Shows / New Books in South Asian Studies
New Books in South Asian Studies
This podcast is a channel on the New Books Network. The New Books Network is an academic audio library dedicated to public education. In each episode you will hear scholars discuss their recently published research with another expert in their field. Discover our 150+ channels and browse our 28,000+ episodes on our website: newbooksnetwork.com Subscribe to our free weekly Substack newsletter to get informative, engaging content straight to your inbox: https://newbooksnetwork.substack.com/…
Episodes
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Mou Banerjee, "The Disinherited: The Politics of Christian Conversion in Colonial India" (Harvard UP, 2025)
An illuminating history of religious and political controversy in nineteenth-century Bengal, where Protestant missionary activity spurred a Christian…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Nissim Mannathukkaren, "Hindu Nationalism in South India: The Rise of Saffron in Kerala" (Routledge, 2024)
Hindu Nationalism in South India: The Rise of Saffron in Kerala (Routledge, 2024) engages with a range of factors that shapes the trajectory of Hindu…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Kāvyacandrikā: A Hitherto Unknown Work of Sanskrit Poetics
A hitherto unknown work of Sanskrit poetics edited and published for the first time based on manuscripts at the National Library (Paris), the India Office…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Fatima Rajina, "British Bangladeshi Muslims in the East End: The Changing Landscape of Dress and Language" (Manchester UP, 2024)
Popular discourse around British Muslims has often been dominated by a focus on Muslim women and their sartorial choices, particularly the hijab and niqab…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
James Mallinson, "The Dattatreyayogasastra" (Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient, 2024)
This book introduces, edits and translates the Dattātreyayogaśātra, a Sanskrit text on yoga composed in about 1200 CE in South India. It teaches four types of…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Sandipto Dasgupta, "Legalizing the Revolution: India and the Constitution of the Postcolony" (Cambridge UP, 2024)
Anticolonial movements of the twentieth century generated audacious ideas of freedom. Following decolonization, the challenge was to give an institutional form…
New Books in South Asian StudiesRequired Reading
Priyasha Mukhopadhyay develops the concept of the functional archive of empire, consisting of texts ranging from licenses and other bureaucratic documents to…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Shalini Kakar, "Devotional Fanscapes: Bollywood Star Deities, Devotee-Fans, and Cultural Politics in India and Beyond" (Rowman and Littlefield, 2023)
Devotional Fanscapes: Bollywood Star Deities, Devotee-Fans, and Cultural Politics in India and Beyond (Rowman and Littlefield, 2023) examines how fans worship…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Sasikumar Harikrishnan, "Social Spaces and the Public Sphere:: A Spatial-history of Modernity in Kerala" (Routledge, 2023)
What can social spaces tell us about social relations in society? How do everyday social spaces like teashops, reading rooms and libraries reify-or…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Ruth Vanita, "A Slight Angle" (India Viking, 2024)
A Slight Angle (India Viking: 2024), the newest novel from Indian writer Ruth Vanita, is a story about love. Difficult love–her six characters are growing up…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Tyler W. Williams, "If All the World Were Paper: A History of Writing in Hindi" (Columbia UP, 2024)
In If All the World Were Paper: A History of Writing in Hindi (Columbia UP, 2024), Tyler W. Williams puts questions of materiality, circulation, and…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Nandini Sundar, "The Burning Forest: India's War In Bastar" (Verso, 2019)
The Burning Forest: India's War Against the Maoists (Verso, 2019) by Nandini Sundar is an empathetic, moving account of what drives indigenous peasants to…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Manan Ahmed Asif, "Disrupted City: Walking the Pathways of Memory and History in Lahore" (New Press, 2024)
The city of Lahore was more than one thousand years old when it went through a violent schism. As the South Asian subcontinent was partitioned in 1947 to gain…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Roberto Morales-Harley, "The Embassy, the Ambush, and the Ogre: Greco-Roman Influence in Sanskrit Theater” (Open Book, 2024)
The Embassy, the Ambush, and the Ogre: Greco-Roman Influence in Sanskrit Theater (Open Book, 2024) presents a sophisticated and intricate examination of the…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Stuart Anderson, "Pharmacopoeias, Drug Regulation, and Empires: Making Medicines Official in Britain's Imperial World, 1618-1968" (McGill-Queen's UP, 2024)
The word "pharmacopoeia" has come to have many meanings, although it is commonly understood to be a book describing approved compositions and standards for…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Subhashini Kaligotla, "Shiva's Waterfront Temples: Architects and Their Audiences in Medieval India" (Yale UP, 2022)
The vibrant red sandstone temples of India's Deccan Plateau, such as the Pattadakal temple cluster, have attracted visitors since the eighth century or…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Anuradha Sajjanhar, "The New Experts: Populist Elites and Technocratic Promises in Modi's India" (Cambridge UP, 2024)
How are technocratic experts supporting populist politics? In The New Experts Populist Elites and Technocratic Promises in Modi’s India (Cambridge UP, 2024)…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Bihani Sarkar, "Classical Sanskrit Tragedy: The Concept of Suffering and Pathos in Medieval India" (I. B. Tauris, 2021)
It is often assumed that classical Sanskrit poetry and drama lack a concern with the tragic. However, as Bihani Sarkar makes clear in Classical Sanskrit…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Rajbir Singh Judge, "Prophetic Maharaja: Loss, Sovereignty, and the Sikh Tradition in Colonial South Asia" (Columbia UP, 2024)
How do traditions and peoples grapple with loss, particularly when it is of such magnitude that it defies the possibility of recovery or restoration? Rajbir…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Sabina Faiz Rashid, "Poverty, Gender and Health in the Slums of Bangladesh: Children of Crows" (Routledge, 2024)
Poverty, Gender and Health in the Slums of Bangladesh: Children of Crows (Routledge, 2024) provides comprehensive ethnographic accounts that depict the daily…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Townsend Middleton, "Quinine's Remains: Empire’s Medicine and the Life Thereafter" (U California Press, 2024)
What happens after colonial industries have run their course—after the factory closes and the fields go fallow? Set in the cinchona plantations of India’s…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
How Did Arabic Get on That Sign?
In this episode of the Language on the Move Podcast, Tazin Abdullah speaks with Dr. Rizwan Ahmad, Professor of Sociolinguistics in the Department of English…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Omer Aijazi, "Atmospheric Violence: Disaster and Repair in Kashmir" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2024)
Atmospheric Violence: Disaster and Repair in Kashmir (U Pennsylvania Press, 2024) grapples with the afterlife of environmental disasters and armed conflict and…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Andrea Benvenuti, "Nehru's Bandung: Non-Alignment and Regional Order in Indian Cold War Strategy" (Oxford UP, 2024)
In 1955, the leaders of 29 Asian and African countries flock to the small city of Bandung, Indonesia, for the first-ever Afro-Asian conference. India and its…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Daniela Bevilacqua, "From Tapas to Modern Yoga: Sādhus' Understanding of Embodied Practices" (Equinox, 2024)
Extensively based on fieldwork material, From Tapas to Modern Yoga: Sādhus' Understanding of Embodied Practices (Equinox, 2024) primarily analyses embodied…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
India Rising: Navigating the Second Cold War in South Asia from Nepal to the Maldives
What is the role of India in the Second Cold War (SCW) in South Asia? How do local histories, internal politics, and subnational dynamics shape relations with…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Corey Ross, "Liquid Empire: Water and Power in the Colonial World" (Princeton UP, 2024)
In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, a handful of powerful European states controlled more than a third of the land surface of the planet. These…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Suganya Anandakichenin, "The Monsoon Cloud: Poet Kāḷamēkam and His Irreverent Poetry" (Primus, 2024)
A wordsmith, an extempore poet and a satirist, Kāḷamēkam (also known as Kāḷamēka Pulavar; fifteenth century) is widely known for his taṉippāṭals or…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Kanupriya Dhingra, "Old Delhi's Parallel Book Bazaar" (Cambridge UP, 2024)
Old Delhi's Parallel Book Bazaar (Cambridge UP, 2024) looks at Old Delhi's Daryaganj Sunday Book Market, popularly known as Daryaganj Sunday Patri Kitab…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
How have Bureaucratic Politics Undermined Pakistan’s Prospects for Democracy?
For many years, explanations of Pakistan’s politics and its failed democratic transition have focused on the role of the military and politicians. But how have…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Michael Tilton Williams, "Existence and Perception in Medieval Vedānta: Vyāsatīrtha's Defence of Realism in the Nyāyāmṛta" (de Gruyter, 2024)
Existence and Perception in Medieval Vedānta: Vyāsatīrtha's Defence of Realism in the Nyāyāmṛta (de Gruyter, 2024) focuses on discussions of metaphysics and…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Rohit Manchanda, "The Enclave: A Sharp and Hilarious Portrait of Womanhood in India" (Fourth Estate, 2024)
Maya, the protagonist of Rohit Manchanda’s novel The Enclave (Fourth Estate: 2024), should be happy with her life. She’s newly single, her net worth steadily…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Shweta Kishore and Kunal Ray, "Resistance in Indian Documentary Film: Aesthetics, Culture and Practice" (Edinburgh UP, 2024)
Dr. Shweta Kishore and Dr Kunal Ray’s Resistance in Indian Documentary Film: Aesthetics, Culture and Practice (Edinburgh UP, 2024) is a unique collection of…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Faisal Devji, "Muslim Zion: Pakistan as a Political Idea" (Harvard UP, 2013)
Pakistan, founded less than a decade after a homeland for India's Muslims was proposed, is both the embodiment of national ambitions fulfilled and, in the eyes…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Deepa Das Acevedo, "The Battle for Sabarimala: Religion, Law, and Gender in Contemporary India" (Oxford UP, 2024)
The Battle for Sabarimala: Religion, Law, and Gender in Contemporary India (Oxford UP, 2024) tells the story of one of contemporary India’s most contentious…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Shalva Weil, "The Baghdadi Jews in India: Maintaining Communities, Negotiating Identities and Creating Super-Diversity" (Routledge, 2021)
Speaking with Professor Shalva Weil, one receives a glimpse into the wider world. Through her family ties, her personal journeys, and her research, she has…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Vanya Vaidehi Bhargav, "Being Hindu, Being Indian: Lala Lajpat Rai’s Ideas of Nationhood" (India Viking, 2024)
Vanya Vaidehi Bhargav’s book Being Hindu, Being Indian: Lala Lajpat Rai’s Ideas of Nationhood (Penguin Random House India, 2024) undertakes a systematic…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Michael C. Baltutis, "What is Hinduism?: A Student's Introduction" (Routledge, 2024)
Michael C. Baltutis' book What is Hinduism?: A Student's Introduction (Routledge, 2024) is an engaging introduction to the complex religious tradition of…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Tone Bleie, "A New Testament: Scandinavian Missionaries and Santal Chiefs from Company and British Crown Rule to Independence" (Solum Bokvennen, 2023)
In this episode, we are joined by the anthropologist Tone Bleie for a discussion of her book A New Testament: Scandinavian Missionaries and Santal Chiefs from…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Hari Dutt Sharma, "Gulmini: An Anthology of Sanskrit Lyrics and Gazals" (Rākā Prakāśana, 2023)
Today I talked to Hari Dutt Sharma about Gulmini: An Anthology of Sanskrit Lyrics and Gazals (Rākā Prakāśana, 2023). The book presents 51 lyrical poems in…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Salma Siddique, "Evacuee Cinema: Bombay and Lahore in Partition Transit, 1940–1960" (Cambridge UP, 2022)
Evacuee Cinema: Bombay and Lahore in Partition Transit, 1940–1960 (Cambridge UP, 2022) offers a new history of the partition. Based on previously unexamined…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Cogen Bohanec, "Bhakti Ethics, Emotions, and Love in Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava Metaethics" (Lexington, 2024)
Bhakti Ethics, Emotions, and Love in Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava Metaethics (Lexington Books, 2024) explores the broader implications of understanding bhakti, “devotional…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
The Body in Classical Hathayoga, with Ruth Westoby
In this episode Dr Pierce Salguero sits down with Ruth Westoby a scholar, teacher, and practitioner of yoga. We discuss Ruth’s work on the body in early hatha…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Aditi Malik, "Playing with Fire: Parties and Political Violence in Kenya and India" (Cambridge UP, 2024)
Drawing on a rare cross-regional comparison, Playing with Fire: Parties and Political Violence in Kenya and India (Cambridge UP, 2024) develops a novel…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Christopher P. Miller et al., "Beacons of Dharma: Spiritual Exemplars for the Modern Age" (Lexington, 2019)
Today’s globalized society faces some of humanity’s most unprecedented social and environmental challenges. Presenting new and insightful approaches to a range…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Sanjay Lal, "Gandhi's Thought and Liberal Democracy" (Lexington Books, 2019)
Is religion indispensable to public life? What can Gandhi’s thought contribute to the modern state? With an intense focus on both the depth and practicality of…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Constance L. Kirker and Mary Newman, "Mango: A Global History" (Reaktion Books, 2024)
Mango: A Global History (Reaktion, 2024) by Constance L. Kirker & Dr Mary Newman is a beautifully illustrated book that takes us on a tour through the rich…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Laura Robson and Arie Dubnov, "Partitions: A Transnational History of Twentieth-Century Territorial Separatism" (Stanford UP, 2019)
The practice of Partition understood as the physical division of territory along ethno-religious lines into separate nation-states is often regarded as a…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Jonathan Shapiro Anjaria, "Mumbai on Two Wheels: Cycling, Urban Space, and Sustainable Mobility" (U Washington Press, 2024)
Mumbai is not commonly seen as a bike-friendly city because of its dense traffic and the absence of bicycle lanes. Yet the city supports rapidly expanding and…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Karl Hoffmann and Johanna Narten, "Vedic Sentences: Edited from the Literary Estate" (Heidelberg Asian Studies, 2024)
The ancient Indian Vedas contain sentences of rather varied content, including religious statements ("Varuṇa truly is the king of the gods"), words of wisdom…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Nazmul Sultan, "Waiting for the People: The Idea of Democracy in Indian Anticolonial Thought" (Harvard UP, 2024)
Indians, their former British rulers asserted, were unfit to rule themselves. Behind this assertion lay a foundational claim about the absence of peoplehood in…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Jeffery D. Long et al., "Hinduism and Tribal Religions" (Springer, 2021)
Hinduism and Tribal Religions (Springer, 2021) offers an overview of Hinduism as found in India and the diaspora. Exploring Hinduism in India in dynamic…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Ren Pepitone, "Brotherhood of Barristers: A Cultural History of the British Legal Profession, 1840–1940" (Cambridge UP, 2024)
How did ideas of masculinity shape the British legal profession and the wider expectations of the white-collar professional? Brotherhood of Barristers: A…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Rama Sundari Mantena, "Provincial Democracy: Political Imaginaries at the End of Empire in Twentieth-century South India" (Cambridge UP, 2023)
Provincial Democracy: Political Imaginaries at the End of Empire in Twentieth-century South India (Cambridge UP, 2023) delves into the period between the…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Dalpat Rajpurohit, "Sundar's Dreams: Ārambhik Ādhunikatā, Dādūpanth and Sundardās's Poetry" (Rajkamal, 2022)
Dalpat Rajpurohit's book Sundar's Dreams: Ārambhik Ādhunikatā, Dādūpanth and Sundardās's Poetry (Rajkamal, 2022) explores the making and lifespan of a…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Anthony P. Stone, "Hindu Astrology: Myths, Symbols, and Realities" (Pippa Rann Books, 2023)
Does Hindu astrology work? If so, why? When does it not work? Why? Where and how did Hindu astrology arise and develop? What are its similarities with other…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Arif Hasan, "The Search for Shelter: Writings on Land and Housing" (Oxford UP, 2022)
The Search for Shelter: Writings on Land and Housing (Oxford UP, 2022) sheds light on the global population living in slums, which has increased from 1 billion…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Murad Khan Mumtaz, "Faces of God: Images of Devotion in Indo-Muslim Painting, 1500-1800" (Brill, 2023)
Islamic art is often misrepresented as an iconophobic tradition. As a result of this assumption, the polyvalence of figural artworks made for South Asian…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Swati Chattopadhyay, "Small Spaces: Recasting the Architecture of Empire" (Bloomsbury, 2023)
Swati Chattopadhyay's book Small Spaces: Recasting the Architecture of Empire (Bloomsbury, 2023) recasts the history of the British empire by focusing on the…
- New Books in South Asian Studies
Steven E. Lindquist, "The Literary Life of Yājñavalkya" (SUNY Press, 2024)
In The Literary Life of Yājñavalkya (SUNY Press, 2024), Steven E. Lindquist investigates the intersections between historical context and literary production…