Sometimes my son asks in English: “Baba, what does duniya mean?” It means the world, beta, the world that I have lost. The world of Hindi

BY Amitava Kumar 21 May 2014

To return to Patna is to find the challenging thought of death, like the tip of a knife, pressing against my rib.

BY Amitava Kumar 5 November 2013

It wasn't just about standing up for freedom of expression in India: maybe I was doing something more humble and honest. I was trying to restore a sense of balance to my own personal practice of literary criticism.

BY Amitava Kumar 21 February 2012

He was indicted on charges of conspiring to kidnap Henry Kissinger. He never published a classic text nor did he achieve anything like fame. The publication of his Selected Writings is an occasion for sorrow as well as celebration.

BY Amitava Kumar 20 November 2006

Fidelity to his interlocutors, and to their detail and circumstance, as much as the intelligence and brightness of Mehta's own prose, makes it an extraordinary debut--a debut that will rival Arundhati Roy's in fiction.

BY Amitava Kumar 4 October 2004