Dr. Saikat Majumdar is an Indian novelist, critic, and academic who serves as Professor of English and Creative Writing at Ashoka University in Sonipat, Haryana. Dr. Majumdar is a prominent novelist and literary critic who also writes for public venues, including newspapers and online journals, and regularly delivers lectures on issues of literary studies and higher education. His writings have appeared in The Los Angeles Review of Books, Telegraph, Times Higher Education, The Hindu, The Hindustan Times, Outlook, and Times of India.
He is the author of five novels: Silverfish (2007), The Firebird (2015), The Scent of God (2019), The Middle Finger (2022), and The Remains of the Body. In 2024, he published an award-winning work of literary criticism, The Amateur: Self-Making and the Humanities in the Postcolony (2024), and he is currently completely a new monograph, The Critic as Artist as well as a nonfiction treatment of higher education, Open Intelligence: Education Between Art and Artificial, but under contract for publication.
In the selections below, Dr. Majumdar discusses the role of Austen in Indian education and the postcolony as well the changing landscape and challenges and opportunities for the humanities.
Dr. Majumdar Introduces his Work and his Writings
Dr. Majumdar Discusses the Longstanding Role of Jane Austen and Other British Canonical Writings on Indian Education
Dr. Majumdar Explains the Complex Legacies of the British Educational System in India
Dr. Majumdar Reflects on the Challenges of Humanistic Inquiry Within the Current Political Moment
On the Discipline of English in India
Dr. Majumdar Discusses the Need for Free Expression in Humanistic Inquiry
Dr. Majumdar Reflects on the Dangers of Speaking Up in the Current Moment, Especially for Minoritized People
Dr. Majumdar Discusses the Indian Intellectual Tradition of Pluralism and Explains how Art is Where We Take Chances
On the Powers and Dangers of the Humanities to Recreate Nostalgic Versions of the Past
Dr. Majumdar Reflects on the Roles and Responsibilities of the Public Intellectual and the Dangers of Political Extremism