia University Press, June 2021)
Beyond The Sky by Prapanchan, translated by P Balasubramanian (Sahitya Akademi, March 2010)
Pondicherry Under the French: Illuminating the Urban Landscape 1674-1793 by S Jeyaseela Stephen (Primus Books, 2018)
Towards Freedom in Pondicherry: Society, Economy and Politics under French Rule (1816-1962) by J B P More (Manohar, January 2022)
The Thinnai by Ari Gautier, translated by Blake Smith (Hachette India, August 2021)
The Legacy of French Rule in India (1674-1954): An Investigation of a Process of Creolization by Animesh Rai (Institute Francais de Pondichery, April 2008)
A Colonial Affair: Commerce, Conversion, and Scandal in French India by Danna Agmon (Cornell University Press, September 2017)
Southasia Review of Books is a podcast and a monthly newsletter that threads together our latest reviews and literary essays, with curated reading lists and publishing news from around the region.
A new episode of the SaRB Podcast will be available once every two weeks. A special reading list curated by Ari Gautier will be featured in this month’s SaRB newsletter. You can subscribe to the newsletter here.
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