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»On South Asia«

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Let’s talk ON South Asia!

Welcome to ON South Asia, a podcast brought to you by the Department of Modern South Asian Languages and Literatures, South Asia Institute, Heidelberg. The podcast features a wide variety of topics related to modern and contemporary South Asia, ranging from issues connected to literature, cinema, book history, and cultural politics to debates around new media and “vernacular” languages and public spheres. We will talk to various scholars working on South Asia about their experiences, the challenges they faced and the insights they gained while conducting their research. We hope these conversations with creative thinkers, practitioners, and academics working in the context of South Asia and beyond will throw light on the state-of-the-art research in modern South Asian studies and thereby deepen our understanding and interest for the region.

The episodes will be published on Spotify and YouTube.

For topic wishes and feedback, don't hesitate to write us: podcast-nsp@sai.uni-heidelberg.de

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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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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 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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YouTube
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 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 6 - Syed Kashif Raza: Book Talk and Pakistani Literature (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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