Episode 11 - Book Talk: International Booker Prize winner Geetanjali Shree in conversation with literary critic Claudia Kramatschek (In English) | On the occasion of the English translation of Geetanjali Shree’s novel Hamara Sheher Us Baras (1998), published as Our City that Year in 2025, the South Asia Institute at Heidelberg hosted a book talk with the author. The discussion with Shree, an International Booker Prize winning Hindi author, was led by literary critic Claudia Kramatschek and takes a close look at the novel and its background. Learn what inspired Shree to write the book, insights into its characters, and how the story engages with questions of politics and society. The episode also features a reading, both in Hindi original and in German translation. | | |
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Episode 10 - Literature, Gandhi, and Feminist Defiance: In conversation with Dr. Sudhir Chandra (In English) | In this episode, Judhajit Sarkar (Heidelberg) speaks to Dr. Sudhir Chandra, a well-known Indian historian, thinker, and public intellectual. He has written extensively on nineteenth and twentieth-century Indian intellectual and social history. In this conversation, Chandra talks about his celebrated book The Oppressive Present; how he came to regard literature as an indispensable source of historical understanding; on Gandhi’s relevance for the contemporary world; and last but not least, on the fascinating life of Rukhmabai, the first female medical practitioner of India. | | |
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Episode 9 - Moderne Strömungen in der Hindi-Literatur (in German) | Mit dem renommierten International Booker Price, der 2022 an die indische Schriftstellerin Gitanjali Shree für ihren Roman „Tomb of Sand“ („Ret Samadhi“) ging, rückte die Hindi-Literatur erstmals in den näheren Fokus des heimischen Feuilletons. Weniger bekannt ist, dass sich die Hindi-Literatur vor allem durch ihre Kurzprosa auszeichnet. Welche Strömungen gibt es da diesbezüglich und wie hat die Teilung Britisch-Indiens sich darin niedergeschlagen? Welche Welten eröffnen sich uns, wenn wir das Werk eines Hindi-Autoren in die Hand nehmen? All diese Fragen klärt Debora Sinner im Gespräch mit dem Hindi-Dozenten Gautam Liu (Universität Heidelberg). | | |
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Episode 8 - A place to immerse deeply into a language: The Urdu Summer School 2025 in Heidelberg (in English) | Every summer, people from different backgrounds and from across Europe come together in Heidelberg with the same aim: Diving into the Urdu language. Urdu is used for a vast variety of old and new South Asian literature and official language of Pakistan. Learn more about how the course came into being, what motivated the teachers Bushra Malik (Bonn) and Thomas Dahnhardt (Venice) to share their knowledge and what was the highlight of the participants. | | |
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Episode 7 - The exciting career of a South Asianist: Frank Korom (in English) | Anthropologist, folklorist and South Asia expert Frank Korom (Boston/Santa Fe) gave this interview to Justyna Kurowska in summer 2023. Listen to a front-ranking scholar in his field chatting about his career and interests, and learn more about Bengali scroll painters (Potuas), Tamilian US-Sufi master Guru Bawa and his followers, or the way the Muharram festival is celebrated in Trinidad! | | |
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Episode 6 - Syed Kashif Raza: Book Talk and Pakistani Literature (In English) | In this episode, Dr. Arian Hopf (Heidelberg) speaks with Pakistani author Syed Kashif Raza. Talking about Raza’s recent novel Car darvish aur ek kachua (2024), which was translated into German by Almuth Degener as Vier Derwische und eine Schildkröte (2024), the discussion also offers insights into the characteristics and role of Pakistani literature. | | |
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Episode 5 - Alternative Perspectives on Pakistan’s wars, Jihad and Urdu (In English) | Author of widely acclaimed academic studies on a broad range of cultural topics, Pakistani socio-linguist Tariq Rahman (Lahore) talks out of the box. In conversation with Judhajit Sarkar, he discusses the topics of three of his books: Pakistan's Wars (2024), Interpretations of Jihad in South Asia (2020), and From Hindi to Urdu (2010). | | |
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Episode 4 - Filmmusik im tamilischen Kino (In German) | Die Filmindustrie aus Tamil Nadu ist riesig und die dazugehörige Musik macht einen großen Teil der tamilischen Popmusik aus. Im Gespräch mit Debora Sinner beantwortet Anne Mohapatra (Heidelberg) viele Fragen, die sich zu diesem wichtigen Bestandteil der dortigen Kultur stellen. Wir zeigen auf, welche Unterschiede es zu europäischer Filmmusik gibt und gucken uns die Liedtexte genauer an. | | |
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Episode 3 - Religious Minorities in Pakistan (In English) | How do religious minorities fare in Pakistan? How do Hindus or Christians in the country use social media resources to assert and model their status? What is the role of victim narratives in such self-representations? In an interview with Arian Hopf, Jürgen Schaflechner (Berlin) reports from his long-term research and gives a differentiated account of the communal, national and international implications of the issue. | | |
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Episode 2 - Discussing Tomb of Sand: Int. Booker Prize-winning Hindi Novel (In English) | In 2022, Tomb of Sand, the English translation of the Hindi novel Ret samadhi, earned author Geetanjali Shree and translator Daisy Rockwell the International Booker Award. Interviewed by Justyna Kurowska, Judhajit Sarkar (Heidelberg) discusses this thick piece of fiction -- its portrayal of a joint family in Delhi, its experimental language, its take on the Partition of India and Pakistan 1947, and most of all the spectacular trip of an 80-year old Indian lady to Pakistan. | | |
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Episode 1 - Magischer Realismus in Südasien? (In German) | Magical realism is normally associated with Latin America. But it also plays a role in South Asia. In conversation with Justyna Kurowska, Hans Harder (Heidelberg) traces magical realism on its path through South Asian literary landscapes in English, Hindi, Urdu and Bengali. | | |
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