Novelist, poet, short story writer, playwright, editor, journalist, Dharamvir Bharati was a colossus of the Hindi literary world. Born in Allahabad, he studied Hindi at Allahabad University and went on to teach there as well. Deeply influenced by western intellectual thought, from the works of Karl Marx to the writings of Albert Camus and Jean Paul Sartre, he also studied the great Indian texts such as the Mahabharata, works of philosophy and the poetry of luminaries like Kabir and Surdas. The 1950s were his most creative years when he wrote some of his most outstanding works.
Manuela Ciotti is Associate Professor of Global Studies at Aarhus University. She has carried out extensive research in India on modernity, Dalit communities, gender and politics, as well as on the
