Who have been India's Laureates, winners from India or of Indian-origin?
'I don't think you have anything to say to me and I certainly don't have anything to say to you.' Bharat Bhushan recalls his encounters with V S Naipaul.
'Though not religious in everyday life, his Hindu-Indian identity was an irrevocable influence on his writings,' observes Vivek Gumaste.
Naipaul wrote more than 30 books of fiction and nonfiction during his career with a sharp critique of established religion and politicians characterising much of his work.
The prime minister wrote on Twitter, 'Sir VS Naipaul will be remembered for his extensive works, which covered diverse subjects ranging from history, culture, colonialism, politics and more.'
Nikhil Lakshman remembers the times he spent with the legendary writer who passed into the ages six days before his 86th birthday.
'Will the BJP now replace a Muslim name for a street or a railway junction with Naipaul's name?' 'It is the least the party can do for its sole Nobel Prize-winning admirer,' says Amulya Ganguli.
In any institution that has a passionate ideology, the moderate is always vulnerable to the person who is more extreme, because that is what the supporters want.
Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul, the very-much-alive 77-year-old British writer who received the Nobel Literature Prize in 2001, was "killed off" by the FBI in a footnote. The slip-up was noticed after documents presented to a Chicago court were unsealed on Tuesday wherein the acclaimed writer is referred to as "the late V.S Naipaul, a Nobel prize winning author" in the footnote of sworn testimony by Special Agent Lorenzo Benedict.
V S Naipaul has come in for stinging criticism from noted playwright Girish Karnad for his views on Muslims in India, with the latter saying the Nobel laureate has no idea of the community's contribution to the country's history.
Nobel laureate and India-origin author V S Naipual, known for his caustic writings on the country of his parentage, has said he has written enough about India and will not be writing anything more on it. "I don't think so. I have written enough about India. I have written these four books and two novels about India and many essays," Naipaul said.
In an exclusive interview to CNN-IBN's Deputy Editor Sagarika Ghose, acclaimed playwright Girish Karnad defended his recent public attack on Nobel Laureate V S Naipaul at the Mumbai Literature Festival.
Nobel Laureate V S Naipaul has not approached the Indian High Commission in London for a Person of Indian Origin (PIO) card, a spokeswoman of the mission said.
Overseas Indian Affairs Ministry has sought a detailed report from Indian High Commission in United Kingdom about the controversy involving its reported refusal to grant a Person of Indian Origin card to Nobel laureate V S Naipaul.
Jaitly flayed the Nobel laureate for expressing disappointment on Tehelkas treatment and said he should not play politics on behalf of the website.
British writer and historian Patrick French has died in London after battling cancer for four years, his family announced on Thursday.
Naipaul's views against the commonplace perception towards colonised countries and their people were not the only thing controversial about the famed author.
Sonny Ramadhin, the mystery spinner from Trinidad who bamboozled England in 1950 and the first Indian to play for the West Indies, passed into the ages on Sunday, February 27, 2022.
Karnad's invective is not a fact based logical rebuttal of Naipaul's ideological variance. It lacks the grace or elements of an intellectual discourse, says Vivek Gumaste.
'It is not with feelings of devotion or piety that these people are gathering.' 'It is mostly with emotions of hatred.' 'Listen to their slogans and their rhetoric and this becomes immediately clear,' says Aakar Patel.
If you love India, you cannot weaponise religion to stay in power, asserts Ramesh Menon, author, Modi Demystified: The Making Of A Prime Minister.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday welcomed Rajasthan government's decision to include a chapter on iconic figures like Maharana Pratap in school textbooks and said he would urge the Human Resource Development minister to consider inclusion of such chapters in CBSE syllabus.
'Literature ought to always remain the outrider of society, the advance party of civilisation,' says Tarun Tejpal.
The building of the metro in south Bangalore has represented, to borrow a line, not the building of a city, but the sacking of a city.
By sacrificing an important component of the right to free speech, we have strengthened the hands of the fundamentalists, the bigots and the publicity-seeking goondas. And of the hate-filled political establishment, points out Vir Sanghvi.
The global stigma of discrimination will go only when Asians and Africans have the self-confidence to be themselves, says Sunanda K Datta-Ray
After his public criticism of V S Naipaul, writer-actor Girish Karnad has kicked up a fresh storm by calling Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore a "second-rate playwright".
Every day a Party unfolds on social media where armchair activists, politically charged influencers, trend pundits, gyaan givers and troll armies change the world in their heads but remain clueless about the nation's grassroots reality, feels Sukanya Verma.
Karnad, a recipient of Jnanpith Award, was also conferred the Padma Shri in 1974 and the Padma Bhushan in 1992.
Girish Karnad lived several lives not only on the stage but also as a scholar, theatre personality, an actor and director in a career spanning over five decades.
Rights activist Kailash Satyarthi is the eight Indian to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Rediff.com takes a look at other Indians or Indian-origin people, who have been awarded the honour.
Mahasweta is getting some recognition abroad. She is in the long list of the Man Booker International Prize. The list, to be announced in New York on Wednesday, includes Nobel laureate V S Naipaul, former Booker Prize winner Peter Carey and the distinguished American writer E L Doctrow.
Canadian short story writer Alice Munro was on Wednesday announced as the winner of the third Man Booker International Prize. One of Canada's most popular writers, Munro said she was 'totally amazed and delighted' after receiving the news of her award.The judging panel for the Man Booker International Prize 2009 comprised writer Jane Smiley, writer, academic and musician Amit Chaudhuri and writer, film script writer and essayist Andrey Kurkov.
'On both sides of our cultural divide, it roused strong emotions that had very little to do with the language and its literature.' 'I felt Sanskrit had been removed from the realm of thought, and made an object of politics and piety, of oppression, of reverence and contempt.' 'It was my aim to avoid these things, and go straight to the language which, as an object for the mind, is among the most exquisite ever made.'
Aravind Adiga has won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2008 for his debut novel The White Tiger.
Nobel laureate Sir VS Naipaul tormented his first wife for nearly four decades, regularly visited brothels in London and kept a mistress for almost 24 years before suddenly leaving her to marry a Pakistani scribe, according to his biography. The 75-year-old novelist, born to Indian parents in Trinidad and has been living in Britain since winning a place in Oxford, has admitted in his biography that he frequently humiliated his first wife (Patricia).
People of Indian Origin want to talk to ministers so that their problems can be solved, says Amit Mitra, Secretary-General, FICCI.
Judges for the £ 50,000 prize damned some entries as "rubbish" and "drivel". Led by Chris Smith, former British culture secretary, the judges claimed that "quite a number" of novels entered were surprisingly "bad."
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