Words can capture moments with the kind of depth and detail that is unique to the medium of expression. Language, while is a unifier of human beings as a species, can also drive differences among individuals, fuel intolerance in society, start a war. Across history, there are plenty of testimonies of the power of text and speech.
Human beings have discovered various ways to use language but far too few to save those that are fading away. “And what are the processes and consequences of the death of a language? When the last speaker stops speaking or when a large number of speakers migrate out of one language to another one, that’s what makes a language disappear. For example, when the last speaker of the Bo language of the Andaman Islands, the Boa Senior Lady, passed away, the language died with her; similarly, when the last Majhi speaker in Sikkim died, the language also ceased to exist,” wrote scholar Ganesh Narayan Devy in his new book India: A Linguistic Civilization.
We excerpted this and several other books in 2024 that document socio-anthropological evolutions as well as the unravelling of our natural world. Here is a compilation of our stories:
BN Goswamy, one of India's leading art historians, put together a fascinating collection of folktales, paintings, poems and proverbs in his last book.
Is globalisation dead? If so, what will replace this instrument of rules that binds our interdependent world? Sunita Narain, director-general of Delhi-based think tank Centre for Science and Environment, writes on the generational reversal of globalisation.
Former Ambassador Bhaswati Mukherjee writes on how and why the system of indenture replaced the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
Scholar Ganesh Narayan Devy’s new book delves into the multiple linguistic realities of India as a nation.
"Buddha’s concerns were existential and universal. He needed an ordinary language to get across to ordinary people: the kind of metaphors that turn abstract ideas into imaginable forms. The mango must have been handy," writes reporter-author Sopan Joshi in his new book.
Tasha Marrikar's cookbook takes one to the heart of Sri Lanka, with recipes that evoke a sense of familiarity in the Indian reader.
"Solitude is what we seek, while loneliness is thrust on us; solitude has helped writers come up with some of the finest works of literature," Ruskin Bond writes in his new book The Hill of Enchantment.
India ignored its aqua ‘geography of histories’, favouring the terra, writes professor Radhika Seshan in her new book.
Visual anthropologist and author Lopamudra Maitra dives explores the myths and legends of the subcontinent, including the creation myth of the indigenous denizens of the Dibang Valley about River Brahmaputra, in her book.