Essays exploring the lasting impact of Habib Tanvir's pioneering theatre which blended tradition with modernity in the post-Independence Indian theatre scene.
 
This collection of essays delves into the profound legacy of Habib Tanvir (1923–2009), a luminary in the post-Independence Indian theater scene. Tanvir's decades-long contributions as a director, poet, playwright, and actor are explored by a diverse group of scholars, practitioners, and peers. The book examines his pivotal role in founding the Naya Theatre in 1959, a pioneering group blending rural traditions with contemporary theatre, challenging conventional norms.
 
Against the backdrop of contemporary societal and political shifts, the essays reflect on Tanvir's fearless resistance against the right wing in his later years, particularly his challenges to religious dogma and caste discrimination in works like Ponga Pandit. The collection also emphasizes the enduring impact of Tanvir's seminal work, Charandas Chor, highlighting its adaptability across varied cultural landscapes.
 
With international contributors, the book expands beyond national borders, showcasing Tanvir's impact on global theatre and cross-cultural collaborations. The essays in this volume assert Tanvir's continued relevance, positioning his ideals as a guiding force for India amid evolving cultural and political landscapes.

A trenchant, darkly humorous, and unsentimental look at Calcutta society.

Set in Calcutta in the mid-1980s, Truth/Untruth is a fast-paced thriller built around the death of the pregnant Jamuna—a maid in a newly affluent residential apartment complex—and Arjun, the upwardly mobile businessman who seduced her. Packed with a cast of colorful characters, this novel is a trenchant, darkly humorous, and unsentimental look at the different segments of Calcutta society: from the middle-class culture vultures to the unscrupulous “promoter” class and the domestic helpers and slum goons who form an intrinsic part of the city’s life. All are implicated in a complex web of guilt and bizarre twists and turns. Sex, lies, death—the great modernist themes—run like a thread through this book, exposing societal greed, lust, corruption, and moral hypocrisy with a sardonic tone that spares none. An unusual novel by an author who is otherwise known for her hard-hitting activist-feminist stories, Truth/Untruth underlines the exploitative vicious cycle that defines urban relations between the haves and have-nots.