• The DMK Years (Penguin/Viking) by R. Kannan is a biography of the party 75 years after it was formed on September 17, 1949 by C.N. Annadurai. In his book, Kannan explores the trajectory of the party and its future direction.
  • Sandipto Dasgupta’s Legalizing the Revolution (Cambridge University Press) traces the contentious transition from popular anticolonial movements to the demands of order in postcolonial governance. It explains how major institutions – parliament, judiciary, rights, property – were formed by that foundational tension, and offers ways to understand the crisis of that order, especially in India.
  • Godzilla and the Songbird (Speaking Tiger) by Manzu Islam is a story about divisions of religion, caste and ethnicity set in the tumultuous period of India’s independence. The book follows the life of an orphan who flees with is grandparents to then East Pakistan and goes on to become a journalist.
  • A celebration of the spirit of womanhood amid the constant fight against patriarchy, Shabina K. Rafiq’s The Menstrual Coupe, translated by Priya K. Nair, is a bold and perceptive book that gives women the power to create their own realities.