Books of conscience, books of courage, books of pain: Harsh Mander’s 15 favourite books of 2024
Mander’s picks chronicle the worst and best of India.
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The year that we have left behind was a testing time for the Indian republic. Under unremitting assault was everything I hold most dear – love, freedom, justice, kindness.
In troubled times like these, where do I turn? I turn to people I love, to my friends. I turn to myself. But I turn also to music, to films and to books.
It was books that spoke to me most this past troubled year. Books of conscience, books of courage, books of pain. Truth-telling, of prejudice, hate and violence. Of how these wrench and ravage people’s lives. Of brutal state persecution and societal injustice. Of our finest hearts and minds caged for years behind prison walls.
But also, of Kabir and the finest in our civilisational traditions. Of being raised in times when free, democratic, secular, socialist India was imagined and built. Of the daring dreams and pledges of the Constitution. And of the audacious hope of people’s resistance.
So let me list here some of the books of 2024 that linger most in my heart and mind.
City on Fire: A Boyhood in Aligarh, Zeyad Masroor Khan
This electrifying memoir of growing up in a ghetto in Aligarh seized my heart from its opening pages. Journalist Zeyad...
