HT Picks; New Reads

Three works of a radical playwright

A seemingly unprovoked act of violence by Sawar Ramchandra is the pivot around which the plot turns in Swadesh Deepak’s now classic Court Martial. A disturbing tale of caste inequality is told here with the deeply hierarchical world of the army as its setting. With its crisp dialogue and unrelenting social critique, the play is as engrossing and relevant today as when it first appeared.

In a nameless ‘backward area’, the journalist Apoorva, in The Saddest Poem Ever Written, is committed to resisting social injustice. Her battle against the sadistic zamindar and his cunning wife and ruthless policemen will put her in a position where she’ll be forced to choose between love and her revolutionary cause.

Rajat, the stage actor in Kaal Kothri, must choose too — between a salaried job and the theatre, which offers fulfilment to the artist but a dark future for his family. Ideals meet reality in the world of arts as Rajat must deal with his troubled life at home, an ailing playwright snubbed for being too utopian, and a sanctimonious civil servant.

Brought together here are brilliant translations of three of the most celebrated and timeless plays of a radical playwright.*

Green envoys of culture

No two trees are the same. To really know trees, we must understand them. Because to understand trees is to understand life itself. Iconic Trees of India is a celebration of the country’s most remarkable trees that have stood witness to its vibrant history and become envoys of its culture. Complemented by original watercolours, the book details each legendary tree along with its historical and cultural importance. What makes a giant sequoia in Kashmir the loneliest tree of India? What is the dark history behind a peepal tree near Jabalpur? And how does a banyan tree in Hoskote host millions of bees? The answers to these questions and many more are told in detail, weaving together culture, communities, folklore and socio-political commentary.

S Natesh has spent over a decade travelling to far-flung areas to research and document these talismans of nature. Take this book along on your next travel and spot these iconic trees, spend time with them to unravel the clues to India’s unique ecological heritage.

With the rising importance of trees in the fight against climate change, Iconic Trees of India is a captivating read, packed with astonishing information that reawakens our sense of wonder at the fascinating world we live in.*

Photography, colonialism, science and scholarship

Histories in the Making: Photographing Indian Monuments, 1855-1920 is a well produced volume that builds upon the nineteenth-century photography of Indian monuments to foreground the form’s powerful role in shaping our understanding of our history. The book, which has been brought out ahead of a show of the same name at New Delhi’s DAG (the exhibition is on from 31st August 2024 to 12th October 2024), explores the historic potential of photographic collections as creators of new and diverse knowledge. Author Sudeshna Guha, who is also the curator of the show, draws attention to the connected histories of photography and field surveys of ancient India and highlights the overlapping domains of colonialism, science and scholarship. She also delves into different types of historical objects created within the Indian subcontinent, through photographic technology, such as paper and glass negatives, silver and albumin prints, stereographs, cartes-de-visite, and cabinet cards, dating from 1855. Among the striking photographs in the book are Lala Deen Dayal’s image of Kailasa Temple, Ellora, Narayan Vinayak Virkar’s pictures of Raigad Fort, and Linnaeus Tripe’s photograph of the Minakshi Sundareshvara Temple in Madurai.*

*All copy from book flap.