Narrating India

CASI Seminar

CASI Spring 2016 Visiting Fellow

Samanth Subramanian
Writer & Journalist
Center for the Advanced Study of India
3600 Market Street, Suite 560 (5th floor)
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104

About the Speaker:
Samanth Subramanian is the India correspondent for The National and the author of two books, Following Fish: Travels Around the Indian Coast (Atlantic Books, 2012) and This Divided Island: Stories from the Sri Lankan War (Thomas Dunne Books, 2015), which was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Non Fiction Prize and won the Crossword Non Fiction Prize. He has written for The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Guardian, Granta, Intelligent Life, and The Wall Street Journal.

About the Lecture:
What are the sorts of stories that journalists and non-fiction writers can tell from India today? Why, in a complex country in a state of deep flux, are gripping narratives — biographies, or popular histories, or even travel literature — so rare? Through his experiences in writing "Following Fish" and other works of narrative journalism, Samanth Subramanian explains the challenges and rewards of plying his craft in India. He also analyzes India's frantic media landscape, a source of great heat but little light, operating under limitations and, in turn, imposing limitations upon its journalists.

[Event Flyer]

The Nand & Jeet Khemka Distinguished Lecture Series is an endowed public program of the Center for the Advanced Study of India (CASI). Launched in the 2007-08 academic year, and made possible through the generous support of the Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation, the series brings renowned India specialists to the Penn community and serves as a critical forum for analyzing and understanding the complex economic, political, social, and cultural changes that the world’s largest democracy is experiencing, as well as the challenges that lie ahead.
The Saluja Global Fellows Program has been made possible by the generous gift from Vishal Saluja ENG’89 W’89. CASI was excited to launch the program during the 2022–23 academic year, coinciding with the Center’s 30th Anniversary. This new program enables CASI to invite eminent leaders and rising experts on contemporary India preferably from the fields of media, culture, law, and contemporary history to be in residence for one to two weeks at CASI.