If leaders are to be judged by their actions, PV Narasimha Rao was our tallest leader. Vinay Sitapati joins Amit Varma in episode 283 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss how Rao showed  conviction and political skill in going against the tides of the day to enable the 1991 reforms, which brought hundreds of millions of Indians out of poverty Also check out: 1. Half-Lion: How PV Narasimha Rao Transformed India -- Vinay Sitapati. 2. Jugalbandi: The BJP Before Modi -- Vinay Sitapati. 3. The BJP Before Modi -- Episode 202 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 4. The Insider -- PV Narasimha Rao. 5. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms -- Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 6. Gandhi's Assassin: The Making of Nathuram Godse and His Idea of India -- Dhirendra Jha. 7. Ascetic Games and Ayodhya: A Dark Night. 8. How the BJP wins: Inside India’s Greatest Election Machine -- Prashant Jha. 9. The BJP’s Magic Formula -- Episode 45 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Prashant Jha). 10. India’s Problem is Poverty, Not Inequality — Amit Varma. 11. On Inequality — Harry Frankfurt. 12. A Life in Indian Politics -- Episode 149 of The Seen and the Unseen. 13. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India — Akshaya Mukul. 14. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 15. The Life and Times of Vir Sanghvi -- Episode 236 of The Seen and the Unseen. 16. The Clash of Civilizations? (the article) -- Samuel Huntington. 17. The Clash of Civilization and the Remaking of World Order -- Samuel Huntington. 18. Cut the Clutter with Shekhar Gupta. 19. Headley And I -- S Hussain Zaidi and Rahul Bhatt. 20. Wanting -- Luke Burgis. 21. Abhijit Bhaduri Breaks the Algorithm -- Episode 279 of The Seen and the Unseen. 22. René Girard on Amazon and Wikipedia. 23. Amit Varma's tweet on winning the Asian Championships of Match Poker. 24. The Blue Bedspread -- Raj Kamal Jha. 25. The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda's Road to 9/11 -- Lawrence Wright. 26. Modi’s Domination – What We Often Overlook — Keshava Guha. 27. India’s Lost Decade -- Episode 116 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Puja Mehra). 28. The Alchemy of Finance -- George Soros. 29. Sturgeon's Law and Survivorship Bias. 30. The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Libertarian -- Amit Varma. 31. Ancient India: Culture of Contradictions -- Upinder Singh. 32. Somanatha: The Many Voices of a History -- Romila Thapar. 33. Romila Thapar, DD Kosambi and Irfan Habib. 34. A Culture of Discrimination Or A Culture Of Emancipation? -- Aravindan Neelakandan on Romila Thapar. 35. The Wire -- David Simon etc. 36. Dekalog — Krzysztof Kieślowski. 37. The Fissures of Modern Hinduism -- Pratap Bhanu Mehta delivers the DD Kosambi Memorial Lecture. 38. Upinder Singh, Nayanjot Lahiri and Iravatham Mahadevan on Amazon. 39. The Power Broker -- Robert A Caro. 40. Robert A Caro on Amazon. 41. The World Is What It Is -- Patrick French. 42. Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China -- Ezra Vogel. 43. Lessons from an Ankhon Dekhi Prime Minister — Amit Varma. 44. Sex tape: Andhra Governor N D Tiwari resigns. 45. Bad liver and a broken heart -- Sunil Murthy on Leela Naidu. 46. The Law of Truly Large Numbers. 47. Unlikely is Inevitable -- Amit Varma. 48. Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln -- Doris Kearns Goodwin. 49. To the Brink and Back: India’s 1991 Story -- Jairam Ramesh. 50. Brideshead Revisited -- Evelyn Waugh. 51. Brideshead Revisited, the TV series. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free! The illustration for this episode is by Nishant Jain aka Sneaky Artist. Check out his work on Twitter, Instagram and Substack.

He's been an academic who's studied the country, and a businessman who's created wealth and jobs. Now he wants to help India achieve its potential. Naushad Forbes joins Amit Varma in episode 282 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about his life and learnings -- and the roadmap that can help India lift its citizens. Also check out:

He grew up in Cairo, spent many years writing on the Middle East, saw the Arab Spring coming, and was bureau chief of the Economist in South Asia. Max Rodenbeck joins Amit Varma in episode 281 of The Seen and the Unseen to share his experiences in journalism, the lessons he learnt in India, and the troubling ways in which it resembles Egypt. Also check out: 1. Max Rodenbeck on Twitter, The New York Review of Books and Wikipedia. 2. Cairo: The City Victorious -- Max Rodenbeck. 3. Selected stories on India by the Economist: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14. 4. The Power of Arabic -- Max Rodenbeck. 5. The Father of Violent Islamism -- Max Rodenbeck. 6. How She Wants to Modify Muslims -- Max Rodenbeck. 7. Bin Laden’s Death: Why the Arab World Shrugs -- Max Rodenbeck. 8. The Long Wait -- Max Rodenbeck. 9. Max Rodenbeck interviewed on What I Did Next. 10. Top Gun -- Tony Scott. 11. The Godfather -- Francis Ford Coppola. 12. Once Upon a Time in the West -- Sergio Leone. 13. Creature Features. 14. Godzilla and Creature From the Black Lagoon. 15. Agatha Christie on Amazon. 16. Tintin on Amazon. 17. Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin. 18. Enid Blyton on Amazon. 19. The Golden Age of Murder -- Martin Edwards. 20. $41,754,153! -- Brandon Sanderson. 21. Brandon Sanderson's record-breaking Kickstarter campaign ends with $41.7 million -- K Holt. 22. Brandon Sanderson on Amazon and YouTube. 23. In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones — Pradip Krishen. 24. Gell-Mann Amnesia. 25. A Nile Journal -- Thomas Gold Appleton. 26. Lawrence Wright on Amazon. 27. Roam Research — and Zettelkasten. 28. US-Bangladesh blogger Avijit Roy hacked to death -- BBC. 29. Inside Bangladesh’s killing fields: bloggers and outsiders targeted by fanatics -- Emma Graham-Harrison and Saad Hammadi. 30. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India — Akshaya Mukul. 31. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 32. The Incredible Curiosities of Mukulika Banerjee -- Episode 276 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Mukulika Banerjee.) 33. The Pathan Unarmed — Mukulika Banerjee. 34. The First Assault on Our Constitution — Episode 194 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh). 35. Nehru’s Debates — Episode 262 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh and Adeel Hussain.) 36. Rukmini Sees India’s Multitudes — Episode 261 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 37. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms -- Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 38. India’s Lost Decade — Episode 116 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Puja Mehra). 39. The Generation of Rage in Kashmir — David Devadas. 40. Radically Networked Societies -- Episode 158 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane). 41. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on agriculture (in reverse chronological order): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. 42. Fixing Indian Education -- Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). 43. Education in India — Episode 77 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Amit Chandra). 44. Njáls saga. 45. Honoré de Balzac on Amazon. 46. The Pleasures and Pains of Coffee -- Honoré de Balzac. 47. Michael Pollan on how coffee enabled the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution. 48. The Lives of Others -- Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. 49. Yol -- Şerif Gören and Yılmaz Güney. 50. Baden Powell on Spotify. 51. Le Bureau. 52. The Anchoring Effect. 53. Narendra Shenoy and Mr Narendra Shenoy -- Episode 250 of The Seen and the Unseen. This episode is sponsored by Paradigm Shift, a new podcast by Microsoft India, produced by ATS Studios and hosted by Harsha Bhogle..Listen to it on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music or any podcast app of your choice. Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free! The illustration for this episode is by Nishant Jain aka Sneaky Artist. Check out his work on Twitter, Instagram and Substack.

The world is changing for women -- but is it getting better? Manjima Bhattacharjya joins Amit Varma in episode 280 of The Seen and the Unseen to describe her journey as a feminist and why she believes in the long arc. She also talks about her book Intimate City, and the changing face of sex work in India. Also check out: 1. Manjima Bhattacharjya on Twitter, YouTube and Google Scholar. 2. Intimate City -- Manjima Bhattacharjya. 3. Mannequin: Working Women in India's Glamour Industry -- Manjima Bhattacharjya. 4. Jhumpa Lahiri on Amazon. 5. Empire of the Sun -- Steven Spielberg. 6. In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones — Pradip Krishen. 7. Farouk Abdul-Aziz and Kuwait Cine Club. 8. Nancy Drew on Wikipedia and Amazon. 9. The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande -- Episode 263 of The Seen and the Unseen. 10. Some episodes on The Seen and the Unseen that touched on feminism with Paromita Vohra, Kavita Krishnan, Kavitha Rao, Namita Bhandare and Shrayana Bhattacharjya,  11. Kali For Women. 12. Jagori. 13. Mrityudand -- Prakash Jha. 14. The Ferment of Our Founders -- Episode 272 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Kapila). 15. Rukmini Sees India’s Multitudes — Episode 261 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 16. Bargaining with Patriarchy -- Deniz Kandiyoti. 17. On the Road to Change -- A conversation between Kavita Krishnan and Amit Varma. 18. If It’s Monday It Must Be Madurai — Srinath Perur. 19. One Bad Law Goes, but Women Remain Second-Class Citizens -- Amit Varma. 20. Most of Amit Varma’s writing on DeMon, collected in one Twitter thread. 21. Who gains from the new Maternity Benefit Act Amendment? -- Devika Kher. 22. Here’s What’s Wrong With the Maternity Benefits Act -- Suman Joshi. 23. Why Children Labour (2007) -- Amit Varma. 24. Metrics of Empowerment — Episode 88 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Devika Kher, Nidhi Gupta and Hamsini Hariharan). 25. The #MeToo Movement -- Episode 90 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Supriya Nair and Nikita Saxena). 26. An Economist Looks at #MeToo -- Episode 92 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan). 27. Superforecasting — Philip Tetlock & Dan Gardner. 28. The Problem that Has No Name -- Betty Friedan. 29. Kamla Bhasin and Abha Bhaiya. 30. Live Sex Acts -- Wendy Chapkis. 31. Beautiful Thing — Sonia Faleiro. 32. Two Girls Hanging From a Tree -- Episode 209 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Sonia Faleiro). 33. Daily Rituals — Mason Currey. 34. Daily Rituals: Women at Work — Mason Currey. 35. Thin Places -- Ann Armbrecht. 36. Cheryl Strayed on Amazon. 37. Mahanagar — Satyajit Ray. 38. India = Migration -- Episode 128 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Chinmay Tumbe). 39. India Moving — Chinmay Tumbe. 40. Abhimaan -- Hrishikesh Mukherjee. 41. Natasha Badhwar on Amazon. 42. Parenthood -- Episode 43 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Natasha Badhwar). 43. Yuzvendra Chahal's bullying. 44. Memories and Things — Episode 195 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aanchal Malhotra). 45. Temporarily Yours – Intimacy, Authenticity and the Commerce of Sex -- Elizabeth Bernstein. 46. The Girlfriend Experience. 47. Everybody Lies — Seth Stephens-Davidowitz. 48. The Truth About Ourselves — Amit Varma. 49. Literotica stories archive. 50. The news article about a journalist and some artists forced to strip to their underwear. 51. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on the creator economy with Roshan Abbas, Varun Duggirala, Neelesh Misra, Snehal Pradhan, Chuck Gopal, Nishant Jain, Deepak Shenoy and Abhijit Bhaduri. 52. 11th Lane: Kamathipura -- Sudharak Olwe. 53. Tawaif -- Episode 174 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Saba Dewan). 54. Notting Hill and Pretty Woman. 55. An Educated Woman In Prostitution -- Manada Devi. 56. Factory Girls -- Leslie T Chang. 57. Gangubai Kathiawadi -- Sanjay Leela Bhansali. 58. Elles -- Malgoska Szumowska. 59. The Unbearable Lightness of Being -- Philip Kaufman. 60. Roger Ebert's review of Unbearable Lightness. 61. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, The Phantom of Liberty, That Obscure Object of Desire — Luis Buñuel. 62. The Discreet Charm of the Savarnas -- Rajesh Rajamani. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free! The illustration for this episode is by Nishant Jain aka Sneaky Artist. Check out his work on Twitter, Instagram and Substack.

If you make space for serendipity in your life, good things happen. Abhijit Bhaduri joins Amit Varma in episode 279 of The Seen and the Unseen to describe his journey from the corporate life to the creator economy -- and the lessons he learnt along the way. Also check out: 1. Abhijit Bhaduri on Amazon, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and his own website. 2. Dreamers and Unicorns -- Abhijit Bhaduri. 3. The Digital Tsunami -- Abhijit Bhaduri. 4, Selected talks on YouTube by Abhijit Bhaduri: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 5. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on the creator ecosystem with Roshan Abbas, Varun Duggirala, Neelesh Misra, Snehal Pradhan, Chuck Gopal, Nishant Jain and Deepak Shenoy. 6. A Meditation on Form — Amit Varma. 7. The Prem Panicker Files -- Episode 217 of The Seen and the Unseen. 8. The Curse of Knowledge. 9. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life -- Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen. 10. The Invisible Gorilla. 11. When Daddy Was a Little Boy -- Alexander Raskin and Lev Tokamakov. (Original cover.) 12. Tuntunir Galpa/The tale of The Tailer-Bird -- Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury. 13. The Complete Adventures of Feluda -- Satyajit Ray. 14. Mukh Chai Mukh -- Milan Mukhopadhyay. 15. Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay, Sunil Gangopadhyay, Ashapurna Devi, Nabaneeta Dev Sen, Tarasankar Bandyopadhyay, Banaphul, Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, Shivani and Munshi Premchand. 16. Ravi Shankar, Bhimsen Joshi and Kishori Amonkar on Spotify. 17. Haré Rama Haré Krishna -- Dev Anand. 18. The Charm of Raga Des - Abhijit Bhaduri. 19. SD Burman and Nikhil Banerjee on Spotify. 20. Is Old Music Killing New Music? -- Ted Gioia. 21. The Universe of Chuck Gopal -- Episode 258 of The Seen and the Unseen. 22. Brave New World -- Episode 203 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vasant Dhar). 23. Wanting -- Luke Burgis. 24. Khushwant Singh and Mulkraj Anand on Amazon. 25. RK Laxman, Mario Miranda and Ajit Ninan. 26. In Search of Excellence -- Tom Peters. 27. Mirch Masala -- Ketan Mehta. 28. Ek Ruka Hua Faisla -- Basu Chatterjee. 29. 12 Angry Men -- Sidney Lumet. 30. Housefull Economics. 31. Manu Pillai and Ramachandra Guha on Amazon. 32. Episodes of the Seen and the Unseen w Manu Pillai: 1, 2, 3, 4. 33. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen w Ramachandra Guha: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 34. The Hedgehog And The Fox — Isaiah Berlin. 35. Are you a career3.0 person stuck in a career1.0 Job? -- Abhijit Bhaduri. 36. Miss Excel on Instagram and TikTok. 37. How an Excel Tiktoker Manifested Her Way to Making Six Figures a Day — Nilay Patel. 38. In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones -- Pradip Krishen. 39. How Social Media Threatens Society — Episode 8 of Brave New World (Jonathan Haidt speaking to host Vasant Dhar). 40. Elite Imitation in Public Policy -- Episode 180 of The Seen and the Unseen (on isomorphic mimicry, with Shruti Rajagopalan and Alex Tabarrok). 41. Skeuomorphic Design. 42. The New World Upon Us -- Amit Varma on Alpha Zero. 43. Google's AlphaZero Destroys Stockfish In 100-Game Match -- Mike Klein. 44. Dicing An Onion -- Gordon Ramsey. 45. Satyajit Ray on Amazon. 46. Feluda @ 50 -- Edited by Boria Mazumdar. 47. Days & Nights In The Forest -- Sunil Gangopadhyay. 48. The Art of Translation -- Episode 168 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Arunava Sinha). 49. Wanderers, Kings, Merchants: The Story of India through Its Languages — Peggy Mohan. 50. Understanding India Through Its Languages -- Episode 232 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Peggy Mohan). This episode is sponsored by Knest Manufacturers, India’s largest and the world’s fastest-growing formwork company, which has made real estate development in India more efficient, sustainable and scalable. This episode is co-sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free! The illustration for this episode is by Nishant Jain aka Sneaky Artist. Check out his work on Twitter, Instagram and Substack.

To fight climate change, we need to reform the power sector. Right now, it's dysfunctional. Akshay Jaitly and Ajay Shah join Amit Varma in episode 278 of The Seen and the Unseen to share their roadmap for change.  Also check out: 1. Akshay Jaitly on Twitter, Linkedin, Nicheless and Substack. Ajay Shah on Twitter and Substack. 2. The lowest hanging fruit on the coconut tree: India's climate transition through the price system in the power sector -- Akshay Jaitly and Ajay Shah. 3. Akshay Jaitly and Ajay Shah's aggregated pieces on energy and climate. 4. The Time To Privatise India’s Electricity Sector Is Now -- Akshay Jaitly and Ajay Shah. 5. Root cause analysis for the electricity crisis -- Akshay Jaitly and Ajay Shah. 6. In Service of the Republic — Vijay Kelkar & Ajay Shah. 7. The Art and Science of Economic Policy -- Episode 154 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vijay Kelkar and Ajay Shah). 8. Other episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Ajay Shah: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 9. We Are Fighting Two Disasters: Covid-19 and the Indian State -- Amit Varma. 10. Naren Shenoy's fancy dress competition. 11. Narendra Shenoy and Mr Narendra Shenoy -- Episode 250 of The Seen and the Unseen. 12. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life -- Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen. 13. The Chronicles of Narnia -- CS Lewis. 14. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory -- Roald Dahl. 15. Alistair MacLean and John Steinbeck on Amazon. 16. Grapes of Wrath -- John Steinbeck. 17. Of Mice and Men -- John Steinbeck. 18. André Gide and Albert Camus on Amazon. 19. Another Country -- James Baldwin. 20. Warren Mendonsa Plays the Universal Pentatonic -- Episode 273 of The Seen and the Unseen. 21. Jonathan Haidt on Amazon. 22. Kashmir and Article 370 -- Episode 134 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Srinath Raghavan). 23. Hind Swaraj -- Mohandas Gandhi. 24. Politics and the Sociopath -- Amit Varma. 25. Google Scholar. 26. Roam Research and Zettelkasten. 27. Discom Privatisation Challenged (Dec 2020) -- Akshay Jaitly. 28. Regulation in India: Design, Capacity, Performance -- Edited by Devesh Kapur and Madhav Khosla. 29. The Use of Knowledge in Society -- Friedrich Hayek. 30. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. 31. History of UN Climate Talks. 32. The Evolution of the UNFCCC -- Jonathan Kuyper, Heike Schroeder and Björn-Ola Linnér. 33. The COP List. 34. The Road From Rio (1993) -- Prodipto Ghosh and Akshay Jaitly. 35. William Nordhaus versus the United Nations on Climate Change Economics -- Robert P Murphy. 36. Hotter than the human body can handle: Pakistan city broils in world’s highest temperatures -- Ben Farmer. 37. Price Controls Lead to Shortages and Harm the Poor -- Amit Varma. 38. The Tragedy of Our Farm Bills -- Episode 211 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah). 39. Lessons from an Ankhon Dekhi Prime Minister -- Amit Varma. 40. Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All -- Michael Shellenberger. 41. Nuclear Power Can Save the World — Joshua S Goldstein, Staffan A Qvist and Steven Pinker. 42. Kim Stanley Robinson on Amazon. 43. Death at Intervals -- José Saramago. 44. The Shape of Water -- Andrea Camilleri. 45. The Terracotta Dog -- Andrea Camilleri. 46. 12 Bytes: How artificial intelligence will change the way we live and love -- Jeanette Winterson. 47. The Singularity Is Near -- Ray Kurzweil. 48. Report to Greco -- Nikos Kazantzakis. 49. Seven Brief Lessons on Physics -- Carlo Rovelli. 50. Michael Dibdin on Amazon. This episode is sponsored by Knest Manufacturers, India's largest and the world's fastest-growing formwork company, which has made real estate development in India more efficient, sustainable and scalable. This episode is co-sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free!

He grew up breathing Kannada literature -- and he also embraced the globalised world. Sugata Srinivasaraju joins Amit Varma in episode 277 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss this confluence of the old and the new, the near and the far, his society and the world.  Also check out: 1. Sugata Srinivasaraju in Outlook, ToI/Mumbai Mirror, New Indian Express, The Wire, Mint, Twitter and his own website. 2. Furrows in a Field -- Sugata Srinivasaraju. 3. Pickles from Home: The Worlds of a Bilingual -- Sugata Srinivasaraju. 4. Keeping Faith with the Mother Tongue -- Sugata Srinivasaraju. 5. Sugata Srinivasaraju on his father, Chi Srinivasaraju: 1, 2, 3. 6. Maharashtra Politics Unscrambled -- Episode 151 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Sujata Anandan). 7. Dodda Alada Mara (Big Banyan Tree). 8. GP Rajarathnam, AR Krishnashastry, P Lankesh and KS Nissar Ahmed on Wikipedia. 9. The Tell Me Why series of encyclopedias -- Arkady Leokum. 10. Stendhal, Honoré de Balzac, Victor Hugo and Charles Baudelaire on Amazon. 11. Rayaru Bandaru Mavana Manege -- The KS Narasimhaswamy poem Sugata translated. 12. Phoenix and Four Other Mime Plays -- Chi Srinivasaraju (translated by Sugata Srinivasaraju, who tweeted about it here.). 13. Ahobala Shankara, V Seetharamaiah, Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, KV Narayana, Noam Chomsky, DR Nagaraj, Jorge Luis Borges and Tejaswini Niranjana. 14. Lawrence Weschler on how Akumal Ramachander discovered Harold Shapinsky. 15. AK Ramanujan and Gopalakrishna Adiga. 16. The Penguin Book of Socialist Verse -- Edited by Alan Bold. 17. Gandhi as Mahatma: Gorakhpur District, Eastern UP, 1921-22 -- Shahid Amin. 18. Kraurya -- Girish Kasaravalli. 19. Deconstructing Derrida -- Sugata Srinivasaraju. 20. Yaava Mohana Murali -- Gopalakrishna Adiga's poem turned into a song. 21. Ram Guha Reflects on His Life -- Episode 266 of The Seen and the Unseen. 22. Understanding Gandhi. Part 1: Mohandas — Episode 104 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha). 23. Understanding Gandhi. Part 2: Mahatma — Episode 105 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha). 24. Modern South India: A History from the 17th Century to our Times -- Rajmohan Gandhi. 25. Ki Ram Nagaraja at Book Brahma. 26. A Map of Misreading -- Harold Bloom. 27. The Singer of Tales -- Albert Lord and David Elmer. 28. ಪಂಪ ಭಾರತ ದೀಪಿಕೆ: Pampa Bharatha Deepike -- DL Narasimhachar. 29. The Open Eyes: A Journey Through Karnakata -- Dom Moraes. 30. Dom Moraes on DR Bendre's love for numbers. 31. DR Bendre, Kuvempu, Shamba Joshi, MM Kalburgi, Shivaram Karanth, VK Gokak and Chandrashekhar Patil. 32. Da Baa Kulkarni, Sriranga, Nabaneeta Dev Sen, Bhisham Sahni, Kartar Singh Duggal and HY Sharada Prasad. 33. His Will Was His God -- Sugata Srinivasaraju on HY Sharada Prasad. 34. Jeremy Seabrook on Amazon. 35. Aakar Patel Is Full of Hope -- Episode 270 of The Seen and the Unseen. 36. The Rise and Fall of the Bilingual Intellectual — Ramachandra Guha. 37. The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande -- Episode 263 of The Seen and the Unseen. 38. Sara Rai Inhales Literature -- Episode 255 of The Seen and the Unseen. 39. The Art of Translation -- Episode 168 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Arunava Sinha). 40. Negotiating Two Worlds, Bilingualism As A Cultural Idea -- Sugata Srinivasaraju delivers the HY Sharada Prasad Memorial Lecture. 41. Karunaalu Baa Belake -- A Kannada version of 'Lead, Kindly Light'. 42. Liberal impulses of our regional languages -- Sugata Srinivasaraju. 43. Why Resisting Hindi is No Longer Enough -- Sugata Srinivasaraju. 44, The Indianness of Indian Food -- Episode 95 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vikram Doctor).

How did one of the greatest nonviolent movements in history emerge from within the supposedly violent Pathans of the wild frontier? Why do poor people in India vote even though there seems to be no point to it? Why does an ancient garment like the sari endure -- but democracy seem in peril? Mukulika Banerjee joins Amit Varma in episode 276 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss the questions that kept her up at night -- and the lessons they hold for us. Also check out:1. Mukulika Banerjee at LSE, Google Scholar, Amazon and Twitter. 2. The Pathan Unarmed -- Mukulika Banerjee. 3. Why India Votes -- Mukulika Banerjee. 4. Cultivating Democracy -- Mukulika Banerjee. 5. The Sari -- Mukulika Banerjee and Daniel Miller. 6. Muslim Portraits: Everyday Lives in India -- Edited by Mukulika Banerjee. 7. The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande -- Episode 263 of The Seen and the Unseen. 8. Thomas Hardy on Amazon. 9. Maxim Gorky, Leo Tolstoy and Anton Chekhov on Amazon. 10. The Proposal -- Anton Chekhov. 11. Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew on Amazon. 12. The House of the Dead -- Fyodor Dostoyevsky. 13. An American Werewolf in London -- John Landis. 14. The Emergency: A Personal History -- Coomi Kapoor. 15. Where Have All The Leaders Gone? -- Amit Varma. 16. India’s Greatest Civil Servant -- Episode 167 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Narayani Basu, on VP Menon). 17. The Complete Dramatic Works of Samuel Beckett. 18. Abdul Ghaffar Khan: Faith Is A Battle -- DG Tendulkar. 19. Kabuliwala -- Rabindranath Tagore. 20. Kabuliwala (1961 film) -- Hemen Gupta. 21. 'That Killed Cat Lives With Me' -- Isaac Asimov's quote. 22. The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock -- TS Eliot. 23. The Life and Times of Nirupama Rao -- Episode 269 of The Seen and the Unseen. 24. The #MeToo Movement -- Episode 90 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Supriya Nair and Nikita Saxena). 25. Urban Governance in India -- Episode 31 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan). 26. 'Tell a Sanghi/Bhakt at a job interview...' -- SirKazamJeevi's tweet. 27. A Life in Indian Politics -- Episode 49 of The Seen and the Unseen (w JP Narayan). 28. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India — Akshaya Mukul. 29. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 30. Memories and Things -- Episode 195 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aanchal Malhotra). 31. Aakar Patel Is Full of Hope -- Episode 270 of The Seen and the Unseen. 32. Modeling Covid-19 -- Episode 224 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Gautam Menon). 33. Can the Subaltern Speak? -- Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. 34. Gangubai Kathiawadi -- Sanjay Leela Bhansali. 35. Nehru’s Debates -- Episode 262 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh and Adeel Hussain). 36. Mahanagar -- Satyajit Ray. 37. Everybody Lies -- Seth Stephens-Davidowitz. 38. The Truth About Ourselves -- Amit Varma. 39. Electoral Politics in the Time of Change -- Yogendra Yadav 40. The Economics of Voting -- Amit Varma on Rational Ignorance. 41. The Baptist, the Bootlegger and the Dead Man Walking -- Amit Varma on Lal Bihari Mritak. 42. Well Done, Abba -- Shyam Benegal. 43. Rukmini Sees India’s Multitudes -- Episode 261 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 44. The Ferment of Our Founders -- Episode 272 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Kapila). 45. Women in Rajniti and Lokniti -- Mukulika Banerjee (Go to page 19 to read). 46. Nick Hornby on Amazon. 47. The Business of Winning Elections -- Episode 247 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shivam Shankar Singh). 48. Collective Effervescence on Wikipedia. 49. The Manchester School of Anthropology. 50. Desert Island Discs on BBC. 51. Deshe Bideshe (Bengali) (English) -- Syed Mujtaba Ali. 52. Uday Bhawalkar performs Raag Bhairav. 53. Dhrupad by Ustad Mohiuddin Dagar. 54. Songs of the Earth -- Soumik Datta. 55. Messengers -- Soumik Datta. This episode is sponsored by Paradigm Shift, a new podcast by Microsoft India, produced by ATS Studios and hosted by Harsha Bhogle..Listen to it on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music or any podcast app of your choice. Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free! Illustration by Khyati Pathak.

We live in times when all Indian Muslims are forced to be aware of their Muslimness. Hussain Haidry joins Amit Varma in episode 275 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about his life, his art and these difficult times we live in. Also check out: 1. Hussain Haidry on Twitter, Instagram and IMDb. 2. Hindustani Musalmaan -- Hussain Haidry. 3. Lat -- Hussain Haidry. 4. 10 Poems recommended by Hussain Haidry -- Chalchitra Talks. 5. Being Muslim in India -- Episode 216 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ghazala Wahab). 6. Who Broke Our Republic? -- Episode 163 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Kapil Komireddi). 7. The City and the City -- China Miéville. 8. Nida Fazli and Dushyant Kumar at Rekhta. 9. Maximum City -- Suketu Mehta. 10. Shantaram -- Gregory David Roberts. 11. A Fine Balance -- Rohinton Mistry. 12. The Intellectual Foundations of Hindutva -- Episode 115 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aakar Patel). 13. Aakar Patel Is Full of Hope -- Episode 270 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aakar Patel). 14. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India -- Akshaya Mukul. 15. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism -- Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 16. Private Truths, Public Lies -- Timur Kuran. 17. Muslim Portraits: Everyday Lives in India -- Edited by Mukulika Banerjee. 18. Raghu Sanjaylal Jaitley’s Father’s Scooter -- Episode 214 of The Seen and the Unseen (w RSJ). 19. Mohammad Zubair's Twitter thread on the Dharam Sansad. 20. Malevolent Republic -- Kapil Komireddi. 21. The Life and Times of Vir Sanghvi -- Episode 236 of The Seen and the Unseen. 22. The BJP Before Modi -- Episode 202 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 23. Arvind Kejriwal's tweet after the abrogation of Article 370. 24. The tweets by Atishi Marlena and Raghav Chadha. 25. Sangham Sharanam Gachchami -- Vijai Trivedi. 26. Ranga Hari on Amazon. 27. A People's Constitution -- Rohit De. 28. Narendra Modi takes a Great Leap Backwards -- Amit Varma. 29. Most of Amit Varma’s writing on DeMon, collected in one Twitter thread. 30. Hussain Haidry's Twitter thread on blocking. 31. Alishan Jafri on Twitter. 32. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life -- Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen. 33. Aadha Gaon -- Rahi Masoom Raza. 34. Chai Coffee -- Hussain Haidry. 35. You're Missing -- Bruce Springsteen. 36. Hussain Haidry interviewed by Ravish Kumar. 37. Imtiaz Dharker on Amazon. 38. Dugg Duggi Dugg -- Song from Jugni. Lyrics by Shellee, music by Clinton Cerejo. 39. Qarib Qarib Singlle on Spotify. 40. Tanha Begum -- Lyrics by Hussain Haidry, music by Rochak Kohli. 41. Mukkabaaz on Spotify. 42. Haathapai -- Lyrics by Hussain Haidry, music by Rachita Arora. 43. Blond Balma -- Lyrics by Hussain Haidry, music by Rachita Arora. 44. Tu Kahaan Hai -- Song from Tripling. Lyrics by Hussain Haidry, music by Nilotpal Bora. 45. Patang -- Song from Tripling. Lyrics by Hussain Haidry, music by Nilotpal Bora. 46. Chacha Vidhayak Hain Humare -- Lyrics by Hussain Haidry, music by Vishal Dadlani. 47. Bandar Baant -- Lyrics by Hussain Haidry, music by Bandish Projekt. 48. Bahut Hua Samman -- Lyrics by Hussain Haidry, music by Rachita Arora. 49. Ankahi Kahaniya -- Amnibus film that includes Madhyantara, with a screenplay by Hussain Haidry, and directed by Abhishek Chaubey. 50. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie -- Luis Buñuel. 51. Laakhon Mein Ek, Season 2 -- Written by Hussain Haidry. 52. लोहे के स्वाद -- Hussain Haidry. 53. Talkhiyan -- Sahir Ludhianvi. 54. Sahir Ludhianvi, Nida Fazli, Ahmad Faraz, Jaun Eliya, Rahat Indori, Waseem Barelvi, Munawwar Rana, Abbas Tabish, Rehman Faris, Azhar Faragh, Ameer Imam, Naeem Sarmad, Nomaan Shauque, Ali Zaryoun, Tehzeeb Hafi and Umair Najmi on Rekhta. 55. Fahrenheit 451 -- Ray Bradbury. 56. Rangeela -- Ram Gopal Varma. 57. Ghulam -- Vikram Bhatt 58. On the Waterfront -- Elia Kazan. 59. Get Out -- Jordan Peele. 60. Fandry -- Nagraj Manjule. 61. Where is the Friend's Home? -- Abbas Kiarostami. 62. Soiyega Mat - Hussain Haidry. This episode is sponsored by The Desi Crime Podcast. You’ll find them on all podcast apps. The illustration for this episode is one-off offering by Nishant Jain aka Sneaky Artist. Check out his work on Twitter, Instagram, Substack and episode 260 of The Seen and the Unseen. Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free!

India is in bad shape. Bad economics is one reason why. Economists Rajeswari Sengupta and Shrayana Bhattacharya join Amit Varma in episode 274 of The Seen and the Unseen to take stock of the mess. You don't like dissent? Too bad. We're Bongs, and you cannot shut us up. Also check out: 1. Shrayana Bhattacharya on Twitter, Instagram and Google Scholar. 2. Rajeswari Sengupta on Google Scholar and her own site. 3. Demystifying GDP -- Episode 130 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rajeswari Sengupta). 4. Twelve Dream Reforms -- Episode 138 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan, Rajeswari Sengupta & Vivek Kaul). 5. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman -- Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya). 6. Desperately Seeking Shah Rukh -- Shrayana Bhattacharya. 7. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms — Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 8. India’s Lost Decade — Episode 116 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Puja Mehra). 9. The Lost Decade — Puja Mehra. 10. The Art and Science of Economic Policy — Episode 154 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vijay Kelkar & Ajay Shah). 11. Rukmini Sees India’s Multitudes -- Episode 261 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 12. The State of Our Economy (Nov 2021) -- Episode 252 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Puja Mehra and Mohit Satyanand.) 13. Taking Stock of Our Economy (May 2021) — Episode 227 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ila Patnaik). 14. Two Economic Crises (2008 & 2019) — Episode 135 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Mohit Satynanand). 15. The Indian Economy in 2019 — Episode 153 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vivek Kaul). 16. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Ajay Shah (in reverse chronological order): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. 17. Everything That Was Broken -- Mary Oliver (from Felicity). 18. I Boiled My Buttocks for a Week -- Amit Varma on how we normalize everything. 19. Dekalog -- Krzysztof Kieślowski. 20. What the Economy Needs Now -- Various authors. 21. Beware of the Useful Idiots -- Amit Varma. 22. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on the creator ecosystem with Roshan Abbas, Varun Duggirala, Neelesh Misra, Snehal Pradhan, Chuck Gopal, Nishant Jain and Deepak Shenoy. 23. The Anti-Defection Law — Episode 13 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Barun Mitra). 24. Our Parliament and Our Democracy -- Episode 253 of The Seen and the Unseen (w MR Madhavan). 25. Urban Governance in India -- Episode 31 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan). 26. Emergent Ventures. 27. India’s Problem is Poverty, Not Inequality -- Amit Varma. 28. On Inequality -- Harry Frankfurt. 29. We Must Save Our Farmers — Amit Varma. 30. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on agriculture (in reverse chronological order): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. 31. Intent to Implementation : Tracking India's Social Protection Response to COVID-19 -- Shrayana Bhattacharya and Sutirtha Sinha Roy. 32. On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog. 33. Modi’s Lost Opportunity — Episode 119 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Salman Soz). 34. Most of Amit Varma’s writing on DeMon, collected in one Twitter thread. 35. What a Long Strange Trip It’s Been — Episode 188 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Arvind Subramanian). 36. The Median Voter Theorem. 37. The 'bloated and grotesque' tweet by @mrjohndarby. 38. ASER, CMIE and SWAN. 39. The Billion Prices Project. 40. Pramit Bhattacharya Believes in Just One Ism — Episode 256 of The Seen and the Unseen. 41. In Bollywood, women get screen time but very little talk time -- Mohua Das. 42. A Woman, Thinking -- Paromita Vohra. 43. Lost in the Shallows -- Amit Varma on Dear Zindagi. 44. The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande -- Episode 263 of The Seen and the Unseen. 45. Mrinal Pande’s pieces for Pragati on women in Indian agriculture: 1, 2. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free!