Reviews of latest books and articles on authors - Frontline

In 1933, Mahatma Gandhi renamed his newspaper Young India as Harijan, and asked for a message for the inaugural issue from Ambedkar.

Why Ambedkar rejected Gandhi’s idea of Dalit emancipation

He rebuffed Gandhi’s Harijan Sevak Sangh, viewing it as a paternalistic tool that reinforced caste Hindu dominance rather than empowering Dalits.

Anand Teltumbde

New books on the shelves

The concluding part of the Chandal Jibon trilogy, a whirlwind romance, a survivor’s ordeal of the 2002 Gujarat riots, and more.

Linnaeus’ taxonomy and the roots of scientific bias

His plant classification system, based on sexual characteristics, reinforced binary gender concepts and facilitated colonial botanical appropriation.

Aftershocks of maternal loss

Radhika Oberoi’s Of Mothers and Other Perishables excavates grief’s lasting impact, portraying two sisters frozen in different stages of mourning.

Kushalrani Gulab

A view of the facade with stucco figurines in a Chettinadu Chettiar house at Nattarasankottai, near Karaikudi in Sivaganga district.

If only the haveli walls could talk

In Vernacular Architecture of India, Tejinder S. Randhawa documents India’s architectural heritage, opening the windows into a storied past.

Into the heart of Sri Lanka’s civil war

Through one Tamil family’s entanglement with the LTTE movement, V.V. Ganeshananthan’s award-winning novel traces the human cost of conflict.

Vivid portrayal of life in Mughal-era Delhi

The writer uses her deep knowledge of Dilli’s multiple pasts to best effect in this second novel in a projected quartet centred on the city.

Ranjana Sengupta

More stories from Books

Kamal Haasan’s performance from Sigappu Rojakkal (1978).

A sterile, monochromatic analysis of Kamal Haasan’s cinematic legacy

K. Hariharan’s Kamal Haasan: A Cinematic Journey fixates on finding political subtexts, often stretching interpretations beyond credibility.

Prathyush Parasuraman

Yashica Dutt burst onto the scene in 2016, claiming to have “come out” as a Dalit in the wake of Rohith Vemula’s tragic suicide.

The invisible ink of Dalit literature

English-language works by Dalit authors have garnered acclaim, but systemic barriers continue to obscure their voices in India’s literary landscape.

Historian and author Ira Mukhoty with her book The Lion and the Lily. Mukhoty believes that stories of individual characters whom she can flesh out and bring to life appeal to a lay reader.

I often compare Indian history with Game of Thrones: Ira Mukhoty

In her latest book The Lion and the Lily, the historian and author offers a fresh perspective on the Nawabs of Awadh in the 18th century.

Frontline News Desk

A Khasi woman sales pineapples along the Guwahati-Shillong highway on the outskirts of Guwahati city in July 2018.

Fruit for thought

Anusua Mukherjee 11022

A water diviner in Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, in 2014. In Kuvempu’s epic novel Bride in the Hills, Aigulu stuns Padre Jivaratnayya with his water-divining skill.

‘Nothing is insignificant!’: Kuvempu’s epic tale of love in a caste-ridden society

Rooted in the regional realities of Karnataka’s Malnad, Bride in the Hills is replete with brilliance, energy, and imaginative power.

The writer says she wrote Summer of Then by drawing upon her experiences and the texts she read or taught.

Women’s desire is complex, you cannot categorise it: Rupleena Bose

The writer talks about exploring class, women’s desire, and freedom in her debut novel, Summer of Then.

Kashmiri women at work on crewel embroidery.

Threads of resistance: How Kashmir’s shawl weavers spun a revolution

Abdul Ahad’s nuanced book explores Kashmir’s artisans’ legacy, offering profound insights on resilience amid enduring turmoil.

Bilal Ahmad Wagay

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the BRICS summit in Goa, on October 16, 2016. As neighbours, China and India have, in their own ways, come a long way.

Unpacking the India-China yin-yang

Shastri Ramachandaran’s timely book Beyond Binaries opens a window into the complex bilateral relations between India and China.

Raviprasad Narayanan

At the annual Mango Mela at Lalbagh in Bengaluru on May 24.

The mango: India’s beloved fruit has a storied past

Sopan Joshi’s tribute to the mango leads the reader to an elaborate feast of history, mythology, culture, ecology, international diplomacy, and more.

Migrant workers seen in Hyderabad, walk with their families to Chhattisgarh from Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh, on April 30, 2020, during the first lockdown. One of the five defining features of the Modi raj that Radha Kumar offers are the “shock and awe” tactics of governance, with decisions such as the overnight lockdown.

Modi’s ‘second republic’: Dismantling India’s democratic legacy

This is, at its core, a historian’s book. It focusses on state institutions and the rights citizenship should guarantee in a healthy democracy.

Satish Deshpande

New books on the shelves

A science fiction novel about the meaning of humanity, a book on the power of public protest, and many more.

The protest site at Shaheen Bagh during the agitation against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, on January 26, 2020, in New Delhi.

When ‘othering’ meets alienation: Being a Muslim in India

Mujibur Rehman challenges the monolithic and rigid portrayals of Indian Muslims, be it in terms of faith or culture or both, in Shikwa-e-Hind.

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