The Hindu On Books

‘The Braided River: A Journey Along the Brahmaputra’ is journalist-turned-author and Shillong native Samrat Choudhur's ode to his immediate neighbourhood. While the book pitches itself as travel, memoir and history rolled into one, it is in the latter two that it sparkles most. The book is yet another in a long line of academic scholarship and non-fiction that make a fervent plea against damming u...

Journalist Rasheed Kidwai's latest book “The House of Scindias - A Saga of Power, Politics and Intrigue” looks at the long-running Scindia dynasty whose story encompasses the Mughals, the British and the Gandhi dynasty in India. Whether on the same side or on opposing ideological poles, the Scindias have enjoyed long stints in public service and have seamlessly traversed the distance between royal...

In this episode, we are joined by Vijay Gokhale, a former Foreign Secretary and Ambassador to China, to talk about his new book “The Long Game: How the Chinese Negotiate with India”, which is being published on July 19, 2021. The book examines the history of how China has negotiated with India through the lens of six significant moments in the relationship, from India’s recognition of the PRC to t...

We are joined by on this podcast by Manoj Kewalramani to talk about his new book "Smokeless War: China's Quest for Geopolitical Dominance". Kewalramani, a fellow at The Takshashila Institution who studies China, provides perhaps the first detailed and granular account assessing China's strategic and political responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. The book focuses on Beijing's geopolitical strategies...

In this episode, we are joined by Jairam Ramesh to discuss his new book, The Light of Asia: The Poem That Defined the Buddha. Ramesh, author, Member of Parliament, former Union Minister, and Congress leader, digs deep in his new book to bring out the fascinating story behind the epic 1879 poem, The Light of Asia by Sir Edwin Arnold, that took the world by storm and in some ways, brought the Buddha...

Our guest today on the podcast is Ghazala Wahab, who's recently released book, Born a Muslim: Some Truths about Islam and India has created quite a stir, particularly in our present times. In contemporary politics, the debates and discussions around Hindus and Muslims are getting vitriolic and polarised and at the same time becoming more relevant. The author explains what it is to be a Muslim, a m...

In this episode of The Hindu on Books, we are chating with Vijay Gokale who was the Former Foreign Secretary of India. In his last work 'Tiananmen Square: The Making of a Protest', Vijay discuss the Tiananmen Square protest that shook the power seats of China. After 32 years, since the incident in Beijing, we are in conversation today with Vijay Gokhale, then a young diplomat serving in Beijing, w...

In this episode of The Hindu On Books Podcast, we are joined by Vinod Kapri, filmmaker and author, who speaks about his new book '1232 km: The Long Journey Home', published by HarperCollins. The book tells the story of the March 24, 2020 lockdown and its impact on the lives of millions, told through the stories of 7 young men. Left for themselves in Delhi, they undertake a perilous journey home -...

In this episode, we are joined by Shivshankar Menon, former National Security Adviser, Foreign Secretary and Ambassador to China, who traces the history and evolution of India’s foreign policy and place in the world in the new book, “India and Asian Geopolitics: The Past, Present.” Going back into history, the book looks at the origins and evolution of India's foreign policy and view of the world,...

In today’s episode we are in conversation with author Sanjaya Baru about his new book India’s Power Elite: Class, Caste and a Cultural Revolution. The ascent of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the national arena has disrupted politics as we knew it and the BJPs’ subsequent dominance over political discourse has led sociologists and political commentators to find new idioms through which to documen...

In this episode, we are in conversation with author and wildlife conservationist Neha Sinha about her new book Wild and Wilful in which she chronicles tales of 15 iconic Indian species which are in need of conservation. To celebrate nature’s beauty and to also highlight the trauma that humans are inflicting on animals and birds, is a requisite attribute for those who write about the natural world....

On this episode of the podcast we are in conversation with Krish Ashok, author of the fascinating new book Masala Lab: The Science of Indian Cooking. In Ashok’s words, the book attempts to bring an engineering approach to Indian cooking, breaking down the physics and chemistry of some of its key processes and adopting an algorithmic approach to the combination of its vast array of ingredients. Tha...

Suchitra Vijayan undertook a 9000 mile journey over seven years to India's borderlands to write Midnight's Borders: A People's History of Modern India. India shares borders with a host of countries including Pakistan, China, Bangladesh, Myanmar and so forth. From the densely populated border that India shares with Bangladesh to the highly disputed one with Pakistan, she meets men, women and childr...

On this episode of The Hindu On Books Podcast, we speak to Dan Moraine, author of Kamala’s Way, the bestselling biography of the current US Vice president Kamala Harris. Mr. Morain has covered California policy politics and justice related issues for more than four decades and has brought his deep knowledge to bear on this riveting narrative about the evolution of Kamala Harris from a county and t...

In this episode of The Hindu On Books Podcast, journalist and author Mohammad Zeeshan discusses his latest book Flying Blind: India's Quest for Global Leadership. He discusses not just India’s foreign policy as it is today but discusses foreign policy history, taking us back through the decades to get an understanding of where India should lead or what kind of a world India should look to build. H...

In this episode of The Hindu On Books Podcast we talk to Chinmay Tumbe, professor at The Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and author of two critically acclaimed books, India Moving (2018) and more recently, The Age of Pandemics (1817-1920): How They Shaped India and the World. In his latest books, Tumbe chronicles the many facets of the cholera, plague and influenza pandemics, which clai...

In this edition of The Hindu on Books Podcast, we talk to Audrey Truschke about her new book, The Language of History, in which she explains why Sanskrit histories of Indo-Muslim rule, ought to be acknowledged as crucial to the study of Indo-Persian political history. Truschke, who wrote a biography of the Mughal king Aurangzeb in 2017 for which she received both kudos and brickbats, takes us thro...

The crisis along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in 2020 and the biggest loss of life of Indian soldiers on the China border since 1967 have put a large question mark on the future of India China relations. Subramanian Swamy discusses his new book, Himalayan Challenge: India, China and the Quest for Peace, in which he offers an intervention in this on-going debate on the future of relations and s...

We start the series with a freewheeling chat with Ramachandra Guha about his latest book The Commonwealth of Cricket. Mr. Guha wears many hats - as a historian, academician, social anthropologist, environmentalist - and above all, an old word lover of cricket in the true sense. His latest book juxtaposes his life with his abiding love for the game and this conversation could not come at a better t...