S A G A R I K A

Recently I have seen a lot of excellent posts in the dark academia tags which call out the euro-centrism of this subculture and also give great recommendations for non-white cultural academia. So I decided to put together works of Indian authors that I read growing up in India as a literature student. Please note this list leans heavily towards works centred on Bengal due to my own heritage, and is by no means comprehensive or meant to represent the entire, varied diaspora of India.

Historical/political fiction:

the lives of others by neel mukherjee: chronicling the rise and fall of a bengali family against historical events like the partition, the 1943 famines, the bengal emergency etc. diverse cast of characters retelling history through multiple povs, lyrical prose, incredible research providing an insight into naxalite bengal. talks about how it feels to be a leftist when you are born and brought up in bourgeois privilege.

the lowland by jhumpa lahiri: everything!! written by jhumpa lahiri!! should be savoured!! but this gorgeous book in particular made me UGLY CRY. to summarise without spoilers, it's a story about two brothers, separated by inches and then by miles, a story about student revolutionaries, bengal burning and boston beaches, and it's a story about a beautiful, brilliant, tormented woman who loves and loathes in equal measure.

the shadow lines by amitav ghosh:** intergenerational trauma, dhaka riots and the entwined histories of two families- one in london and the other in calcutta. sharp, bittersweet and sometimes rather scandalous. if you enjoy ggm's works try this.

a flight of pigeons by ruskin bond**: after her father is killed in the 1857 sepoy mutiny, an anglo-indian girl, her mother, and female relatives are given shelter by the muslim family of one of the chief rebels. set in north india near UP, ruskin bond's writing is powerful and explores found families and the price of imperialism and war. chef's kiss.

train to pakistan by khuswant singh: the horrors of post independence sectarian violence as recounted by a fictional village on the indo-pak border with a population largely comprising muslims and sikhs. a harrowing read but evocative and honest.

shalimar the clown by salman rushdie: allegorical story about the kashmir valley unrest, told through the insane, shakespearean revenge tragedy spun out by kashmiri tightrope walker shalimar who falls in love with boonyi, a beautiful pandit girl, a love that dooms him.

a fine balance by rohinton mistry**: four strangers' lives spill into each other as india crumbles under the 1975 emergency. this one has everything political commentary, social satire, depiction of economic hardships and a whole range of characters from diverse backgrounds. side note: it's a pretty heavy and tragic read, please be careful.

Societal stories

the guide by rk narayan: raju, an impoverished, street smart boy in a fictional south indian town takes to conning people as a tour guide but things spiral out of control when he has an affair with a married classical dancer. allegorical writing, funny and eccentric, and there's a LOT of satire about desi stereotypes: fraud religious leaders, scandalous village affairs, neocolonial mindsets and well, dancing. had a great read of this one. don't watch the film, it's inaacurate and the author himself didn't like it :(

malgudi days by rk narayan: set in the same town as the guide, a collection of short stories about the colourful lives of small town dwellers, from astrologers to doctors to postmen. it's funny and poignant in equal measure. there's not a single mediocre story in here, they're all just......charming.

interpreter of maladies by jhumpa lahiri: stories set in boston and bengal about ordinary indian people and ordinary indian lives which are just so, so MASTERFULLY written and in such crystal bright detail it feels all too real. I recommend a temporary matter, when mr pirzada came to dine, sexy, mrs sen and this blessed house.

em and the big hoom by jerry pinto**: a goan family in late 20th century mumbai + their experience when the mother is diagnosed with bpd. I haven't read this book but it was highly recommended by my friends + authors who are greatly esteemed by me

any and every work by ruskin bond because my man literally GREW up around ayahs and tonga drivers and lonely gardeners and sad kite-makers and friends in small places. I recommend road to the bazaar: a collection of short stories about north indian children involving tigers in train tunnels, beetle races, rooftop gardens and the feeling of being home again.

the white tiger by aravind adiga**: epistolary novel that deals mostly with the class struggle in india as told by a village boy, who travels to delhi for work and his slow rise to success through monumental obstacles. a good read to look into the lives and the plight of underprivileged workers and the persisting class disparity in globalised india.

city of djinns by william dalrymple: travelogue/memoir/anecdotes of the author's time in delhi as he researches for the detritus of history in the country capital. non fiction but every bit as riveting as a well spun story.

Retellings/Biographies

rajkahini (transl: stories of kings) by abanindranath tagore: stories about the rajput rulers of western india and their glorious, semi-mythological histories of battles and heartbreaks and visions. the author was often termed a lyrical artist because his descriptive prose is so good it feels like a painting put into words.

empress: the astonishing reign of nur jahan by ruby lal: a feminist biography of my favourite figure from history, nur jahan, and her deliciously satisfying ascent as the sole female sovereign in the line of the great mughals. but wow, what a woman.

the palace of illusions by chitra banerjee divakaruni: retelling of the great epic mahabharata but from draupadi's point of view. poetic and magical, and her descriptions of female rage and the unfairness of society even in mythical canon is SUPERB.

Poetry!

sarojini naidu: patriotism, society, feminism, romance

nissim ezekiel: postcolonial, satire

ak ramanujan: society, classical retellings, folktale inspired poetry

agha shahid ali: socio-political, ghazal inspired poetry

tishani doshi: feminist, contemporary

eunice d'souza: contemporary, gender politics

Pure self indulgent recs

hayavadana by girish karnad: a ridiculous, criminally hilarious play-within-a-play about a love triangle and accidental body/torso swaps and a goddess who couldn't care less and a man with a horse head. yeah.

devdas by sarat chandra chattopadhyay: pls stop shoving the movie down my throat it's the cringiest depiction of bengali culture ever but yeah the novel is 💗💗 and it's about childhood sweethearts dev and paro, the cost of obsessions and lusts and an enigmatic courtesan chandramukhi who keeps loving the wrong things.

any and every work by rabindranath tagore should be considered academia but in particular his short stories, like the kabuliwalah and the postmaster.

the byomkesh bakshi series by sharadindu bandyopadhyay: written in the vein of poirot but in colonial bengal, follows one (1) sleuthy boy and his sidekick as they unravel psychological crimes and murder mysteries. some stories are just genuinely scary and all have eclectic casts. sharadindu said homoerotic/feral women/immoral genius people rights!

Like I said this list is not comprehensive!!! But I tried my best!!! I think we should really try to decolonize our reading tastes. And yes I purposely left out Arundhati Roy (because she is literally the only Indian author ever recommended in lists) Vikram Seth (because I do not like him) and Roshani Chokshi (because any one of the above)

I hope you guys get some good picks from this list :)

Theory, history & social crit:

Castes in India: Their Mechanism, Genesis and Development by B.R. Ambedkar

The Annihilation of Caste, B.R. Ambedkar (if you read anything, read this)

A Forgotten Liberator: The Life and Struggle of Savitribai Phule by Braj Ranjan Mani

Debrahmanising History, Braj Ranjan Mani

Literature, memoir:

The Weave of My Life by Urmila Pawar

“Very Particularly Situated” - from Fragments of Empire by Madhavi Kale. Good overview of the historical context for the beginning of Indian indentureship in the 1800s that created the diasporas in the Caribbean, Pacific Ocean regions and Africa

A Documentary History of Indian South Africans eds. Bhana and Pachai. Source material related to both indentureship and voluntary migration from the subcontinent to South Africa

Video Interview with Mansee Subiah, an Indo-Trinidadian who was a former indentured laborer (2 parts) 

Excerpts from The Clipper Ship Sheila, a travelogue written by a British captain who sailed a boat with indentured Indians bound for the Caribbean: “At sea with the Coolies” / “The Hindu Baboos of Calcutta” / “Religious beliefs of the Coolies / Life aboard the ship”

“Coolitude manifesto” by Rajiv Mohabir, Indo-Guyanese poet and archivist and all around dope ass person (referencing the works of Indo-Mauritian cultural theorist Khal Torabully who coined the word ‘coolitude’)

“Who will claim you?” by Akwaeke Emezi, cultural writer who is of mixed African and Indian indenture diasporic descent (also non-binary and just a really captivating writer)

“Girmityas and my Discovery of India” by Clem Seecharan, Indo-Fijian historian. The whole story of Indians in Fiji is too much to be encapsulated in one article (they make up over 50% of the population) but please start to read about it.

“Finding family roots in ancestral India” edition of Indian Arrival Day magazine (published in Trinidad and Tobago). While a lot of indenture diaspora descendants have no way of pinpointing where in India they come from, the stories of the ones who can enrich us all.

There’s literally so much more that I could reference and this didn’t even cover the works of amazing fiction and poetic writers. 

I will no longer accept the excuse by Indian and NRI academics and archivists that they are too unknowledgeable on our diaspora to even mention our existence. Indenture scholarship enriches subcontinental scholarship. Indenture diaspora history is Indian history.

She signed my book and I said “I actually wrote you a letter bc I get really nervous” and her whole face lit up and she was SO touched she was like “oh my gosh this is the absolute sweetest thing thank you SO much I can’t wait to read it” and I said “thanks!”

As she went to sign I said “I actually have a question,” and she said “yeah what’s up?” and I said “so within the text, Achilles and Patroclus never actually say the words ‘I love you’ I mean OBVIOUSLY they love each other but… do they say it?” (This is actually one of the most interesting parts of the text to me and I haven’t stopped thinking about it in years) and she sits back for a second and kinda smiles to herself and she goes “of course they do.” To which I immediately went “GOSH of COURSE they do!” and she said, “It’s actually one of the biggest parts of the argument of Did Homer Write Them As Lovers because some people say ‘well he never explicitly states it’ but a lot of people say ‘it’s so obvious he doesn’t HAVE to!’ so, rest assured, they definitely say it, but during scenes that we don’t get to see, but you can absolutely think about them saying it to each other all the time.” 

I tweeted at her and said thank you and that I hoped my letter was okay and she tweeted at me a few hours later and said this:

The painter has the Universe in his mind and hands.

“Perhaps a lunatic was simply a minority of one.”