Episodi

  • Nithin Sridhar, "Chatuh Shloki Manusmriti: An English Commentary" (Vitasta, 2025)

    Nithin Sridhar, "Chatuh Shloki Manusmriti: An English Commentary" (Vitasta, 2025)
    May 7 2026
    Manusmriti occupies a prominent place in Indian textual tradition as one of the authentic sources of dharma. However, contemporary engagement with the text has been wrought with prejudice and discomfort left in the wake of colonialism. Chatuh Shloki Manusmriti: An English Commentary (Vitasta, 2025) aims to address the gap in contemporary approach and facilitate a better understanding through a philosophical analysis of the first four verses of Manusmriti, shedding light on the object, purpose and relevance of dharma texts. Rather than reducing Manusmriti to a mere relic of the past through a historical study, the book locates the text within the larger Hindu epistemological, ontological, and theological worldview and extracts the eternal teachings embedded within it. The book addresses common misconceptions on topics such as the definition of dharma, the integrity and importance of Manusmriti, the notion of ritual competency, and the Hindu conception of varna. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/indian-religions
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    43 min
  • Vidhya & Parani, "O Dharmaputri!: Indian Heart, Yogic Wings" (Garuda Prakashan, 2025)

    Vidhya & Parani, "O Dharmaputri!: Indian Heart, Yogic Wings" (Garuda Prakashan, 2025)
    Apr 30 2026
    A parent's heartfelt letter to their daughter, Uma—and you—on abundant and conscious living—with the light of timeless Indian wisdom. Standing at the threshold of her adult life, Uma asks: “What’s my purpose? How do I choose meaningfully? What is true fulfilment?” As parents, rooted in a lineage of freedom fighters and now global citizens, we’ve shared the teachings of our ancestors—from childhood stories to dinner debates. But will this knowledge still guide Uma’s heart as she soars toward new horizons? Discover how wisdom that sustained generations can enlighten your path—whether you’re in Mumbai or Manchester, seeking purpose in career, joy in relationships, or just figuring out the meaning of existence. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/indian-religions
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    50 min
  • The MANTRAMS Project: Mantras in Religion, Media, and Society in Global Southern Asia

    The MANTRAMS Project: Mantras in Religion, Media, and Society in Global Southern Asia
    Apr 23 2026
    Carola Lorea discusses the MANTRAMS project, a major ERC Synergy Grant initiative jointly hosted by Oxford, Vienna, and Tübingen dedicated to producing a history and anthropology of mantras. The six-year project investigates mantras across millennia and geographies — from their roots in Indian religious traditions through their circulation across South and Southeast Asia to their role in global spiritualities today — building extensive sonic, textual, and visual archives along the way. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/indian-religions
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    39 min
  • Shameem Black, "Flexible India: Yoga's Cultural and Political Tensions" (Columbia UP, 2023)

    Shameem Black, "Flexible India: Yoga's Cultural and Political Tensions" (Columbia UP, 2023)
    Apr 23 2026
    Yoga has offered the Indian state unprecedented opportunities for global, media-savvy political performance. Under Modi, it has promoted yoga tourism and staged mass yoga sessions, and Indian officials have proposed yoga as a national solution to a range of social problems, from reducing rape to curing cancer. But as yoga has gone global, its cultural meanings have spiraled far and wide. In Flexible India: Yoga's Cultural and Political Tensions (Columbia University Press, 2024), Dr. Shameem Black travels into unexpected realms of popular culture in English from India, its diaspora, and the West to explore and critique yoga as an exercise in cultural power. Drawing on her own experience and her readings of political spectacles, yoga murder mysteries, court cases, art installations, and digital media, Dr. Black shows how yoga’s imaginative power supports diverse political and cultural ends. Although many cultural practices in today’s India exemplify “culture wars” between liberal and conservative agendas, Flexible India argues that visions of yoga offer a “culture peace” that conceals, without resolving, such tensions. This flexibility allows states, corporations, and individuals to think of themselves as welcoming and tolerant while still, in many cases, supporting practices that make minority populations increasingly vulnerable. However, as Dr. Black shows, yoga can also be imagined in ways that offer new tools for critiquing hierarchical structures of power and race, Hindu nationalism, cultural appropriation, and self-help capitalism. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/indian-religions
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    47 min
  • Gudrun Bühnemann, "Scholar, Serpent, Yogin, and Devotee: The Many Faces of Patañjali in Indian Traditions" (Brill, 2025)

    Gudrun Bühnemann, "Scholar, Serpent, Yogin, and Devotee: The Many Faces of Patañjali in Indian Traditions" (Brill, 2025)
    Apr 16 2026
    Scholar, Serpent, Yogin, and Devotee: The Many Faces of Patañjali in Indian Traditions (Brill, 2025) illuminates the many faces of Patañjali in Indian traditions. Often regarded as an incarnation of the cosmic serpent Ādiśeṣa or Anantanāga, Patañjali is celebrated, in both story and art, as a grammarian, scholar and practitioner of yoga, physician-alchemist, medical authority, teacher, ascetic, and devotee of the Dancing Śiva (Naṭarāja). The first three chapters examine the literary works attributed to Patañjali, explore legendary accounts and beliefs associated with this multifaceted figure, and survey temples and shrines dedicated to the sage. The following five chapters trace the development of Patañjali’s iconography from its earliest forms in Tamilnadu, South India, to contemporary examples. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/indian-religions
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    40 min
  • Karen O'Brien-Kop and Suzanne Newcombe eds., "Religion, Spirituality and Public Health" (British Academy, 2025)

    Karen O'Brien-Kop and Suzanne Newcombe eds., "Religion, Spirituality and Public Health" (British Academy, 2025)
    Apr 9 2026
    Religion, Spirituality and Public Health: Competing and Complementary Epistemes (British Academy, 2025) focuses on exploring the role of different 'ways of knowing' or arriving at truth, i.e. epistemes, particularly those found in religious and alternative health milieus. While biomedical solutions offer a dominant narrative, these are articulated differently in global contexts. Moreover, individuals often draw upon alternative framings that are sometimes oppositional to and at other times engaged with directives from medical and governmental authorities. The focus of this volume is worldviews and epistemes that are often marginalised or rejected in dominant discourses -- from shamanism in Korea to African Pentecostalism in Britain, and from global online 'AntiVax' narratives to traditional Siddha medicine in South India. Detailed case studies explore the contested, competing and strategically aligned relationships between mainstream and marginal epistemes; between religious healing, spirituality and biomedicine; and between politics and belief. These explorations promote greater insight into how marginalised religious epistemes are employed. Which beliefs and practices are drawn upon to create meaningful and effective responses? And how can we better understand the depth and breadth of these reactions to design more successful public health strategies for future global health crises? Links Inform: here Book: here Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/indian-religions
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    50 min
  • Asif Iqbal, "Bangladesh in Anglophone and Vernacular Literature: Cultural Imaginings of a Postcolonial Nation" (Routledge, 2025)

    Asif Iqbal, "Bangladesh in Anglophone and Vernacular Literature: Cultural Imaginings of a Postcolonial Nation" (Routledge, 2025)
    Apr 2 2026
    Bangladesh in Anglophone and Vernacular Literature: Cultural Imaginings of a Postcolonial Nation (Routledge, 2025) illuminates individual and collective imaginings of postcolonial Bangladesh. It explores the emergence of Bangladesh as a nation from a variety of perspectives. The author studies the impact of Muslim nationalism on the subaltern life-worlds of East Bengal during the Partition, religious minorities and their insecurity in East Pakistan, East Pakistan’s political insurgencies, the victims of the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, the Indian stake in the 1971 War, and the cosmopolitan interpretations of the war. The literary and cultural texts that inform this project include contemporary Bengali novels, South Asian Anglophone literature, as well as selected visual media and digital sources. The project’s reading of these texts in conjunction with politics and history has interdisciplinary relevance. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/indian-religions
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    36 min
  • Indology in Canada Conference: A Conversation with Dagmar Wujastyk

    Indology in Canada Conference: A Conversation with Dagmar Wujastyk
    Apr 1 2026
    Introducing a new conference to showcase the breadth and vitality of Canadian research on premodern India. We discuss the vision behind the conference and what to expect from this inaugural gathering at the University of Alberta on May 4–5, 2026. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/indian-religions
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    38 min