Listening to the Loom: Essays on Literature, Politics and Violence

Listening to the Loom brings to light a previously unknown body of ideas and essays from renowned Indian Dalit scholar D. R. Nagaraj, representing his most important writings on literature, politics, and violence. Comprised of thirteen pieces— the majority dating from between 1993 and 1998—the book covers a period when Nagaraj produced some of his most important insights.

The title comes from a story recounted by the novelist U. R. Ananthamurthy. Once, while walking in Kathmandu with Nagaraj, his companion asked him to stop and listen to the sound of a weaver’s loom that only he had heard. Ananthamurthy recalls saying to Nagaraj that so long as he retained this ability to hear the sound of a loom, he would never become a “non-resident Indian” intellectual. In this volume, Nagaraj’s ear for the sound and sense of things quintessentially Indian is undeniably apparent.