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About Madhuri Karak

NBN Episodes hosted by Madhuri:

South Asian Studies September 6, 2019

The Ethics of Staying

Social Movements and Land Rights Politics in Pakistan

Mubbashir A. Rizvi

Hosted by Madhuri Karak
The military coup that brought General Pervez Musharraf to power as Pakistan's tenth president resulted in the abolition of a century-old sharecropping system that was rife with corruption. In its …
South Asian Studies July 9, 2019

Islands in Flux

The Andaman and Nicobar Story

Pankaj Sekhsaria

Hosted by Madhuri Karak
One of the most consistent chroniclers of contemporary issues in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Pankaj Sekhsaria's writings on the environment, wildlife conservation, development and indigenous communities have provided insights …
South Asian Studies June 14, 2019

Indian Democracy

Origins, Trajectories, Contestations

A. Nilsen, K. Nielsen, A. Vaidya, eds.

Hosted by Madhuri Karak
More than 70 years after its founding, with Narendra Modi's authoritarian Hindu nationalists in government, is the dream of Indian democracy still alive and well? Indian Democracy: Origins, Trajectories, Contestations …
South Asian Studies March 19, 2019

Cyber Sexy

Rethinking Pornography

Richa Kaul Padte

Hosted by Madhuri Karak
Parents, teachers, feminists, conservatives, lawyers, the concerned citizen – pornography raises everyone's hackles. Author Richa Kaul Padte approaches pornography with a combination of light-hearted camaraderie and intellectual curiosity instead. Taking …
South Asian Studies January 9, 2019

Adivasis and the State

Subalternity and Citizenship in India's Bhil Heartland

Alf Gunvald Nilsen

Hosted by Madhuri Karak
Almost a decade in the making, Adivasis and the State: Subalternity and Citizenship in India's Bhil Heartland (Cambridge University Press, 2018) draws on collaboratively collected oral histories of two social …
South Asian Studies December 7, 2018

Dreamers

How Young Indians Are Changing the World

Snigdha Poonam

Hosted by Madhuri Karak
49.91% of India’s population was below the age of 24 in the 2011 Census. By 2020 India will become the world’s youngest country with 64% of its population in the …
South Asian Studies October 5, 2018

Hungry Nation

Food, Famine, and the Making of Modern India

Benjamin R. Siegel

Hosted by Madhuri Karak
In his first book Hungry Nation: Food, Famine, and the Making of Modern India (Cambridge University Press 2018), historian Benjamin Robert Siegel explores independent India's attempts to feed itself between …
South Asian Studies September 20, 2018

Dispossession Without Development

Land Grabs in Neoliberal India

Michael Levien

Hosted by Madhuri Karak
Historically ubiquitous at least since the 15th century and integral to the rise and consolidation of capitalism, land dispossession has re-emerged as a hot button issue for governments, industries, social …
South Asian Studies August 7, 2018

How I Became a Tree

Sumana Roy

Hosted by Madhuri Karak
Sumana Roy's first book How I Became a Tree (Aleph, 2017) is impossible to classify. Part-philosophical tract, part-memoir and part-literary criticism, the book is a record of her explorations in …
South Asian Studies June 21, 2018

Transnational Reproduction

Race, Kinship, and Commercial Surrogacy in India

Daisy Deomampo

Hosted by Madhuri Karak
In Transnational Reproduction: Race, Kinship, and Commercial Surrogacy in India (NYU Press, 2016), Daisy Deomampo explores relationships between Indian surrogates, their families, aspiring parents from all over the world, egg …
South Asian Studies April 6, 2018

Everyday Sustainability

Gender Justice and Fair Trade Tea in Darjeeling

Debarati Sen

Hosted by Madhuri Karak
In her new book, Everyday Sustainability: Gender Justice and Fair Trade Tea in Darjeeling (SUNY Press, 2017), Debarati Sen analyzes the paradoxes and promises of Fair Trade-organic tea production in …
Southeast Asian Studies March 9, 2018

Owners of the Map

Motorcycle Taxi Drivers, Mobility and Politics in Bangkok

Claudio Sopranzetti

Hosted by Madhuri Karak
When the army brutally dispersed Red Shirts protestors in Bangkok's busy commercial district in May 2010, motorcycle taxi drivers emerged as a key force, capable of playing cat-and-mouse with security …
South Asian Studies January 19, 2018

A Moral Technology

Electrification as Political Ritual in New Delhi

Leo Coleman

Hosted by Madhuri Karak
We take electricity for granted. But the material grids and wires that bring light to homes and connect places are also objects of moral concern, political freedoms and national advancement …
South Asian Studies December 13, 2017

Encoding Race, Encoding Class

Indian IT Workers in Berlin

Sareeta Amrute

Hosted by Madhuri Karak
Associate professor of anthropology at the University of Washington Sareeta Amrute has written Encoding Race, Encoding Class: Indian IT Workers in Berlin (Duke University Press, 2016), a study of contemporary …
South Asian Studies November 26, 2017

Ants among Elephants

An Untouchable Family and the Making of Modern India

Sujatha Gidla

Hosted by Madhuri Karak
In her searing book Ants among Elephants: An Untouchable Family and the Making of Modern India (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2017), Sujatha Gidla traces her family's history over four generations …