South Asian Studies

South Asian Studies

episodes

Interviews with scholars of South Asia about their new books.

Hamsa Stainton and Anna Lee White, "Sanskrit Hymns Across Traditions: Studying Stotras" (Routledge, 2026)

June 25, 2026

Sanskrit Hymns Across Traditions

Hamsa Stainton and Anna Lee White
Hosted by Raj Balkaran

Sanskrit hymns of praise (stotra/stuti/stava) have been popular and influential within multiple religious traditions for thousands of years. Sanskrit …

Carola E. Lorea, "Communities of Sound: Religion, Displacement, and Caste in the Bay of Bengal" (Wesleyan UP, 2026)

June 25, 2026

Communities of Sound

Carola E. Lorea
Hosted by Khadeeja Amenda

Communities of Sound: Religion, Displacement, and Caste in the Bay of Bengal (Wesleyan University Press, 2026) brings together insights from religion,…

Manasicha Akepiyapornchai, "Surrender to God Across Languages: Multilingual Intellectual History of Premodern India" (Oxford UP, 2026)

June 11, 2026

Surrender to God Across Languages

Manasicha Akepiyapornchai
Hosted by Raj Balkaran

Surrender to God Across Languages: Multilingual Intellectual History of Premodern India (Oxford UP, 2026) explores the role of languages in the intell…

Tania Sengupta and Stuart King eds., "Reclaiming Colonial Architecture" (Routledge, 2024)

June 9, 2026

Reclaiming Colonial Architecture

Tania Sengupta and Stuart King eds
Hosted by Matt Wells

Reclaiming Colonial Architecture (Routledge, 2024) explores the built inheritance of colonialism and considers how architects, heritage practitioners,…

Shikha Jhingan, "The Female Playback in Bombay Cinema: Voice, Body, Technology" (Wayne State UP, 2025)

June 9, 2026

The Female Playback in Bombay Cinema

Shikha Jhingan
Hosted by Khadeeja Amenda

How the sound of the female playback voice impacts Bollywood's cultural, musical, and cinematic environment. Drawing on sound studies and performance…

The Diasporic Hindu Right with Savera

June 8, 2026

The Diasporic Hindu Right with Savera

Prachi Patankar and Ram Vishwanathan

This episode features a conversation with Prachi and Ram, organizers with Savera, a multiracial, interfaith, anti-caste coalition of Indian Americans …

Ashok Malhotra, "Imperial Science, the Organic Movement and the Path to Shangri La, 1900-1969" (UCL Press, 2026)

June 6, 2026

Imperial Science, the Organic Movement and the Path to Shangri La, 1900-1969

Ashok Malhotra
Hosted by Crawford Gribben

⁠Imperial Science, the Organic Movement and the Path to Shangri La, 1900-1969⁠ (UCL Press, 2026) is a global history project that examines the diffusi…

Bruno Shirley, “Religion, Gender, and Politics in Medieval Sri Lanka" (ARC Humanities Press, 2026

June 5, 2026

Religion, Gender, and Politics in Medieval Sri L - the Reconstruction of Buddhist Kingship, Ca. 1000-1215

Bruno Shirley
Hosted by Jue Liang

Dr. Shirley's monograph, Religion, Gender, and Politics in Medieval Sri Lanka: The Reconstruction of Buddhist Kingship, ca. 1070-1215, is now availabl…

Amrita Chowdhury and Ujaan Ghosh, "Baidehisha Bilasa: The Amorous Plays of Sita’s Husband" (2025)

June 4, 2026

Baidehisha Bilasa

Amrita Chowdhury and Ujaan Ghosh
Hosted by Raj Balkaran

Amrita Chowdhury and Ujaan Ghosh bring into English for the first time a long-inaccessible masterpiece of South Asian literature. Composed in the late…

Rahul Mukherjee, "Unlimited: Aspirational Politics and Mobile Media Distribution" (MIT Press, 2026)

June 2, 2026

Unlimited

Rahul Mukherjee
Hosted by Priyam Sinha

Around 2016, buoyed by so-called data kranti ("data revolution"), an aspirational neo-middle class of users in India accessed internet for the fir…

India’s 2026 State Elections and Indian Democracy?

May 29, 2026

India’s 2026 State Elections and Indian Democracy?

Gilles Verniers and Yamini Aiyar

This week on Democracy Dialogues, Maya Tudor speaks with two keen observers of Indian politics, Gilles Verniers and Yamini Aiyar, about what India’s 2…

Shefalee Vasudev, "Stories We Wear: Status, Spectacle and the Politics of Appearance" (Westland Non-Fiction, 2025)

May 28, 2026

Stories We Wear

Shefalee Vasudev
Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, is known for his outfits. Since rising to become India’s head of government in 2014, photographers and journali…

Patrick S. D. McCartney, "Sanskrit-Speaking' Villages, Linguistic Utopias and the Metaphysics of Development" (Routledge, 2026)

May 28, 2026

Sanskrit-Speaking' Villages, Linguistic Utopias and the Metaphysics of Development

Patrick S. D. McCartney
Hosted by Raj Balkaran

Sanskrit-Speaking' Villages, Linguistic Utopias and the Metaphysics of Development (Routledge, 2026) is a recollection of the McCartney's journey acro…

Kanika Singh, "The Story of a Sikh Museum: Heritage, Politics, Popular Culture" (Cambridge UP, 2025)

May 27, 2026

The Story of a Sikh Museum

Kanika Singh
Hosted by Harleen Kaur

The Story of a Sikh Museum: Heritage, Politics, Popular Culture, published by Cambridge University Press in July 2025, is a pioneering study on Sikh m…

Dalit Feminism with Thenmozhi Soundararajan

May 25, 2026

Dalit Feminism

Thenmozhi Soundararajan

This episode features a conversation with Thenmozhi Soundararajan, founder Equality Labs and author of The Trauma of Caste. We discussed her own comin…

Shyam Ranganathan, "Moral Philosophy and De-Colonialism: The Irrationality of Oppression" (Bloomsbury Academic, 2026)

May 21, 2026

Moral Philosophy and De-Colonialism

Shyam Ranganathan
Hosted by Raj Balkaran

Why have moral philosophers largely ignored colonialism? In Moral Philosophy and De-Colonialism: The Irrationality of Oppression (Bloomsbury Academic,…

Erica Bornstein, "A Revolution of Rules: The Regulatory Reform of India's Nonprofit Sector" (Stanford UP, 2025)

May 21, 2026

A Revolution of Rules

Erica Bornstein
Hosted by Lilly Goren

Erica Bornstein, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Oregon (and Divisional Associate Dean), has a new book that delves into the regulatory…

Sumana Roy, "Plant Thinkers of Twentieth-Century Bengal" (Oxford UP, 2024)

May 19, 2026

Plant Thinkers of Twentieth-Century Bengal

Sumana Roy
Hosted by Arnab Dutta Roy

Plant Thinkers of Twentieth-Century Bengal (Oxford UP, 2024) by Sumana Roy takes an unexpected cast of writers and artists and, in studying their work…

Nayantara Srinivasan, "The Brick-and-Mortar Bookstore in Contemporary India" (Cambridge UP, 2025)

May 17, 2026

The Brick-and-Mortar Bookstore in Contemporary India

Nayantara Srinivasan
Hosted by Karishma Koshal

The Brick-and-Mortar Bookstore in Contemporary India (Cambridge UP, 2025) explores the landscape of anglophone trade bookselling in India, aiming to i…

Kenneth G. Zysk, "South Asian Animal Divination: A Critical Anthology" (Brill, 2025)

May 14, 2026

South Asian Animal Divination

Kenneth G. Zysk
Hosted by Raj Balkaran

South Asian Animal Divination: A Critical Anthology (Brill, 2025) examines the history and practice of animal omen divination in South Asia, comparing…