The Hindu on Books | bidding goodbye to peter brook indias changing literary landscape fiction around jallianwala and more

This article forms a part of The Hindu on Books newsletter which brings you book reviews, reading recommendations, interviews with authors and more. But in the vastness of its sprawl, it provides a richness of narrative detail and moral ambiguities, to be a relatable tale for all.” This week, we take a look at emerging trends in the Indian publishing industry, read Navtej Sarna’s historical fiction centred on the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, follow Harmony Siganporia’s march from Dandi to Ahmedabad to explore the story of modern Gujarat and more. Books of the week In Crimson Spring Navtej Sarna brings together themes he has long pursued in his writing, albeit in fiction: the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, early twentieth century Punjab, the Indian soldiers who fought in the Great War, and the revolutionaries who died for India’s freedom”. And in doing so he reinforces our overall understanding of the men and women who people this novel: how Jallianwala Bagh altered the political and social fabric of their lives as well as those who were touched by the massacre as a remove.” In February 2019, Harmony Siganporia walked from Dandi to Ahmedabad with two friends, retracing the route of Gandhi’s Salt March in reverse to tell the story of modern Gujarat. “For Gandhi, swaraj could only come ‘from an engagement with the inequalities we perpetuated, for if we were not prepared to squarely face the caste, class, gender, religious and other divides in our society, no amount of political freedom would ameliorate our lot’.” To stem the tide against a ‘forgetting’ of Gandhi and his legacy, there’s an antidote – and that is to go back to his words, as Siganporia does throughout her remarkable book.