What’s Behind India’s ‘Beef Lynchings’? What’s Behind India’s ‘Beef Lynchings’?
Bans on cow slaughter have become a pretext for violence against the country’s Muslim minority.
Oct 13, 2017 / Feature / Amitava Kumar
A Civilizing Mission A Civilizing Mission
The Selected Writings of Eqbal Ahmad collects the work of one of our finest postcolonialist critics.
Nov 9, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Amitava Kumar
The Enigma of Return The Enigma of Return
In the largest exodus in recorded history, millions of refugees migrated across the brand new border after India was partitioned in 1947.
Sep 30, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Amitava Kumar
Thieves Like Us Thieves Like Us
In March 2001 a small Internet website in Delhi, tehelka.com, revealed that two of its reporters had used a secret camera to tape senior defense officials and political leaders...
Jul 31, 2003 / Books & the Arts / Amitava Kumar
‘Trembling…Can Be Heard’ ‘Trembling…Can Be Heard’
A young man of 16, visiting his cousins in Calcutta in a house in a "middle-middle-class area," has just published his first poem. This not-yet-poet from Bombay is the narrator of...
May 30, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Amitava Kumar
The Bend in Their Rivers The Bend in Their Rivers
Amitava Kumar reviews Salman Rushdie's Fury and V.S. Naipaul's Half a Life.
Nov 8, 2001 / Books & the Arts / Amitava Kumar
Bristling on the Subcontinent Bristling on the Subcontinent
The conflict in Kargil took place in the summer of 1999. It was the fourth war between India and Pakistan since their emergence as independent nations in 1947, but this was the...
Apr 5, 2001 / Books & the Arts / Amitava Kumar
The Kiss The Kiss
You may find reading Akhil Sharma's debut novel akin to having your head held underwater. Attendant with feelings of a relentless, choking panic, though, will be an almost preter...
Oct 19, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Amitava Kumar
Passages to India Passages to India
In the early 1920s, E.M.
Apr 5, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Amitava Kumar
Indian Music, Sans Sitar Indian Music, Sans Sitar
I am an artless serf of Cupid. So are you and your mama--but not Vikram Seth.
Jun 17, 1999 / Books & the Arts / Amitava Kumar