U.R. Ananthamurthy

Keerti Ramachandra

Born out of a meditation on the ideas of the nation state and nationalism, and what the new power structures and centres mean for the very idea of India, Hindutva or Hind Swaraj is a manifesto - written in the form of aphorisms, using shifting tones and styles to make a deep, elegant and heartfelt point about the human cost of radicalization. This last work of Jnanpith award winner and pre-eminent writer U.R. Ananthamurthy is a creative response to the rise of Hindutva nationalism in India. Juxtaposing V.D. Savarkar's idea of Hindutva with M.K. Gandhi's concept of Hind Swaraj, the book examines the two directions that were open to India at the time of Independence.

Hindutva or Hind Swaraj

Samskara is one of the acknowledged masterpieces of modern world literature, a book to set beside Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Tayeb Salih’s Season of Migration to the North. Taking its name from a Sanskrit word that means “rite of passage” but also “moment of recognition,” it begins when Naranappa, an inhabitant of a small south Indian town and a renegade Brahmin who has scandalously flouted the rules of caste and purity for years, eating meat, drinking alcohol, marrying beneath him, mocking God, unexpectedly falls ill and dies. The question of whether he should be buried as a Brahmin divides the other Brahmins in the village. For an answer they turn to Praneshacharyah, the most devout and respected member of their community, an ascetic who also tends religiously to his invalid wife. Praneshacharyah finds himself unable to provide the answer, though an answer is urgently needed since as he wonders and the villagers wait and the body festers, more and more people are falling sick and dying. But when Praneshacharyah goes to the temple to seek a sign from God, he discovers something else entirely—unless that something else is also God. Samskara is a tale of existential suspense, a life-and-death encounter between the sacred and the profane, the pure and the impure, the ascetic and the erotic.

A Rite for a Dead Man

Samskara

Chandan Gowda

A fascinating portrait of the life and ideas of the great Indian writer and public intellectual, U.R. Ananthamurthy. Between 2012 and 2013, Ananthamurthy shared his personal experiences in a series of lively conversations with academic and writer Chandan Gowda, and reflected on issues that would preoccupy him until the end. Besides the vivid accounts of his childhood, friendships, the evolution of his intellectual life, and public involvements, his passionate ideas on tradition, on India's political culture, and on language and writing make the conversations an engaging and valuable document. A Life in the World - perhaps the first exercise of its kind done with an Indian writer - will enthral both general readers as well as admirers of Ananthamurthy's works.

A Life in the World: U.R. Ananthamurthy in Conversation with Chandan Gowda

Ajji, can I have some water? ... Just a few drops will do, Ajji. With the searing sky above and the blistering earth below, like cactus the people of this parched terrain are determined to stay alive. Emaciated children scurry along, dejected farmers pawn their ploughs, weary women sleep on empty stomachs.... Would those perishing now have died anyway? Or is hunger calling them away prematurely? Filled with social concern, Satisha, the district commissioner, wants to help the afflicted. But he is caught between the politicians who are unwilling to declare the district drought-hit and the murky local realities where a religious outfit strives to protect cows, the desperate youth hold a deity responsible for the failed rains and petty activists seek to secure their own interests. Can the idealist Satisha win the game where corrupt politicians are rolling the dice and stand by his conviction to help the afflicted? Written during the Indian Emergency, Bara depicts the tortuous realities of Indian democracy and captures the political and moral dilemmas of the educated middle class.

Bara

ಅವಸ್ಥೆ ಕಾದಂಬರಿ ಸ್ವಾತಂತ್ರ್ಯೋತ್ತರ ಭಾರತದ ಸ್ಥೂಲ ರಾಜಕಾರಣದ ಒಂದು ಸೂಕ್ಷ್ಮ ಮಾದರಿಯನ್ನು ಕಟ್ಟಲು ಪ್ರಯತ್ನಿಸುತ್ತದೆ. ಜನಪರ ಹೋರಾಟಗಳ ಸೈದ್ಧಾಂತಿಕ ರಾಜಕಾರಣ, ನಕ್ಸಲ್‌ಬಾರಿ ಚಳುವಳಿಯ ಉಗ್ರಗಾಮಿ ರಾಜಕಾರಣ, ನಮ್ಮ ಸಂವಿಧಾನ ಒಪ್ಪಿಕೊಂಡಿರುವ ಸಂಸದೀಯ ರಾಜಕಾರಣ, ನವಶ್ರೀಮಂತ ವರ್ಗದ ಅವಕಾಶವಾದೀ ರಾಜಕಾರಣ ಇವೆಲ್ಲ ಒಂದರೊಳಗೊಂದು ಸೇರಿಹೋದ ಸಂಕೀರ್ಣ ರಾಜಕೀಯ ವಿನ್ಯಾಸವನ್ನು ಹೆಣೆಯುವ ಈ ಕಾದಂಬರಿ ಮಾರ್ಕ್ಸ್ವಾದ, ಗಾಂಧೀವಾದ ಮತ್ತು ಲೋಹಿಯಾವಾದಗಳ ನೇರ ಮುಖಾಮುಖಿಯನ್ನು, ಕಾದಂಬರಿಯ ಬಂಧವನ್ನು ಸಡಿಲಗೊಳಿಸದೆ ಮಂಡಿಸುತ್ತದೆ. ಹೀಗೆ ಈ ಕ್ಷಣದ ಕ್ಷಿಪ್ರ ವಿದ್ಯಮಾನಗಳನ್ನು ಕಟ್ಟಿಕೊಡುತ್ತಲೇ ಅವನ್ನು ರಾಜಕಾರಣದ ಕೆಲವು ಮೂಲಭೂತ ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆಗಳಿಗೆ ಎದುರುಬದರಾಗಿಸುವ ಲೇಖಕ ತನ್ನ ಬರವಣಿಗೆ ಒಂದು ರಾಜಕೀಯ ವರದಿಯಾಗಿಬಿಡಬಹುದಾದ ಅಪಾಯಗಳನ್ನು ಮೀರಿಬಿಡುತ್ತಾನೆ. ಆದ್ದರಿಂದಲೇ ಕಾದಂಬರಿ ಕೇವಲ ಒಂದು ಕಾಲಾವಧಿಯ ರಾಜಕೀಯ ಚರಿತ್ರೆಯೂ ಆಗುವುದಿಲ್ಲ, ರಾಜಕೀಯ ನಾಯಕನೊಬ್ಬನ ಜೀವನ ಚರಿತ್ರೆಯೂ ಆಗುವುದಿಲ್ಲ. ಈ ಅಂಶಗಳನ್ನು ಕಥನ ತನ್ನ ಅಗತ್ಯಕ್ಕೆ ತಕ್ಕಷ್ಟು ದುಡಿಸಿಕೊಂಡರೂ ಅವುಗಳನ್ನು ಇತರ ಹಲವು ಹತ್ತು ಅಂಶಗಳೊಡನೆ ಕಲಾತ್ಮಕವಾಗಿ ಕರಗಿಸಿ ಕೇಂದ್ರರೂಪಕ ನಿರ್ಮಾಣದತ್ತ ಚಲಿಸುತ್ತದೆ. -ಟಿ.ಪಿ. ಅಶೋಕ (‘ಯು.ಆರ್.ಅನಂತಮೂರ್ತಿ: ಒಂದು ಅಧ್ಯಯನ’) A Kannada book by Akshara Prakashana / ಅಕ್ಷರ ಪ್ರಕಾಶನ

ಅವಸ್ಥೆ

Avasthe

Perhaps the most significant work in caste literature since Premchand's Godan (1936), Bharathipura reveals U.R. Ananthamurthy's lifelong preoccupation with moving beyond caste and class interests in a modern society.

Bharathipura

Narayan Hegde

A literary colossus - THE NEW YORK TIMES One of the greatest Indian writers of the last century - PANKAJ MISHRA A masterpiece that will continue to speak to generations - K. SATCHIDANANDAN First published in Kannada in 1978, Avasthe is U.R. Ananthamurthy's tour de force. In a nation struggling with corruption and the corrosion of human values, the prime minister is all set to become a ruthless dictator. From his sickbed, Krishnappa Gowda, revolutionary leader of the peasants, grapples with his conscience, the schemes of partymen and flattery from hangers-on. Memories come and go as his mind, tethered to a failing body, reaches for the true meaning of life. In Ananthamurthy's hands, life's cruel negations - caste, poverty, pettiness - are delicately balanced with its triumphs - the splendour of nature, the majesty of poetry, the delight of friendship, the deliverance of love. The quintessential Indian novel, Avasthe is a masterpiece whose meanings will continue to resonate and reveal themselves long after it has been read.

U.R. Ananthamurthy

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