Aseem Chhabra ranks the Best of 2025's films that released in theatres, or went directly to OTT platforms.
Indian author Perumal Murugan's Tamil novel Pyre is among 13 books from across Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America to make it to the longlist of the International Booker Prize 2023, announced by the Booker Prize Foundation in London on Tuesday.
The Delhi BJP's 'Jhuggi Samman Yatra' gained unwanted attention as a photograph of noted Tamil author Perumal Murugan inadvertently made it to the posters of the outreach campaign in the city's slums, following which the party issued an apology.
A censor is seated inside me now. He is testing every word that is born within me. His constant caution that a word may be misunderstood so, says Murugan.
Threatened by protests from Hindutva activists a dismayed Murugan had announced in a Facebook post in December 2014 that the writer in him was dead.
Boosted by a Madras high court judgement that dismissed an attempt to bring criminal charges against Perumal Murugan whose writings on caste angered Hindu groups, the Tamil novelist has said he will "get up" and resume writing.
Banu Mushtaq's "Heart Lamp" is the first Kannada title to be shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2025. The collection of short stories, translated from Kannada to English by Deepa Bhasthi, tells stories of encroaching modernity and the lives of Muslim women in southern India. The judges praised Mushtaq's "witty, vivid, colloquial, moving and excoriating" style of writing.
Former National Security Advisor (NSA) Shivshankar Menon has stated that the political dynamics between India and Pakistan have resulted in a "controlled level of hostility" that benefits the ruling elites in both nations. Speaking at the Kerala Literature Festival, Menon described Pakistan as a "brand new state" still grappling with its national identity. He argued that India's foreign policy towards Pakistan is influenced by its domestic politics, resulting in an uneasy equilibrium characterized by a "controlled level of hostility." Menon also questioned the concept of a multipolar world, stating that the current global order is merely "confused." He emphasized that the United States remains the world's true military hegemon, while other nations, including China, are regional powers. Menon further argued that there is no binding international order, leading to a state of "between orders." He highlighted the absence of definitive international agreements on crucial issues in recent decades.
The 67-year-old gave the example of two neighbouring states, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, to buttress his point on why seat-sharing pattern of the INDIA bloc will vary from state to state.
Matondkar, 48, had resigned from the Congress in September 2019 after a short association of six months, and joined the Shiv Sena in 2020.
Backing beleaguered Tamil writer Perumal Murugan, who has withdrawn himself from literary world after a controversy over one of his novels, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Treasurer M K Stalin on Friday said the former was being "targeted and hounded" by "intolerant people".
Perumal Murugan's Songs Of A Coward reminds Uttaran Das Gupta of Orwell's Animal Farm and Ionesco's The Rhinoceros. Both works, as well as Murugan's stark poetry, are poignant for our times, when political figures build personality cults around themselves and demand absolute loyalty.
The Madras high court on Wednesday gave Tamil writer Perumal Murugan, who withdrew from the literary world after a row over his novel Mathorubhagan objected to by right wing groups, the liberty to decide if he would like to pursue a petition filed by a supporter or that by a writer's forum.
When Hadiya Standing her ground In the courtroom was compelled to beg: 'I want freedom' I ceased to breathe in my prison cell
'Denying access to the country to writers of both foreign and Indian origin casts a chill on public discourse; it flies in the face of India's traditions of free and open debate and respect for a diversity of views, and weakens its credentials as a strong and thriving democracy'
A group of protesters on Saturday marched to the office of a Malayalam vernacular magazine in New Delhi raising slogans, claiming that a novel serialised in the publication defamed Hindu women and the Brahmin community.
Fed up with the treatment at the Nagpur central jail, his advocate has decided he will no longer deliver anything for Professor Saibaba, leaving it to the jail authorities to fulfill their legal responsibility to look after the professor.
The narrative of the ruling BJP regime changed from "development to intolerance, cooperation to confrontation welfare and security of all the people to deep sense of insecurity and fear among large sections of people," he said.
Accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party government at the Centre as one being 'run' by RSS, social activist Teesta Setalvad on Saturday alleged that issues such as 'Sanskritisation' were part of a process to change India into a Hindu state.
Kashinath Singh and Katyayani Vidmahe announced their decision to return their awards.
'When one joins an office most of the initial conversations would always be efforts to identify the new entrant's caste.' 'Once one says that one is a bachelor still, the next thing they would say will be: "We know an educated girl from among our acquaintances, what caste do you belong to?' 'If it is education that is being discussed, they would definitely ask, "Under which quota do you come?",' recalls P Rajeskannan.
Not only is Modi's India not the shining land of dynamism and prosperity that he promised -- though it may be that, for some people, in a few years from now -- but socially it has the positively regressive tendencies that were entirely predictable.
'Most of those involved in these honour killings are the people who belong to the class that feels left out.' 'The high development index in a way is perpetuating conditions that result in social tension.' 'The only solution to the problem is politicise inter-caste marriages.'
Noted writer Nayantara Sahgal, who recently returned her 'Sahitya Akademi' Award over the Dadri lynching case, has said secularism is under threat like never before and that individual freedom and rights have to be protected even these are guaranteed in the Constitution.
'Dadri was an extension of the cultural fascism that was happening in the country.' 'All the people in the country suffered under the Emergency, but now we see one community trying to crush the other community. Do they know what is brewing in the minds of the other side? What is happening today can lead to a very dangerous situation in the country.' 'We have lost religious tolerance in today's India.' Writer Sarah Joseph on why she returned her Sahitya Akademi Award.
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