The ambitious Shabdakalpa project, launching in 2028, aims to map the history of every Bengali word in digital form, preserving cultural memory and inspiring future Southasian language initiatives
What France’s vanishing dialects reveal about language politics in India, and how pride and shame shape Bihar’s tongues amid the dominance of Hindi and English
Two new translations recall the lasting legacy of the Hindi playwright Swadesh Deepak, who disappeared in 2006 but whose critique of power in India remains prescient
‘The Belt and Road City’ argues China is wielding the BRI to reshape the global cities around its own ideals – but good luck pinning down what those are
‘The Blaft Book of Anti-Caste SF’ demonstrates the power of speculative and science fiction as instruments of the anti-caste struggle in Southasia, and these genres’ connections to the wide traditions of Dalit and Adivasi literature
The uncompromising writer’s English translator reflects on how Tsering Döndrup’s banned ‘The Red Wind Howls’ reckons with China’s erasure of Tibet’s suffering while reclaiming Tibetans’ right to critique their own culture and history
Tshering Tobgay’s memoir is all praise for Bhutan’s monarchy and fledgling democracy, but it misrepresents the Lhotshampa expulsion and the fraught political history of the “Kingdom of Happiness”
Banu Mushtaq’s International Booker-winning ‘Heart Lamp’, translated by Deepa Bhasthi, marks many historic firsts for Kannada literature and offers an unflinching look at Muslim women’s lives in Karnataka
A century on from the publication of Virginia Woolf’s ‘Mrs Dalloway’, a young writer recounts how Clarissa Dalloway’s famous walk has spanned London and Karachi, and continues evermore
Rollo Romig’s book uncovers the making of Gauri Lankesh, her fight against Hindu nationalism, and how the journalist’s murder exposes the cost of dissent in an increasingly intolerant India
Perumal Murugan and Appupen’s graphic adaptation of C S Chellappa’s novella ‘Vaadivaasal’ fails to capture the essence of the original when trying to bring it to a new generation shaped in part by the 2017 jallikattu protests in Tamil Nadu
