Without clear regulatory mechanism against AI data mining, Indian publishers have begun adapting voluntary frameworks. Madhuri Kankipati argues for the urgent need for the AI governance guidelines to set legislation and protect creative workers in a multilingual, digitally expanding nation.

In the art of filmmaker Deepa Mehta and writer Ismat Chughtai, Farah Ahamed explores themes of patriarchy, infidelity, and a testament to the desires of women.

Sanjana Ramachandran’s debut Famous Last Questions investigates the clash of the personal with the sociopolitical. The author speaks about masking and unmasking herself, finding comfort in contradictions, and the flawed institutions of marriage, relationships, and work. By Karan Madhok

Personal Essay: Who has access to knowledge? Ph.D. scholar Swathi Priya explores how multidisciplinary lenses of caste inclusion, neoliberal market, liberal ideology, mental health imperatives, and literature inform her larger research goals.

Through memories, juxtapositions, and observations of the intricate, the poems about Guwahati in The Penguin Book of Poems on the Indian City (2025) portray a city that no longer exists, having metamorphosed into a new ‘synthetic’ space marred by politics and reckless urbanisation. By Ayaan Halder

Acclaimed author Meena Kandasamy discusses the uncompromising and unapologetic resolve in her writing, confronting violence with art, and why activism is a form of love. By Saurabh Sharma

Through her memoir, Arundhati Roy revisits the foundry where her courage was forged, to the mother who didn’t prepare her for success, but inadvertently trained her to withstand both adoration and hatred to determine her survival. By Amritesh Mukherjee

Written with understated, sublime beauty, Sarvesh Wahie’s Mussoorie Daze (2025) is a literary and philosophical text that examines the ontology of a lost Himalayan paradise, and the changing character of memory, self, solitude, and community. By Abhimanyu Kumar

In a detailed conversation, poet Madhu Raghavendra speaks about his literary journey, finding space for politics in his poetics, the inspiration of art and bhakti in his work, and more. By Chittajit Mitra

Mehak Jamal’s Loal Kashmir (2025) is a witness, a tender archive of what it means to love in a region of conflict—how intimacy reshapes itself around checkpoints, how longing endures without signal bars, how the heart insists on ordinary joys in extraordinary times. By Shivani Patel

In Night in Delhi (2025), Ranbir Sidhu lays bare the city of shadowlands, and of lives pushed to the margins of visibility and worth, as it exists in continuum alongside the bright and aestheticized metropolis. By Anjali Chauhan

The picture book Roop and the River Crossing (2025)—written by Samina Mishra and illustrated by Shivam Choudhary—gently nudges its readers to reflect upon the ideas of home, belongingness, displacement, and what it means to be uprooted as one steps into the unknown. By Navtoj Khosla

Amrita Pritam, Saadat Hasan Manto, and Kamala Das were all writers who, even in life, lived on the edge of taboo, scandal, and self-revelation. In death, stripped of agency, their voices have been reframed by the very people who claim to honour them. By Treya Sinha

Meena Kandasamy’s collection Tomorrow Someone Will Arrest You is poetry as resistance literature, where aesthetic beauty and political activism merge to challenge a nation’s conscience. By Amritesh Mukherjee

Neha Dixit, the author of The Many Lives of Syeda X, speaks about the story of an ‘invisible’ India through the tale of one working-class woman, her approaches to journalism, and the “collective failure” of Indian society. By Saurabh Sharma

‘However, the happiness was short lived. Soon there was a knock on the door and all hope of love was lost for them. Ayush’s family had informed the police that their son had gone missing for a few hours, and they suspected he had been kidnapped by militants.’ By Arshi Javaid

Despite a lack of narrative focus, Anisha Lalvani’s Girls Who Stray (2025) is a welcome, urgent entry to contemporary Indian literature, a poetic voice echoing the angsts of a generation of Indians, and specifically, of Indian women who refuse to be assigned to their roles. By Karan Madhok

Told through the perspective of twisted innocence, Sakyajit Bhattacharya’s The One Legged looms large with uncertainties, unopened doors, haunted pasts, and an atmosphere of pure terror. By Sneha Pathak

In his multigenerational saga A Person is a Prayer (2024) Ammar Kalia weaves together several characters, each struggling, yearning, and often failing to find clarity in the shadows of their predecessors. As with many internal struggles, they persist in silence. By Shivani Patel

The Great Nicobar Betrayal (2024) is essential reading for anyone concerned about India’s ecological future and the future of our species on Earth. Tansy Troy discusses the collection with an inspired set of illustrations of the island’s many breathtaking species.

Nalanda was not a singular anomaly but the culmination of a thousand years of intellectual tradition. Amritesh Mukherjee reflects on Abhay K.’s latest book on the subject, and how the ‘mahavihara’ can serve as a beacon for contemporary educational institutions.

Satire: The solution to AI mimicking humans is to have humans mimic the AI that mimics the human. From Vikram Chandra and Salman Rushdie to mythological adventures and a popcorny topsy-turvy romance, here is our preview of the 15 hottest and thoroughly fraudulent Indian books for the 2025 summer. By Karan Madhok

Author and journalist Sudeep Chakravarty speaks about the stories that drive him, wandering across genres, and his Delhi-based latest work, Fallen City. By Amritesh Mukherjee

In a world filled with abstractions, the greatest clarity in Gyan Chaturvedi’s The Madhouse (Pagalkhana) comes from the protagonist’s never-ending pursuit for escape: an escape from the Bazaar, from the dependence on commodification, from being commodified themselves. By Karan Madhok

Manu Pillai, the author of Gods, Guns and Missionaries, speaks to Amritesh Mukherjee about history beyond monochromatic brushstrokes, the highs and lows of social media discourse, Hindu plurality, and some recommended books.

Poetry is a prayerful medium to explore complex, living concepts. Just as fruit falls from the bough to decay within earth and feed the tree, Rajorshi Patranabis’s presents the ritual of cyclical love and devotion in his new collection. By Dustin Pickering

‘Your book felt like the scent of passing months, layered with flowers, rain, spring and autumn—a scent that reached into the city’s deep burrows.’ By Sufia Khatoon

Through intimate details and dialogues, Rachna Singh’s Raghu Rai: Waiting for the Divine invites readers into the expansive vision of the man often hailed as the father of Indian photography. By Neera Kashyap

Poet, author, and translator Snehaprava Das speaks to Mitra Samal about her storytelling process, how translation can enhance creativity, the authors that have inspired her, and more.  

Haroon Khalid’s 2024 novel From Waris to Heer (Penguin) is an answer to the refrain of timeless stories—a tale of love and loss, power and rebellion, retold with the lilt of a Sufi melody. By Amritesh Mukherjee