Selected Videos


 

Research, Script and Narration by Namit Arora | 10 Episodes | Jan 6–Mar 9, 2024!

A conversation about Indians, hosted by the Kalinga Literary Festival (1 hr).

A talk by Usha Alexander at the International Big History Conference 2021 (1 hr).

Nicholas Gordon, host of the Asian Review of Books podcast, interviews Namit re: Indians (40 mins, audio only).

A chat with the smart and funny Cyrus Broacha on his live show (1:00 hr).

For our learning, natural talents, and labor, what rewards and entitlements can we fairly claim?

Namit Arora's TEDx talk on why civic sense matters, why we Indians have so little of it, and what might raise it.

A documentary on the ancient pilgrimage festival of Kumbh Mela (2013), by far the largest gathering of humans on earth.

Selected Photo Essays


'Beaches, mountains, wildlife and exquisite culture—Odisha is a world unto itself.'

A unique confluence of nature and culture in south India.

"Saints, I see the world is mad.

If I tell the truth they rush to beat me,

if I lie they trust me." –Kabir, 15th cent.

Between 5–13 cent. CE, monks from across Asia came to learn grammar, logic, theology, philosophy, astronomy & medicine.


Selected Writing

On Ecology, Environment
The Overshoot Story India’s approach to global warming cannot mirror the West.
Zoomorphising Humanity On finding a new way of living among our fellow Earthlings.
Stories About the End of the World On our two big challenges: mass extinction, climate change.
The Climate Crisis and India Myths about the climate crisis and India's response to it.

Book Reviews
The Delusion of "Merit" in Indian Higher Education How caste has shaped elite engineering education.
Talk Less, Work More On India's troubled relationship with democratic values.
Coming to America On the making of the South Asian diaspora in the US.
The Perils of Majoritarianism On the ethnic history and politics of Sri Lanka.

On Science, Philosophy, Religion
What Do We Deserve? For our learning, natural talents, and labor, what rewards and entitlements can we fairly claim?
The Paradox of the Belief in a Just World On the fiction that we are the sole authors of our success and our wilful blindness to our inherited privileges.
The Bhagavad Gita Revisited Why the Gita is an overrated text with a deplorable morality at its core. 1: Historical and literary context;   2: Textual critique
What Freedom Means A short essay on India's 72nd Independence Day.

On Eating Animals
"Nearly all meat-eaters in America participate quite directly in a cycle of suffering and cruelty of staggering scale"

 


On History, Culture, Politics, Travel
Deception All the Way Down On Doordarshan's 'documentary film' on Indian heritage.
Namit Arora interviewed by Scroll A conversation about Indians and more.
Sex and the City in Medieval India Why did erotica disappear from Hindu temples?
Of Migrants, Muslims, and Other Non-People Some thoughts on the Coronavirus pandemic in India.
Inside an Indian Family Usha on the secret lives of Indian families, including her own.
A Collective Madness What Modi’s victory says about today’s India.
On the Politics of Identity On the good and the bad in identity politics.
Ambedkar in the Indian Imagination Why mainstream India hasn't given Ambedkar his due.
A Place Called Home A personal, bittersweet essay in which Namit revisits Gwalior, the city where he came of age.


Books by the Writers of Shunya

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