Summer is the perfect time to slow down with a good book, and our Graduate Student Associates have some great recommendations to inspire your next read. From climate displacement, to questions of identity, to stories set in 1980s Sri Lanka, their picks span a wide range of themes and perspectives. There’s something here for every reader. Happy reading!
Saravanan Thangarajan
Graduate Student Associate; Harvard Medical School
“I would recommend Environment, Climate Change and Migration in South Asia. It reshaped how I understand climate displacement—not as a distant risk, but as a cascade of daily disruptions already unfolding across the region. From vanishing rivers in Assam to saltwater swallowing the Maldives, the book traces how people are forced to move while legal and political systems fail to protect them. It left me reflecting not just on who survives—but on who is seen, and who is forgotten.”
Vaishnavi Patil
Graduate Student Associate; Department of History of Art & Architecture
“I am excited to dive into these two over the summer:
India’s Forgotten Country: A View from the Margins by Bela Bhatia (2024). This powerful collection of essays draws from over three decades of author Bela Bhatia’s work with India’s most marginalized communities. Through deeply personal accounts and on-the-ground investigations, Bhatia documents not only state violence and systemic oppression but also remarkable stories of resilience and resistance. From Gujarat to Bastar, these are voices rarely heard, given space to speak for themselves. I’m looking forward to reading this moving and necessary book this summer.
Optional Practical Training by Shubha Sunder (2025). Set in Cambridge, MA, the novel follows Pavitra, a young Indian woman on an OPT, as she balances teaching, immigration pressures, and her quiet ambition to become a writer. Told entirely through conversations, it offers a fresh and insightful take on identity, belonging, and creative longing. Written by Boston-based author Shubha Sunder, it’s set right here in the city—this is my fun summer read!”
Poorna Swami
Graduate Student Associate; Department of South Asian Studies
“I recommend The Heart Lamp, written by Banu Mushtaq and translated from Kannada by Deepa Bhasti. Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize this year, The Heart Lamp is a collection of twelve short stories written over the last three decades of Mushtaq’s career. These stories are set in western Karnataka and deal with the intimate lives of Muslim women. Brimful of political commentary on patriarchy, religion and class, the stories are moving, funny, and sometimes downright absurd. What’s more, Mushtaq gives us women characters who are neither victims nor saviors, and invites us to meet them on their own flawed terms.”
Elizabeth Karron
Graduate Student Associate; Department of the History of Science
“I recommend The Art of Cloth in Mughal India, by Sylvia Houghteling. This book is a beautiful example of cutting-edge work in the environmental humanities, which draws on textiles, paintings, and poetry to explore how people have interpreted the natural world.”
Pradish Poudel
Graduate Student Associate; Harvard Medical School
“I recommend Khalangama Hamala. Jumla: A Nurse’s Story (Original title: Khalangama Hamala; Nepali: खलंगामा हमला, lit. ‘Attack on Khalanga’) is a 2013 Nepali war memoir by Radha Paudel. Paudel worked as health worker written during the Maoist insurgency in Jumla district in mid-western region of Nepal.”
Arnaaz Ameer
Graduate Student Associate; Harvard Law School
“Here are my favorite books on South Asia:
1. The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida (2022) by Shehan Karunatilaka. This book won the 2022 Booker Prize – it is a bold blend of dark humor, magical realism, and political critique, offering a vivid portrayal of Sri Lanka’s turbulent 1980s through the eyes of a murdered war photographer navigating the afterlife. This novel challenges readers with its non-linear narrative and second-person perspective, rewarding those who embrace its complexity with a profound exploration of truth, memory, and the human cost of conflict.
2. The Golden Age (2007) and The Good Muslim (2011) by Tahmima Anam. A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam offers an intimate and moving portrayal of one family’s experience during the Bangladesh Liberation War, seen through the eyes of a widowed mother who must choose between protecting her children and supporting a revolution. Anam weaves personal and political histories together in beautiful, restrained prose, making this a powerful introduction to the human cost and quiet heroism behind a nation’s birth. The Good Muslim (the sequel to A Golden Age) offers a profound exploration of post-war Bangladesh through the lens of a brother and sister whose diverging paths—one toward secular activism, the other toward religious conservatism—illuminate the personal costs of national trauma. Anam’s evocative prose and nuanced character development provide a compelling narrative that delves into the complexities of faith, family, and the enduring impact of conflict.”
Hilton Simmet
Graduate Student Associate; Harvard Kennedy School
“I would highly recommend Rabindranath Tagore’s Sadhana: A Realization of Life. I believe he gave these first as lectures at Harvard in 1913.”
Shaharyar Zia
Graduate Student Associate; Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations
“I would recommend two books: Aurangzeb by Audrey Truschke and The Emperor Who Never Was by Supriya Gandhi. These two books are especially helpful in un-earthing and challenging the many myths regarding binary assumptions about the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb and his brother Dara Shukoh.”
☆ The views represented herein are those of the interview subjects and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Mittal Institute, its staff, or its Steering Committee.