Shows
LekhKasia Paprocki - Threatening DystopiasIn the 35th episode, I speak to Kasia Paprocki, Associate Professor in Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science on her recent book Threatening Dystopias: The Global Politics of Climate Change Adaptation in Bangladesh published by Cornell University Press. The conversation begins by asking about the genesis of the book and the focus on Bangladesh. Then we move to understand why political economy questions should be asked when understanding climate change and its effects. Next, we tackle the book’s key conceptual contribution, that of an adaptation regime - what they constitute, where they exist, and ho...2023-10-1041 minLekhAditya Balasubramanian - Toward a Free EconomyIn the 34th episode, I speak to Aditya Balasubramanian, Lecturer in Economic History, at Australian National University on his first book Toward a Free Economy: Swatantra and Opposition Politics published by Princeton University Press. The conversation begins by enquiring about the origins of the project and why focus on Swatantra as an opposition party in post-independence India. Then we cover why this book appears to be the first ever written on economic conservatism in India. The conversation then moves to understand India’s political economy in 1950s that facilitated Swatantra’s rise. Then we move to the core of the...2023-08-151h 04LekhPaul Staniland - Ordering ViolenceIn the 33rd episode, I speak to Paul Staniland, Political Scientist at the University of Chicago on his recent book Ordering Violence: Explaining Armed Group-State Relations from Conflict to Cooperation published by Cornell University Press. The book is a theoretically savvy, empirically rich contribution on armed politics or how governments work with armed non-state actors across South Asian countries. The conversation begins by asking Staniland how a second book differs from the first before connecting his first book unpacking insurgent rebellions to the second that’s much broader in scope. Then we tackle the core focus and arguments of th...2023-05-1949 minLekhRavinder Kaur and Nayanika Mathur - The People of IndiaIn the 32nd episode, I speak to Ravinder Kaur and Nayanika Mathur, editors of a new volume The People of India: New Indian Politics in the 21st century published by Penguin. The collection includes concise chapters from leading scholars of South Asia who write about a person or concept that exemplifies the politics of contemporary India. The conversation begins by asking how the volume began before moving to understand what is ‘new’ and ‘politics’ in their understanding of Indian politics and why a fresh perspective was needed to make sense of recent shifts in Indian politics. Then we explore three fe...2023-04-021h 05LekhTaylor Sherman - Nehru's IndiaIn the 31st and final episode of 2022, I speak to LSE historian Taylor Sherman on her new book Nehru’s India: A History in Seven Myths published by Princeton University Press in October 2022. The conversation begins by asking Sherman how the book began, what she means by myths that exist around Nehru and how the availability of new sources and archives helped revisiting and reevaluating these longstanding myths. Next, we delve into these myths - that identify Nehru as the ‘architect’ of modern India; his foreign policy; secularism; democracy; socialism, and India’s strong state. The conversation ends with Sherman’...2022-12-151h 19
Grand TamashaG20, State Elections, and the Future of the Congress Party
“A Test of the BJP’s Dominance in Gujarat (with Mahesh Langa),” Grand Tamasha, December 6, 2022.
“Previewing India’s G20 Agenda (with Karthik Nachiappan),” Grand Tamasha, November 30, 2022.
“Congress Drama, Indian Diplomacy, and the Diaspora (with Sadanand Dhume and Tanvi Madan),” Grand Tamasha, October 12, 2022.
2022-12-1444 min
Grand TamashaG20, State Elections, and the Future of the Congress PartyTo commemorate the season finale of Season Eight of Grand Tamasha, Milan welcomes back show regulars Sadanand Dhume (American Enterprise Institute and the Wall Street Journal) and Tanvi Madan (Brookings Institution) to discuss the latest developments in the world of Indian politics and policy. The trio discusses the recent elections in Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, and Delhi, and what, if anything, they tell us about the political landscape heading into the 2024 general election. They also review Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra and debate the future of the Congress Party. Finally, they discuss the significance of India’s G20 p...2022-12-1443 min
Grand TamashaPreviewing India’s G20 Agenda
Karthik Nachiappan, Does India Negotiate? (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2020)
Karthik Nachiappan, “The international politics of data: When control trumps protection,” Observer Research Foundation, October 26, 2022.
Arindrajit Basu and Karthik Nachiappan, “Data opportunity at the G20,” Hindu, August 18, 2022.
“How Rising Powers Can Make—Or Break—International Order” (with Rohan Mukherjee), Grand Tamasha, November 16, 2022.
2022-11-3036 min
Grand TamashaPreviewing India’s G20 AgendaIn December, India will assume the presidency of the G20, an international forum comprising the world’s twenty largest economies. It’s India’s first time chairing the group, and it represents a major diplomatic and political opportunity for the government to shape perceptions around India’s role in the world and to make headway on some of its key priorities heading into 2024, a general election year.To discuss India’s agenda at the G20 and its approach to multilateralism more generally, Milan is joined on the show this week by the scholar Karthik Nachiappan. Karthik is a research...2022-11-3035 min
The CosmopolitanMircea Raianu - Tata Podcast: LekhEpisode: Mircea Raianu - TataPub date: 2022-10-01Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationIn the 30th episode, I speak to Historian Mircea Raianu at the University of Maryland on his recent book Tata: The Global Corporation That Built Indian Capitalism published by Harvard University Press in July 2021. The conversation begins by asking what sparked Raianu to write the book before he describes the materials and resources he accessed and used for the book. Next, we cover the book’s themes that make...2022-10-121h 27LekhMircea Raianu - TataIn the 30th episode, I speak to Historian Mircea Raianu at the University of Maryland on his recent book Tata: The Global Corporation That Built Indian Capitalism published by Harvard University Press in July 2021. The conversation begins by asking what sparked Raianu to write the book before he describes the materials and resources he accessed and used for the book. Next, we cover the book’s themes that makeup the book's structure and the reasoning behind picking these three themes: Tata’s overseas connections with the US and East Asia; control over land and resources; and scientific and technocratic expe...2022-10-011h 27Over The Wire PodcastGowri Vijayakumar - At Risk Podcast: LekhEpisode: Gowri Vijayakumar - At RiskPub date: 2022-09-05Notes from Over The Wire Podcast:Showing how India’s AIDS response from the 1990s onward presented opportunities for social and political mobilisation for sexually marginalised groups, in turn, affecting the Indian government's AIDS strategy and response.Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationIn the 29th episode, I speak to Gowri Vijayakumar, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Brandeis University, on her recent book At...2022-09-191h 01The CosmopolitanGowri Vijayakumar - At Risk Podcast: LekhEpisode: Gowri Vijayakumar - At RiskPub date: 2022-09-05Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationIn the 29th episode, I speak to Gowri Vijayakumar, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Brandeis University, on her recent book At Risk: Indian Sexual Politics and the Global AIDS Crisis published by Stanford University Press in 2021. The book shows how India’s AIDS response from the 1990s onward presented opportunities for social and political mobilisation for sexually marginalised groups, in turn, af...2022-09-141h 01LekhGowri Vijayakumar - At RiskIn the 29th episode, I speak to Gowri Vijayakumar, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Brandeis University, on her recent book At Risk: Indian Sexual Politics and the Global AIDS Crisis published by Stanford University Press in 2021. The book shows how India’s AIDS response from the 1990s onward presented opportunities for social and political mobilisation for sexually marginalised groups, in turn, affecting the Indian government's AIDS strategy and response; India’s AIDS strategies, unfolding within a global AIDS field, transformed the space on which sex workers, sexual minorities and other groups engaged the Indi...2022-09-051h 01LekhVidya Krishnan - The Phantom PlagueIn the 28th episode, I speak to Vidya Krishnan, journalist and author of The Phantom Plague: How Tuberculosis shaped History published by Hachette. The book’s a comprehensive and compelling social history of Tuberculosis ranging from the 19th century to its recent resurgence, especially across the developing world. The conversation begins by asking what prompted Vidya to begin working on the book and whether it began as a book on TB. Next, we cover the book’s critical framing that places and explains TB’s rise and resurgence through the emergence and perpetuation of systems of power that allows this s...2022-08-0148 minOver The Wire PodcastAndrea Wright - Between Dreams and Ghosts Podcast: LekhEpisode: Andrea Wright - Between Dreams and GhostsPub date: 2022-07-10Notes from Over The Wire Podcast:Around a million Indians travel to the Gulf per year to work in oil and gas projects, largely men without formalised skills or education. A new book uses ethnography to capture their journey through the men making the trips, the recruiting agents and intermediaries enabling their employment, and government bureaucrats regulating such migrations.Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationIn the 27th...2022-07-2339 minThe CosmopolitanAndrea Wright - Between Dreams and Ghosts Podcast: LekhEpisode: Andrea Wright - Between Dreams and GhostsPub date: 2022-07-10Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationIn the 27th episode, I speak to Andrea Wright, Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at William & Mary, on her recent book Between Dreams and Ghosts Indian Migration and Middle Eastern Oil (Stanford University Press, 2021). The book's an ethnography of Indian migration to the Gulf, focusing on workers in oil and gas projects in UW and Kuwait. Around a million Indians tr...2022-07-2039 minLekhAndrea Wright - Between Dreams and GhostsIn the 27th episode, I speak to Andrea Wright, Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at William & Mary, on her recent book Between Dreams and Ghosts Indian Migration and Middle Eastern Oil (Stanford University Press, 2021). The book's an ethnography of Indian migration to the Gulf, focusing on workers in oil and gas projects in UW and Kuwait. Around a million Indians travel to the Gulf per year to work on such projects, largely men without formalized skills or education. The book captures their journey through the men making the trips, the recruiting agents and intermediaries...2022-07-1039 min
LekhBharat Venkat - At the Limits of CureIn the 26th episode, I speak to Bharat Venkat, Assistant Professor at Institute for Society and Genetics in the Department of History, UCLA, on his new book At the Limits of Cure (Duke University Press, 2021). The book’s an anthropological history of tuberculosis treatment in India that asks fundamental questions about what it means to be cured of a disease and what happens when cures don’t pan out. The conversation begins by asking Venkat what he means by cures and how we, as a society, determine when a cure is a cure or what conditions and factors influence and...2022-05-0554 minLekhRajesh Veeraraghavan - Patching DevelopmentIn the 25th episode, I speak to Rajesh Veeraraghavan, Assistant Professor in the Science, Technology and International Affairs program at Georgetown University on his new book Patching Development: Information Politics and Social Change in India (OUP, 2022). The book shows how Indian bureaucrats used ‘patches’ to resolve pesky last miles problems in the implementation of India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee program (NREGA) in Andhra Pradesh. Borrowing the 'patching' concept, Veeraraghavan demonstrates how digital technologies allowed senior bureaucrats overcome conflicts that center around politics, caste, class and gender, which invariably stymie and thwart development programs. The conversation begins by by mappin...2022-04-011h 18LekhDwai Banerjee - Enduring CancerIn the 24th episode, I speak to Dwai Banerjee, Associate Professor, MIT, on his recent book Enduring Cancer: Life, Death, and Diagnosis in Delhi published by Duke University Press in 2020. The book is an ethnography of cancer in urban India. It focuses on the efforts of individuals in Delhi who negotiate and manage the disease, battling inept health systems and fragile kinship and community ties. The conversation begins by asking why the book focuses on cancer and whether it began as a study on cancer or public health in post colonial India. Then, we cover why cancer is ‘endured’ in I...2022-03-181h 06LekhRavinder Kaur - Brand New NationIn the 23rd episode, I speak to Ravinder Kaur, Associate Professor of Modern South Asian Studies at the University of Copenhagen on her recent book Brand New Nation: Capitalist Dreams and Nationalist Designs in Twenty-First-Century India published by Stanford University Press in 2020. The book examines how various publicity campaigns enabled the Indian state to transform India into an attractive global investment destination. The conversation begins by asking how Kaur became interested in this topic after her first book which examined partition narratives. Next, it covers how Kaur conceives of the state and the functions of the state under intense ca...2022-02-0144 minThe CosmopolitanDebjani Bhattacharyya - Empire and Ecology in the Bengal Delta Podcast: LekhEpisode: Debjani Bhattacharyya - Empire and Ecology in the Bengal DeltaPub date: 2022-01-04Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationIn the 22nd episode, I speak to Debjani Bhattacharyya, Associate Professor of History and Urban Studies, Drexel University and soon to be Professor and Chair of the History of the Anthropocene at the University of Zurich on her recent book Empire and Ecology in the Bengal Delta: The Making of Calcutta published by Cambridge University Press in 2018. The conversation begins by asking Bhat...2022-01-1150 minOver The Wire PodcastSandeep Mertia - Lives of Data Podcast: LekhEpisode: Sandeep Mertia - Lives of DataPub date: 2021-12-11Notes from Over The Wire Podcast:Exploring India’s current computational culture encapsulated by big data and its historical and emergent dynamics on India’s politics and society. How did data become so powerful in India? How do the lineages, affinities, networks and layers add to data’s value in the Indian context?Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationIn the 21st episode, I speak to Sandeep Mertia, PhD Candidat...2022-01-0941 minLekhDebjani Bhattacharyya - Empire and Ecology in the Bengal DeltaIn the 22nd episode, I speak to Debjani Bhattacharyya, Associate Professor of History and Urban Studies, Drexel University and soon to be Professor and Chair of the History of the Anthropocene at the University of Zurich on her recent book Empire and Ecology in the Bengal Delta: The Making of Calcutta published by Cambridge University Press in 2018. The conversation begins by asking Bhattacharyya about how she arrived at this topic and issue before moving to understand how historians and histories covered Calcutta’s origins. Next, we unpack how British officials used legal and technological instruments to transform Calcutta's marshes and...2022-01-0450 minLekhSandeep Mertia - Lives of DataIn the 21st episode, I speak to Sandeep Mertia, PhD Candidate, Department of Media, Culture, and Communication, New York University on his new edited volume Lives of Data: Essays on Computational Cultures from India published by the Institute of Network Cultures (2021). The edited volume brings together chapters from fifteen interdisciplinary scholars and practitioners who provide cutting analyses on India’s current computational culture encapsulated by big data and its historical and emergent dynamics on India’s politics and society. The volume emerged out of discussions and workshops at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) Sarai Programme. The volume...2021-12-1141 minLekhSwethaa S Ballakrishnen - Accidental FeminismIn the 20th episode, I speak to Swetha S Ballakrishnen, Assistant Professor of Law, UC Irvine on their recent book Accidental Feminism: Gender Parity and Selective Mobility among India's Professional Elite published by Princeton University Press in January 2021. The book explores the unintentional production of seemingly feminist outcomes in India, focusing on elite law firms that offer an oasis for women in a largely hostile, predominantly male industry. Using interviews, Accidental Feminism unpacks how several structural conditions - gender socialization and essentialism, family structures and care networks and firm and regulatory histories have interacted to provide certain incidental benefits to wo...2021-11-271h 03Over The Wire PodcastPradip Ninan Thomas - The Politics of Digital India Podcast: LekhEpisode: Pradip Ninan Thomas - The Politics of Digital IndiaPub date: 2021-08-17Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationIn the eighteenth episode, I speak to Pradip Ninan Thomas, Associate Professor, University of Queensland, about his recent book The Politics of Digital India: Between Local Compulsions and Transnational Pressures published by Oxford University Press in 2019. The book situates and locates Digital India in a global and local context by identifying the pressures, local and transnational, affecting India’s digital trajectory. The conversation begi...2021-11-1450 minLekhJaffrelot and Anil - India's First DictatorshipIn the nineteenth episode, I speak to Pratinav Anil, PhD Candidate, University of Oxford about his recently co-authored book (with Christophe Jaffrelot) India’s First Dictatorship: The Emergency, 1975–1977 published by Hurst in December 2020. The book examines Indira and Sanjay Gandhi's authoritarianism, Jayaprakash Narayan's muddled politics, how the RSS gained respectability, how the Indian state, business and labour adapted to the changes Indira Gandhi wrought, and the causes and end of the Emergency. The conversation begins by asking what Anil’s initial ideas were about the emergency before beginning the book and how that evolved through research and writing. Next, we cover...2021-09-2453 minLekhPradip Ninan Thomas - The Politics of Digital IndiaIn the eighteenth episode, I speak to Pradip Ninan Thomas, Associate Professor, University of Queensland, about his recent book The Politics of Digital India: Between Local Compulsions and Transnational Pressures published by Oxford University Press in 2019. The book situates and locates Digital India in a global and local context by identifying the pressures, local and transnational, affecting India’s digital trajectory. The conversation begins by tracing Pradip’s journey with this book covering his previous works on media and telecommunications in India. Next, we historicise India’s current digital moment by covering the ’technological' continuities from the British Raj to the n...2021-08-1750 minLekhKate Imy - Faithful FightersIn the seventeenth episode, I speak to Kate Imy, a historian at the University of North Texas, about her recent book Faithful Fighters: Identity and Power in the British Indian Army, published by Stanford University Press in 2019. The book explores how the military culture, created by the British, spawned new dialogues and dynamics between soldiers and civilian communities, including Sikhs, Hindus, and Muslims. Colonial authorities had to respect and incorporate certain social and religious traditions into the Army to keep these groups loyal while ensuring these concessions did not fuel anti-colonial sentiments. The conversation begins by setting the context...2021-06-171h 02LekhHimanshu Jha - Capturing Institutional ChangeIn the sixteenth episode, I speak to Himanshu Jha, Lecturer and Research Fellow, South Asia Institute, Heidelberg University on his recent book Capturing Institutional Change: The Case of the Right to Information Act in India published by Oxford University Press in 2020. The book presents an alternate narrative of India’s 2005 Right to Information (RTI) Act that transformed how the Indian state operated. Moving beyond narratives that stress the role of the social movements and political opportunities created by the first UPA government, Jha argues that the RTI Act was a result of an incremental, slow-moving process of 'ideas' that em...2021-05-211h 07LekhAli Raza - Revolutionary PastsIn the fifteenth episode, I speak to Ali Raza, Historian at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) on his recent book Revolutionary Pasts: Communist Internationalism in Colonial India published by Cambridge University Press in 2020. The book maps and reveals the stories of individuals in Colonial India - dissidents, migrant workers, students and peasants, who through various networks tried to make the world more egalitarian during a tumultuous interwar period. Shaped by utopian ideas of communist internationalism, these Indian revolutionaries wished to precipitate a global upheaval that could radically transform India. The conversation begins by unpacking South Asia’s co...2021-03-181h 04LekhSarah Besky - Tasting QualitiesIn the fourteenth episode, I speak to Sarah Besky, cultural anthropologist at Cornell University on her recent book Tasting Qualities: The Past and Future of Tea published by the U of C Press in 2020. The book asks what the role of quality is in contemporary capitalism and how a product like a bag of tea is understood and judged for its quality. These questions are answered by zooming into different spaces where mass market black tea is made and processed in Eastern India. The conversation begins by talking about Besky’s previous book, also on tea, The Darjeeling Distinction, an...2021-03-121h 05LekhJoseph McQuade - A Genealogy of TerrorismIn the thirteenth episode, I speak to Joseph McQuade, Postdoctoral Fellow in the Asian Institute at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, University of Toronto, on his recent book A Genealogy of Terrorism: Colonial Law and the Origins of an Idea published by Cambridge University Press in 2020. The book demonstrates how terrorism was shaped by colonial emergency laws in the 19th and early 20th centuries. McQuade traces the genealogies, trends, and events that influenced the legal measures colonial officials adopted to delegitimize and control anti-colonial violence. The conversation begins by exploring how McQuade became interested in th...2021-02-081h 08LekhPriya Atwal - Royals and RebelsIn the thirteenth episode, I speak to Priya Atwal, British historian of empire, on her recent book Royals and Rebels: The Rise and Fall of the Sikh Empire published by Hurst and Oxford University Press in 2020. The books shines fresh light on the Sikh empire (1799-1849), transcending prevailing interpretations that focus wholly on the founding father Maharajah Ranjit Singh and not the royal family, queens and prices, who contributed to the empire’s spectacular rise and fall. Atwal, an Oxford trained historian, masterfully reveals the royal family’s history at the backdrop of a dramatic 19th century when prevailing empir...2021-02-011h 03LekhSebastian Prange - Monsoon IslamIn the twelfth episode, I speak to Sebastian Prange, Associate Professor of History, University of British Columbia on his recent book Monsoon Islam: Trade and Faith in the Medieval Malabar Coast published by Cambridge University Press in 2018. Monsoon Islam traces the history of pre-modern Muslim merchants and traders who arrived on the Malabar Coast in Kerala between the 12th and 16th centuries and how these communities navigated and adjusted to changes in their local environments. The conversation begins by asking how Prange came to study the lives of these Muslim merchants. Then, it moves to understand what 'Monsoon Islam...2021-01-0855 minLekhBenjamin Siegel - Hungry NationIn the eleventh episode, I speak to Benjamin Siegel, Assistant Professor of History, Boston University, on his recent book - Hungry Nation: Food, Famine, and the Making of Modern India published by Cambridge University Press in 2018. The book argues that the tasks and responsibilities incumbent under feeding India post independence, as it emerged from the worst famine on record, was central to India's nation-building process. Food was essential and at the core of India's transition from colonial rule to nationhood engendering debates that involved not just planners and policymakers but Indian citizens from all walks of life who participated...2021-01-011h 00LekhMubbashir Rizvi - The Ethics of StayingIn the tenth episode, I speak to Mubbashir Rizvi, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology, Georgetown University, on his recent book - The Ethics of Staying: Social Movements and Land Rights Politics in Pakistan published by Stanford University Press in 2019. The book focuses on a major social movement in rural Pakistan - Anjuman Mazarin Punjab (AMP) that resisted the Pakistani army’s efforts to liberalise a sharecropping system in rural Punjab. The move to push through a market-based cash contract farming system unleashed a social movement that deployed a moral politics invoking local claims to land which eventually prevailed. The co...2020-10-231h 10LekhBérénice Guyot-Réchard - Shadow States: India, China, and the Himalayas, 1910-1962In the ninth episode, I speak to Bérénice Guyot-Réchard, Senior Lecturer, King’s College London on her recent book - Shadow States: India, China, and the Himalayas, 1910-1962 published by Cambridge University Press in 2018. Through the book, Guyot-Réchard studies China–India relations not through high politics but from the bottom up to show how both countries sought to gain leverage by working to win over local groups in contested regions through a process called ‘state shadowing’. Understanding Sino-India relations and tensions, according to Guyot-Réchard, hinges on the challenges and pressures related to state-making. The conversation...2020-10-1952 minLekhAmit Ahuja - Mobilising the MarginalizedIn the eight episode, I speak to Amit Ahuja, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of California Santa Barbara on his recent book - Mobilising the Marginalized: Ethnic Parties without Ethnic Movements published by Oxford University Press in March 2019. In the book, Ahuja shows why only some Dalit parties are successful electorally in India despite having made deep social inroads in several states. Paradoxically, Dalit parties gain political power in states where they have had weak levels of social moblisation and engagement. Drawing on original research conducted across four Indian states, Ahuja shows that, for Dalits, social mobilization undermines...2020-10-011h 02LekhSidharthan Maunaguru - Marrying for a FutureIn the seventh episode, I speak to Sidharthan Maunaguru, Associate Professor of Sociology and South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore on his recent book - Marrying for a Future: Transnational Sri Lankan Tamil Marriages in the Shadow of War published by University of Washington Press in March 2019. Through the book, Maunaguru demonstrates how marriage has emerged as a process or an 'in-between' space where dispersed segments of the Sri Lankan Tamil community reunite across borders. Maunaguru's book enables us to see how this fragmented community rekindles connections and kinship through the marriage process and those places, figures, documents...2020-09-131h 20LekhMythri Jegathesan - Tea and SolidarityIn the sixth episode, I speak to Mythri Jegathesan, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Santa Clara University on her new book - Tea and Solidarity: Tamil Women and Work in Postwar Sri Lanka published by University of Washington Press in July 2019. In her book, Jegathesan presents the stories of the women, men, and children who have built their lives on tea plantations in the SL hill country. Through feminist decolonial ethnographic methods, the book recenters the focus on Tamil women and their quest for dignity and respect through their labour. Jegathesan's vivid ethnography enables us to see a community that...2020-08-2359 minLekhShandana Khan Mohmand - Crafty Oligarchs, Savvy VotersIn the fifth episode of Lekh, I speak to Shandana Khan Mohmand, Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex on her new book Crafty Oligarchs, Savvy Voters: Democracy under inequality in rural Pakistan published in 2019 by Cambridge University Press. Does democracy empower rural voters under conditions of extreme inequality? Khan Mohmand investigates this question by probing how rural voters in Pakistan vote during elections and how their agency is exercised through kinship networks or vote blocs intended to maximise their political interests. Using data collected through surveys, interviews and ethnography, the book finds that electoral...2020-07-2959 minLekhSunil Amrith - Unruly WatersIn the fourth episode of Lekh, I speak to Sunil Amrith, Renu and Anand Dhawan Professor of History at Yale University, on his recent book Unruly Waters: How Rains, Rivers, Coasts and Seas have shaped Asia’s history published in 2018 by Basic Books. Amrith's book reimagines Asia's and India's history through its unruly waters - rains, rivers, coasts and seas and how individuals - leaders, bureaucrats, administrators, scientists, engineers and farmers attempted to control water. This history seen through India's experiences shows how conceptions, dreams, ideas and fears of water influenced and shaped strategies to control and manage it and...2020-07-2055 minLekhLilly Irani - Chasing InnovationIn the third episode of Lekh, I speak to Lilly Irani, Associate Professor of Communication & Science Studies at University of California, San Diego on her recent book Chasing Innovation: Making Entrepreneurial Citizens in Modern India.
The book weaves together history, ethnography, and critique of a seductive vision of entrepreneurial citizenship that cogently illustrates how discourses of innovation were articulated and used to drive development policies in an India that was rapidly liberalising. The book asks us to rethink the 'subsumption of hope’ by innovation and look at mass politics, despite its inefficiencies and infirmities, to drive and achieve sustainable political and...2020-07-0258 minLekhAndrew Liu - Tea WarIn the second episode of Lekh, I speak to Andrew Liu, Assistant Professor of History, Villanova University on his recent book Tea War: A History of Capitalism in China and India. Tea War tells the story of how tea, the world’s most popular commercial drink today, drove competition between China and colonial India in the 19th century and how these competitive pressures compelled Chinese and Indian tea producers to adopt various strategies to support tea exports.
Through the book, Liu challenges prevailing economic histories centred on the technical divergence between the West and the East, instead argu...2020-07-011h 08LekhNico Slate - Lord Cornwallis is DeadIn the pilot episode of Lekh, I speak to Nico Slate, Professor of History, Carnegie Mellon University on his recent book Lord Cornwallis is Dead: The Struggle for Democracy in the United States and India. Spanning nearly three centuries and as many continents, Lord Cornwallis is Dead presents a sweeping look at the struggle for democracy and freedom that connected both India and the United States.
The book examines struggles and battles against racism, casteism and imperialism that tested democracy in both countries. This story and history is worth considering and reflecting on now as the United S...2020-06-011h 08LekhIntroducing the Lekh podcastLekh - on books, book reviews, authors, non-fiction and South Asia. 2020-05-2301 min