Rita Kothari traces the conceptual-linguistic journey of the term “secular” in India, in a special article published by the Economic and Political Weekly. This paper is a set of reflections rather than a unified grand argument on what is one of India’s most used, abused and complex terms. The realm of this subject is too […]

An excerpt from More or Less “translation” by Rita Kothari and Krupa Shah, published in A World Atlas of Translation in 2019. A classic question about India and its over 1000 recorded languages is how did and does India manage communication amidst such linguistic diversity? Surely translation must be the only way. And yet formal […]

Angana Sinha Ray complicates the idea of Linguistic Hospitality, as theorized by Emmanuel Levinas. One of my relatives has been calling my mother to say they will come to Delhi and stay a few days, my mother welcomes the idea but dreads having to make tea differently – with milk and sugar, so the guest […]

Aditya Vikram follows ideas of religiosity and secularism to trace the flow of language, through a reading of Francesca Orsini and Rita Kothari. “Kahay Kabir ek ram japahu re, Hindu Turuk na koi. Kabir says, plunge into Ram! There: No Hindu No Turk.” Hess 67 For Kabir, dwelling and unraveling in the name of ‘Ram’ […]