From ancient Hindu traditions of retributive violence as well as history of aid and inspiration from abroad, Abhimanyu Kumar explores the complicated associations of our national song with India’s revolutionary movement.

Rahul Bhattacharya speaks about the musicality behind Railsong, the taxonomical motifs at the heart of his novel, cricket journalism, and finding inspiration in Toni Morrison. By Saurabh Sharma

In Never Logged Out, Ria Chopra presents astute observations on growing up online, Gen Z, and the Indian internet, approaching these subjects with a writer’s restraint rather than a theorist’s grandiosity. By Sneha Bengani

From its origins in the 1882 novel Anandmath, the attention of European Orientalists, and the impact on early Hindu nationalist movements, Abhimanyu Kumar traces the complicated legacy of India’s national song.

In a wide-ranging interview, Salini Vineeth speaks about profound questions of identity in her work, switching to literature after an engineering background, writing in multiple languages, and more. By Mitra Samal

In Lavanya Lakshminaryan’s The Ten Percent Thief, a dystopic Indian future serves as the setting to explore existential dilemmas of human creativity in the face of an authoritarian technocracy. By Karan Madhok

“Poetry is the diary I always carry with me.” Gopal Lahiri’s collection Selected Poems (2025) cultivates a privacy that invites readers to the poet’s second self in consciousness. By Dustin Pickering

In her translation of Gujarati literary giant K.M Munshi’s “Ek Patra,” Rita Kothari uses language to reveal not just the story, but the hidden realities of the lives inhabited by the characters. By Rohee Dholakia

In The Amateur (2024), Saikat Majumdar explores education, humanity, and inclusivity from different perspectives to highlight the major flaws of colonial education. The book asks for intensive correction in institutions and in the people’s psyche. By Kabir Deb

Without clear regulatory mechanism against AI data mining, Indian publishers have begun adapting voluntary frameworks. Madhuri Kankipati argues for the urgent need for the AI governance guidelines to set legislation and protect creative workers in a multilingual, digitally expanding nation.

In the art of filmmaker Deepa Mehta and writer Ismat Chughtai, Farah Ahamed explores themes of patriarchy, infidelity, and a testament to the desires of women.

Sanjana Ramachandran’s debut Famous Last Questions investigates the clash of the personal with the sociopolitical. The author speaks about masking and unmasking herself, finding comfort in contradictions, and the flawed institutions of marriage, relationships, and work. By Karan Madhok