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Purushottam Agrawal
Purushottam Agrawal, former professor, JNU and a British Academy fellow at Wolfson college, University of Cambridge also served as member, Union Public Service Commission of India. He has authored many books, including widely acclaimed study of Kabir and his times— Akath Kahani Prem Ki: Kabir ki Kavita aur Un ka Samay ( Hindi, 2009) and Padmavat: An Epic Love Story ( 2018). In 2016, he published his first novel, NACOHUS a Kafkaesque fantasy around the politics of hurt sentiments. His latest book is ‘Who is Bharat Mata?’ ( 2019) on Nehru’s idea of India. A book about Kabir and our times is expected in April. Recently, his weekly lectures on FaceBook and YouTube have been attracting large audiences and are admired for their thought- provoking content and delightful delivery.
Session
Voices of faith : Inspirations from Kabir
Purushottam Agrawal in conversation with Kavita Sharma
" The songs of Kabira, the 15th century Indian poet, carry the legacy of the “living word"". Raised by a family of Muslim weavers, he is revered both as a Sufi mystic and a Hindu devotional saint. An outspoken critic of blind faith and ritual practices, his poems reveal an ideology of love and simplicity. The simple power of his words, spoken and often sung in the colloquial tongue, carry resonance around the world even today. In conversation with academic Kavita Sharma, scholar Purushottam Agrawal discusses the medieval mystic."