New Book Announcement: “Yogis, Bhaktas & Sufis: Religious Traditions in Medieval North India, c. 1000-1450” by Subin Sabu

Yogis, Bhaktas & Sufis: Religious Traditions in Medieval North India, c. 1000-1450, Subin Sabu (Motilal Banarsidass Publishing House, June 2025)

Yoga has become highly popular worldwide and is generally received with enthusiasm in the western world. But it is mysterious in nature as, several interpretations have been offered by scholars from antiquity to recent times. Earlier, Yoga was practiced in the spiritual, philosophical and metaphysical sense in Indic traditions. In the medieval period, it was transformed by Hathayoga where physical exertions were applied to achieve the path of Samadhi. Also, it influenced two mainstream traditions prevalent in north India, Hinduism and Islam, in creating their respective mystical movements.

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“Someone to Watch Over You” by Kumi Kimura

Tae Kudo is a neurotic 46-year-old woman who has become something of a hypochondriac in the early months of the coronavirus pandemic. Some of her experiences will be deeply familiar to most readers—like her caution about masking or disinfecting her groceries. Others, like her hyperfixation on conscious capitalism, the environmental impact of her actions, or even refusing to be in the same room as a houseguest, may not.

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Podcast with James DJ Brown, author of “Cracking the Crab: Russian Espionage Against Japan, from Peter the Great to Richard Sorge”

The Russians came late to Japan, arriving after the Portuguese and other European powers. But as soon as they arrived, Russia tried to use spies and espionage to learn more about their neighbor—with various degrees of success. Sometimes, it failed miserably, like Russia’s early attempts to make contact with pre-Meiji Japan, or the debacle during the Russo-Japanese War.  Other times, they were wildly successful, like during the Battle of Khalkin Gol or with Richard Sorge’s spy ring during the Second World War.

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“From Southeast Asia to Indo-Pacific: Culture, Identity, and the Return to Geopolitics” by Amitav Acharya

The marketing blurb for Amitav Acharya’s most recent book From Southeast Asia to Indo-Pacific begins, rather portentiously, “Southeast Asia was created by geopolitics, and it might die with it.” The book itself, thank goodness, is a considerably more measured (and clearly-written) overview of how Southeast Asia and ASEAN came to be more or less synonymous and how the region, as a region, might fare in the newly-turbulent world of the second quarter of the 21st century.

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“Ali Banisadr: The Alchemist”, edited by Michelle Yun Mapplethorpe

Ali Banisadr: The Alchemist is a new publication and exhibition organised by the Katonah Museum of Art and the first major museum survey of Iranian-born artist Ali Banisadr. Covering twenty years of the artist’s practice, the exhibition and catalogue offer a fresh perspective on the artist’s career across the mediums of painting, drawing and printmaking.

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“The Future of Futurity: Affective Capitalism and Potentiality in a Global City” by Poornima Mankekar and Akhil Gupta

The IT sector seems to be concerned with the flow of information across nations. However, it can also be about the flow of emotions. Labour around technology is not only about programming; it can also be about emotional exhaustion.  In The Future of Futurity: Affective Capitalism and Potentiality in a Global City, anthropologists Poornima Mankekar and Akhil Gupta document the workings of call centres by looking at how the BPO “agents” (workers or operators are called agents) navigate the demands of their job: doing “night work”, learning and unlearning accents, and racist abuse from the customers.

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