U R Ananthamurthy: 4 books

Born out of a meditation on the ideas of the nation state and nationalism, and what the new power structures and centres mean for the very idea of India, Hindutva or Hind Swaraj is a manifesto - written in the form of aphorisms, using shifting tones and styles to make a deep, elegant and heartfelt...

The very last work of Jnanpith award winner and pre-eminent writer U.R. Ananthamurthy is a timely reading, and trenchant critique, of the rise of Hindutva nationalism in India. Juxtaposing Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh founder V.D. Savarkar's idea of Hindutva with M.K. Gandhi's concept of Hind Swaraj,...

*Samskara *is one of the acknowledged masterpieces of modern world literature, a book to set beside Chinua Achebe’s *Things Fall Apart *and Tayeb Salih’s Season of Migration to the North. Taking its name from a Sanskrit word that means “rite of passage” but also “moment of recognition,”...

Ajji, can I have some water? … Just a few drops will do, Ajji. With the searing sky above and the blistering earth below, like cactus the people of this parched terrain are determined to stay alive. Emaciated children scurry along, dejected farmers pawn their ploughs, weary women sleep on empty...