The Hindu On Books newsletter: The legacy of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Gandhi's last months, the world of translation and more

The Hindu

03-06-2025

Welcome to this edition of The Hindu on Books Newsletter. Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, considered one of east Africa's greatest literary figures, died last Wednesday (May 28, 2025), his daughter announced on Facebook. He was 87. Wanjiku wa Ngũgĩ said her father had 'lived a full life and fought a good fight.' His decision to stop writing in English and start using only his native Kikuyu made him a powerful symbol of post-colonial African identity. In 1986, he published one of his best-known works, Decolonising the Mind, a collection of essays about the role of language in forging national culture, history and identity.
Read this tribute by Gautam Bhatia, in which he writes that the Kenyan master has left behind a rich, varied, and sometimes complex legacy.
In an interview to The Hindu in 2018 when he visited Hyderabad for the launch of the Telugu translation by G.N. Saibaba of his book, Dreams in a Time of War, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o explained to Serish Nanisetti that he began writing in English and then switched over to his native language, Gikuyu and Swahili, as a mark of protest against the language of the colonisers. Asked about his thoughts on translation and particularly G.N. Saibaba translating his work, he said, the one by Saibaba (titled Yuddakalamlo Swapnalu — Balya Gnapakaalu ) is especially interesting, because he translated the book while he was in prison. 'I closely identify with him because of this. I had written Devil on the Cross in Kamiti Maximum Security Prison in Kenya,' he said.
Last Saturday (May 31), noted wildlife and tiger conservationist, Valmik Thapar, passed away in Delhi. He was 73 and ailing from cancer.
Thapar was well-known for his evocative photographs and scholarly ouevré of nearly 50 books on the tiger, particularly those in Ranthambore, Rajasthan, for nearly four decades. He wrote or edited more than 30 books on wildlife, including Land of the Tiger: A Natural History of the Indian Subcontinent (1997), and Tiger Fire: 500 Years of the Tiger in India.
In reviews, we read Manash Firaq Bhattacharjee's new book on Gandhi, General Shrinagesh's memoir and talk to translators of three recent anthologies on challenges and technique.
Books of the week
Gandhi: The End of Nonviolence (Penguin) by Manash Firaq Bhattacharjee is an account of Gandhi's final 15 months, his presence in riot-hit Noakhali, Bihar, Calcutta and Delhi pre and post Independence, offering courage and healing wounds, and its impact on India. 'Gandhi walked, listened, observed, and spoke in Noakhali and in Bihar because people had been killed and raped, Hindus in Noakhali and Muslims in Bihar,' writes Rajmohan Gandhi in his review. Quoting Bhattacharjee, he says, 'with Gandhi, walking becomes a force in India's political history,' and that it is not an exaggeration to say that 'Gandhi's peace mission in Noakhali, Bihar and Calcutta has no parallel in the history of the violent twentieth century.' In chronicling Gandhi's last phase, Bhattacharjee also refers to the diaries of Mridula or Manu Gandhi, grandniece of Gandhi – 'The nature of her work as a peace worker and her witness account of Gandhi's life and movement [is] her most significant contribution to history.'
Commanded by Destiny (Penguin Veer) is an anecdotal memoir by General S.M. Shrinagesh, the Indian Army's fourth Indian chief between 1955 and 1957. The USP of the narrative, writes Arjun Subramaniam in his review, lies in its sweeping landscape and accurate recollection of military and political events during the fledgling years of India's evolution as a nation-state. 'One of the most detailed parts of the book is reserved for his role as the Corps Commander in charge of the two divisions that saw all the action in the first India-Pakistan War of 1947-48. The narrative around the sieges of Leh and Poonch is riveting and his recollections of specific actions and operational plans are excellent.'
Spotlight
Banu Mushtaq and Deepa Bhasthi's International Booker Prize win for Heart Lamp, a first for Kannada, has again put the spotlight on regional languages. Meenakshi Shivram has a conversation with translators of three recent regional anthologies to understand the process and the function of translations. The Early Classic Stories Series (published by HarperCollins) is edited by Mini Krishnan. The first three collections in the series comprise stories translated from Odia (by Leelawati Mohapatra, Paul St-Pierre and K.K. Mohapatra), Malayalam (Venugopal Menon) and Kannada (Susheela Punitha) — covering a century, mostly from the 1890s onwards.
'These books share, with deep sensitivity, a flavour of our own lives as we lived then. The translators of all three collections showcase their own empathy as they perceptively mirror our past to us.' Malayalam translator Venugopal Menon says he could relate to the old value systems through his forebears. 'There was a subtle dignity and pride they thrived on despite the inevitable urge to sustain social status. Nevertheless, honour was at a premium. And they seemed to think crime is evil,' he says.
Kannada translator Susheela Punitha, 87, has seen this world first-hand. 'It is the world of my grand children that seems stranger,' she quips.
Odia translator K.K. Mohapatra talks of an emotional connect. 'What struck us repeatedly was the quiet dignity of many of these protagonists, the ethical depth of their struggles, and the understated but profound critique that some stories offered of their own milieu,' he says. 'There is also a tenderness in the telling, that allows us to connect, even across time.'
While the Odia translators say their guiding principle is to remain as faithful as possible to the original, Punitha points out that both 'embellishing and interpreting' are sometimes required to make it intelligible to the reader. Menon, for instance, keeps 'the non-Malayali reader topmost in mind.'
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Acclaimed mathematician, Marcus du Sautoy takes readers from stone circles to Bach to Shakespeare to explain why art and a creative mindset is crucial for discovering new mathematics. He argues how a fundamental connection to the natural world links arts and science in Blue Prints: How Mathematics Shapes Creativity (HarperCollins).
(HarperCollins). The Ghadar Movement was conceived in 1913 in the U.S. by Indian immigrants, led by Lala Har Dayal and others. The group planned to smuggle arms to India and incite a mutiny in the British-Indian army. In The Ghadar Movement: A Forgotten Struggle (Penguin/Viking), Rana Preet Gill writes an account of the movement and explains why it failed.
(Penguin/Viking), Rana Preet Gill writes an account of the movement and explains why it failed. Penguin has announced that Arundhati Roy's forthcoming memoir, Mother Mary Comes to Me , is open for pre-order. It will be available in bookstores in September. Roy looks back at her relationship with her mother Mary Roy, who passed away in September 2022. The grief memoir – Roy had fled from home when she was 18 -- is filled with 'moments of anger, joy, heartbreak, longing, tenderness, and deep introspection.'
, is open for pre-order. It will be available in bookstores in September. Roy looks back at her relationship with her mother Mary Roy, who passed away in September 2022. The grief memoir – Roy had fled from home when she was 18 -- is filled with 'moments of anger, joy, heartbreak, longing, tenderness, and deep introspection.' Best-selling writer Taylor Jenkins Reid (Daisy Jones & The Six) is out with her new novel Atmosphere (Penguin) which is set during NASA's 1980s Space Shuttle Program and is about an unexpected romantic story that blossoms in space.