As the title, Violent Fraternity: Indian Political Thought in the Global Age, suggests, Shruti Kapila’s latest book deals with fraternity, violence and sovereignty. Her core argument is that violence has not been as distant from India’s politics as we have been told. In this episode, Kapila talks about the role of violence in the making of the Indian republic. Zeroing in on the ‘power of ideas’ in instituting the political foundations of modern India, Kapila also looks at the role of Buddhism. Host: Varghese K. George

In this episode we are in conversation with the former chairman of the National Security Advisory Board (NSAB) Shyam saran about his new book, How China sees India and the world and the authoritative view of India-China relationship. Two years after the Galwan clashes on June 15-16, 2020, in which at least 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese soldiers were killed, the government says it has still not ascertained why China amassed its troops in such large numbers at the border. In this episode, author Shyam Saran lists a number of reasons while also delving deep into the historic relationships between the two countries. With dates, events and personality, this book sums up volumes of Chinese history, giving it a very comprehensive and uniquely Indian perspective as well. In this episode of the On Books podcast, we discuss some of the history but most importantly talk about what we can learn from China that will help up deal with this challenge today and in the future.

In this episode, we are joined by Rahul Sagar, author of a new book that sheds light on how Indian thinkers in the 19th century viewed India’s place in the world and how their debates would leave a lasting impact on India’s strategic thought in the 20th century. “To Raise a Fallen People: How Nineteenth Century Indians Saw Their World and Shaped Ours” looks at the late 19th century as a critical but often ignored period in India’s intellectual history, but one that, as the author argues, would become a seminal moment in how Indians came to think about India’s place in the world as they wrestled with colonialism and other contemporary developments, from racism faced by Indians in South Africa to the devastating impact of opium trade on the economies of India and China. Guest: Rahul Sagar, author of “To Raise a Fallen People: How Nineteenth Century Indians Saw Their World and Shaped Ours” Host: Ananth Krishnan, China correspondent, The Hindu Edited by Reenu Cyriac

In this episode of On Book Podcast with The Hindu, we are joined by senior journalist Rasheed Kidwai author of “Leaders, Politicians, Citizens- Fifty Figures Who Influenced India’s Politics”. Mr. Kidwai has been a journalist for over three decades while writing political columns for multiple publications, he is also a visiting fellow with the Observer Research Foundation. This book is an unusual anthology of public figures and Mr. Kidwai goes beyond the usual cradle to grave narrative. He dredges up their quirks, fears, insecurities, ambitions, and disappointments. From a fascinating account of the hold astrologer, Chandraswami had on international leaders including former Prime Minister of UK Margret Thatcher, to the original political strategist of India Arun Nehru, the book brings in an interesting mix of characters, some well-known and a few forgotten ones. Guest: Rasheed Kidwai, journalist and author of “Leaders, Politicians, Citizens- Fifty Figures Who Influenced India’s Politics” Host: Sobhana K. Nair Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

In this episode, we are joined by two distinguished scholars who have closely documented the changing social and political trends in India for close to half a century, Jan Breman and Ghanshyam Shah. The two of them have come out with a new book, titled ‘Gujarat, Cradle and Harbinger of Identity Politics: India’s Injurious Frame of Communalism’, published by Tulika Books. This book, a collection of essays written during the period of Hindutva’s growth in Gujarat and beyond, is an attempt to answer why majoritarian politics found fertile ground in Gujarat, of all places. In this edition of The Hindu On Books podcast, we speak with Breman and Shah about the history of communal politics in India, how it has evolved over the years, Gujarat’s role in its expansion, and whether it is changing the average India’s sense of nationhood and what it means to be an Indian. Guest: Jan Breman, Professor Emeritus of Comparative Sociology at the University of Amsterdam and Honorary Fellow at the International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam and Ghanshyam Shah, retired Professor of Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and was earlier Dr Ambedkar Chair Professor at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Reenu Cyriac

In this episode, we are joined by Shrayana Bhattacharya author of ‘Desperately Seeking Shah Rukh: India’s Lonely Young Women and The Search for Intimacy And Independence’. She is a technocrat who works with the World Bank as an economist. The genre-bending book maps the economic and personal trajectories - the jobs, desires, prayers, love affairs and rivalries of a diverse group of women. Deep adoration for actor Shahrukh Khan is the only unifying factor among these women. It talks about the hidden tax that working women have to pay. Breaking all the social science rules, the book talks about the economic burden of being a woman through individual stories. The reader gets to see and feel first-hand of the emotional cost of pay disparity, skewed labour markets and simply lack of freedom to choose. It took Ms. Bhattacharya 15-years to cover this longitudinal journey from the slums of Ahmedabad in 2006 where, as a young researcher she had gone for her first field trip. Guest: Shrayana Bhattacharya, technocrat who works with the World Bank as an economist Host: Sobhana K. Nair Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

Disturbed Afghanistan has always fascinated writers and journalists. Its history has drawn people in. The absence of Central control, the terrible civil war within, foreign intervention and a staging point for the cold war to defeat the Soviet Union. Afghanistan has seen it all. And you thought it might have ended. After the sudden withdrawal of American troops, Washington has left Afghanistan to the Taliban, a group that they were bombing after 9/11. Pakistan is back in focus along with its ally China – a country that looks set to influence the course of events in Afghanistan. Guests: Ananth Krishnan, Hong Kong-based China correspondent of The Hindu and Stanly Johny, Foreign Editor, The Hindu. Co-authors of ‘The Comrades and the Mullahs – China, Afghanistan and the New Asian Geopolitics’, Harper Collins, 277 pages, Rs. 599. Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

The story of Covid could not be told sitting in the studio, says journalist, anchor, columnist and author Barkha Dutt. What began as daily reporting of going to Delhi border and returning to the studio to put out the story of India’s fight against COVID after the 21-day lockdown was announced during the first wave, Ms. Barkha realised the story of the pandemic was not about policies, announcements and statistics. It was about reaching out to human beings behind the numbers. Her people-connect stories took her on a journey of 30,000 kms across 14 States in 120 days and became her new book: “Humans of Covid- To Hell and Back”, published by Juggernaut. Nothing was planned, in writing of the book. The poignant accounts of hardships that millions of ordinary Indians faced with courage during the carnage of COVID over the last two years just kept adding up. While writing about the migrants who were compelled to walk home after the first lockdown, to chronicling victims, survivors and heroes of the pandemic, Ms. Barkha herself became the story she was reporting. She lost her father to COVID and despite her privilege and connections, she could do nothing to save him when he called her to say, “I am choking; Treat me.” A devastated Barkha did not stop her journey because she realised what was unfurling was the story of India and her people, each of whose grief was personal but the nation was passing through a collective trauma. And it had to be documented. In this episode, she talks at length on the book and the people she met across the length and breadth of the country. Guest: Barkha Dutt, Journalist, anchor, columnist and author Host: Soma Basu Edited by Reenu Cyriac

In this episode, we are joined by Nalin Mehta, author of ‘The New BJP: Modi and the Making of the World’s Largest Political Party’, a book that looks at the factors behind the rise of the BJP to a position of hegemony in Indian politics. How did India become a BJP-centric polity, from first being ruled mostly by the Congress, to a period of coalitions drawn from regional players and socialists and then a bipolar system? Mehta examines all these templates. Guest: Nalin Mehta, Political scientist, author and journalist Host: Nistula Hebbar, Political Editor, The Hindu Edited by Reenu Cyriac

In this episode, we are joined by Isaac Stone Fish, author of America Second: How America's elites are making China stronger, a book that traces China’s growing influence on America’s elites and corporations — how this influence has grown, how Beijing wields it, and how America should respond, while not compromising on its values. From Henry Kissinger to the leading lights of Hollywood, the book explains how China cultivated key opinion shapers in the U.S. and traces the history of U.S.-China engagement in the 50 years since Nixon’s historic 1972 trip. While the focus is on China and the U.S., Fish explains how there are plenty of lessons for other countries engaging with China, including India, that are wrestling with similar dilemmas. Guest: Isaac Stone Fish Host: Ananth Krishnan, China correspondent, The Hindu  Edited By: Reenu Cyriac