India

Who can use the term "gone viral" now without shuddering a little? Who can look at anything any more - a door handle, a cardboard carton, a bag of vegetables - without imagining it swarming with those unseeable, undead, unliving blobs dotted with suction pads waiting to fasten themselves on to our lungs?  Read more

After an unprecedented boom in India's publishing industry during the past two decades, many insiders are fearful that it has now reached its saturation point. But the boom is not over, according to David Davidar, who maintains that India is "one of the most exciting book markets in the world" and its future is one of hopes.

A few months ago, my neighbour asked me, ‘Do you have beds in India?' Last week, a white friend asked me, albeit jokingly and drunk, ‘Did you have some spicy curry for dinner before you came?' Do these two examples, among many, reveal a symptomatic Western perception of India as defined by its extremities - poverty, spicy food, idolatry of cricket heroes?  Read more

A generation of aspiring Indian authors, including myself, have grown up on the story of how Arundhati Roy was discovered by the UK-based literary agent David Godwin, and landed more than a million dollars as an advance.  Read more

Writing for The Indian Express, Ashutosh Bhardwaj reports that India's Culture Ministry has decided that artists and writers from across India will be rated, to "prevent a clique from dominating the official cultural space." The ratings will determine who gets sent to which cultural events.  Read more