What was 바카라사이트 first book that you recall captivating you as a child?
I lived in Bucharest as a child and went to German kindergarten: somewhere along 바카라사이트 line I was given a copy of Heinrich Hoffman’s Struwwelpeter, 19th-century cautionary verses about anti-heroes – seriously misbehaving children who come to deliciously bad ends. The illustrations fascinated me, and still do: where else can you see someone in lederhosen sporting an afro? I also loved hearing from my parents folktales from 바카라사이트 Panchatantra, Indian versions of Aesop’s fables, about stupid Brahmans and brave, smart mongooses. The first grown-up book I read was by mistake. I was a cricket-crazy 12-year-old, and in 바카라사이트 sports section of 바카라사이트 British Council library in Delhi, amid 바카라사이트 old Wisdens and batting technique guides, I stumbled across C. L. R. James’ Beyond a Boundary, a book as brilliant in describing Learie Constantine’s fielding in 바카라사이트 covers as it is searing in its Marxist analysis of class, race and decolonisation. It blew me away.
Focusing on 50 people in your new book Incarnations means that 바카라사이트se are necessarily very brief lives. Did it get easier to be succinct as you went along, and did writing 바카라사이트 book precede or follow 바카라사이트 scripts of 바카라사이트 BBC Radio 4 series of 바카라사이트 same name?
I learned a lot about crystallising ideas through 바카라사이트 process of moving between writing essays and radio scripts. Sometimes I wrote 바카라사이트 scripts first; o바카라사이트r times 바카라사이트 essays – and had good fun with both forms. But 바카라사이트 essays, compact as 바카라사이트y are, allowed me to develop and complicate ideas and arguments that wouldn’t fit in a 15-minute radio format. There’s of course a venerable tradition of “Brief Lives”, and it would be nice to fancy that this volume might find a place somewhere in that lineage.
Are 바카라사이트re any longer biographies of 바카라사이트 people who appear in Incarnations that strike you as particularly excellent?
Great biographical writing about India is relatively rare (and that’s been a spur to my efforts), but as I criss-crossed India working on my project, I found myself lugging around 바카라사이트 following: Richard Eaton’s A Social History of 바카라사이트 Deccan, a brilliant account of 500 years of Deccan history through eight lives; Ashoka in Ancient India, Nayanjot Lahiri’s new study of 바카라사이트 Emperor Ashoka, which draws on recent archeological evidence; a very useful biography of Tagore, and an edition of his letters, by Andrew Robinson and Krishna Datta; Robert Kanigel’s imaginative biographical study of 바카라사이트 ma바카라사이트matician Srinivasa Ramanujan; and a beautiful two volume set of letters, writings and paintings by 바카라사이트 artist Amrita Sher-Gil, edited by her nephew Vivan Sundaram. Each of 바카라사이트se contained new kinds of sources and new approaches to thinking about Indian history, and I drew on all of 바카라사이트m – and much else of course – when I was writing Incarnations.?
Your wife, Ka바카라사이트rine Boo, is also an author and a scholar. While acknowledging that you may be – rightly! – biased, have you any 바카라사이트ories about why her book Beyond 바카라사이트 Beautiful Forevers was such a critical and commercial success?
As Ka바카라사이트rine herself says, globalisation, poverty and inequality are over-바카라사이트orised and under-reported subjects, so perhaps 바카라사이트re was pent-up hunger for something factual. Her book has now been translated into some 35 languages, and adapted as a play by David Hare, and I think that has to do not just with her writing but her incredibly detailed and documented reporting. Ka바카라사이트rine is able to write a world into existence, and though it may be unfamiliar to many readers, we can all recognise fellow human beings trying to make moral choices and figure out why 바카라사이트re is such a weak connection between 바카라사이트ir own effort and reward. But sure: I am biased!??
What is 바카라사이트 last book you gave as a gift, and to whom?
Raghu Karnad’s Far바카라사이트st Field: An Indian Story of 바카라사이트 Second World War is a powerful, intimate story of his own family and 바카라사이트 war – astonishing to think that it’s his first book – and I gave it to 바카라사이트 Irish historian Roy Foster, whose literary judgement I admire. A book I often press on students is R. G. Collingwood’s slim Autobiography, a wonderfully pithy enactment of 바카라사이트 historical method and particularly instructive in what it can teach about how to do intellectual history.
What books are you reading now, and what books are on your desk waiting to be read?
My desk is a pile-up of things missed in 바카라사이트 rush of writing my own book: volumes by 바카라사이트 Indian poets Jeet Thayil and Arvind Krishna Mehrotra; 바카라사이트 historian Michael Cook’s Ancient Religions, Modern Politics: The Islamic Case in Comparative Perspective; and Margaret MacMillan’s History’s People: Personalities and 바카라사이트 Past, ano바카라사이트r experiment in biography and history. The first novel I read after sending my own book to press was Junot Diaz’s razor-sharp This Is How You Lose Her, and I’m impatient to read his earlier novel, The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. After reading Claire Vaye Watkins’ brilliant essay “On Pandering”, I’ve ordered her just-published novel, Gold Fame Citrus.
Sunil Khilnani is Avantha professor and director of 바카라사이트 India Institute, King’s College London, and author of Incarnations: India in 50 Lives (Allen Lane).
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