Archives: Authors

Andrew Duff is a freelance journalist based in London and Scotland who writes on India and related subjects. In the UK, his work has appeared in The Times, the Financial Times and the Sunday Telegraph, and in India in the Times of India and the India Quarterly. He travels frequently in India and East Asia.

Bibek Debroy (1955–2024) was a renowned economist, scholar and translator. He worked in universities, research institutes, industry and for the government. He has widely published books, papers and articles on economics. As a translator, he is best known for his magnificent rendition of the Mahabharata in ten volumes as well as the three-volume Valmiki Ramayana, both of which have been published to wide acclaim by Penguin Classics. He is also the author of Sarama and Her Children, which splices his interest in Hinduism with his love for dogs.

LAWRENCE HAMILTON is professor of political studies at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) and the SARChI/Newton Research Professor in political theory, University of Cambridge and Wits. He teaches and writes on a range of topics in political theory and development studies from the perspective of the global south. He is the author or editor of seven books including Freedom Is Power: Liberty through Political Representation (2014), Are South Africans Free? (2014) and The Political Philosophy of Needs (2003). He is currently working on a book on the future of democracy.

Chatura Rao is a Mumbai-based author and journalist. She was a recipient of the Laadli National Award in 2017 and The Hindu‘s Good Books award in 2018.

V. V. Ramanan is a quiz master and regular quiz columnist for various publications of the Kasturi & Sons group including The Hindu, Sportstar and Hindu Business Line.

Mahesh Dattani is a playwright, screen Q2311writer, film-maker and stage director with several scripts and productions to his credit. For his writing, he was honored with the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award in 1998. He has directed and scripted critically acclaimed films like Mango Soufflé and Morning Raga. The script of Morning Raga has been archived by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, USA. His screenplays, along with his stage plays, have been published by Penguin. Dattani is also a workshop facilitator for several writing and acting courses, having conducted workshops in many parts of the world, most notably at the Portland State University in Oregon, USA. He has collaborated with international theatre companies like Border Crossings, most recently in Shanghai with Chinese, Swedish and English actors. He also writes scripts for BBC Radio 4.

Sri Madhava Ashish (1920-1997), who was for many years the head of a remote ashram, Mirtola, in the Kumaon hills of northern India, was a spiritual teacher whose teachings transcend conventional religious categories.
Born in Edinburgh, Sri Madhava Ashish was trained as an aircraft engineer in London and came to India during the Second World War. While travelling in India after the war, he met the great sage Ramana Maharshi at Tiruvannamalai and realized the supreme importance of the inner quest. His search led him to Mirtola ashram and to his guru, Sri Krishna Prem, an English professor who had become a Vaishnava monk.
At Sri Krishna Prem’s death, nearly twenty years later, Sri Madhava Ashish became the head of the ashram and with his successor, Dev Ashish, he transformed the ashram farm and forest, making it a model for environmentally sound rural development. He served on several Planning Commission committees for hill development, and was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India in 1992 for his work on environmental education.
In his teachings, Sri Madhava Ashish integrated tradition and modern thought, eastern wisdom and western analysis. He wrote a number of articles and books for international publications.

Srividya Natarajan is the author of the novels No Onions Nor Garlic (2006), and Undoing Dance (2018). She cowrote Bhimayana (2011), the graphic biography of Dr B.R. Ambedkar. She lives in London, Canada, where she teaches English and Creative Writing at King’s University College.