2013 saw the publication of a collection of Lapata's translations of Ashk's short stories. You can read excerpts from the collection here and an interview with Lapata here. CNN returned to talk to her about her art and her new book (link), and again to ask the "terror artist" about the offensiveness of Rolling Stone's depiction of that good-looking white boy. Sanyasi returned the gaze and observed that CNN's reading of Lapata's art reflects "something fundamental about the relationship of art (or representation, more broadly) and politics in our times, namely, a conservative turn in the culture about the subjects proper of art, writing, and scholarship." Taking some time off from painting terrorists, Lapata also reviewed 'Aisha Jalaal''s hagiography of Manto.
Sepoy began the year by completing his Berlin series (III , IV), and ended by translating Faiz. In the middle was his review of Dalrymple's latest that found D's critique of empire to be "at the service of bettering Western-driven governance in Afghanistan and the pacification of Afghan tribes." And then, there was his piece on the Pakistani elections for the paper of record (yes, that). In this piece he made some bizarre statement about peasants and laborers having agency, which irked some folks who pointed out that those deaf and dumb slaves only act out the narratives that their superiors set. Sepoy responded by arguing for understanding “agency and contingency in an historical event from the perspective of the subaltern, the vanquished, the dispossessed, the marginalized […].” And so it went.
Sanyasi returned to CM with reflections on the violence of American paranoia from the Hindu-German conspiracy to its present day Islamophobic avatar, and with reviews of Ramachandra Guha's latest (link) and Niraja Gopal Jayal's Citizenship and its Discontents: An Indian History (link,). He also gave us a glimpse of his forthcoming book, Refuge: A Work of Memory, Cities, and Loss. Speaking of forthcoming publications, Sepoy discussed his approach for the book he is working on (here, here), and Bulleyah contributed an essay (here, here) on Sepoy's forthcoming chapter (link) in an edited volume.
Sepoy also wrote about growing up in Dubai, and Basanti about surveillance in the KSA and the USA (link). Our friend MNJ reflected on “[t]he power inherent in autobiographies, and our fascination with them” in a three-part essay on Mahvish Khan's memoir My Guantánamo Diary: The Detainees and the Stories They Told Me (I, II, III).
We published a greater number of guest posts this year, bringing to our readers glimpses of JLF, Kurdistan, and Kabul; a review of Vollman's memoir; a comment on “the politics of 'Razakar memory' in Andhra Pradesh"; a reflection on the “everyday political in Paromita Vohra's documentary films"; and AJK's Shura City. Of all these many excellent guest posts, Prof. Veena Oldenburg's contribution was truly a cut above.
In 2013, CM launched a new series of conversations to discuss and introduce new and exciting scholarship on South Asia. The interviews with Teena Purohit and Kavita Datla are the first of what we hope will be an ongoing feature of CM. Bint Battuta started contributing excerpts from her readings to CM (here, here). Also, with a satire of LUMS' paindu day, our friend, Mutiyar, started contributing to CM.
PS. Where are you from? Or, how I became a Pakistani?
PPS. OMG, OMJ.
PPPS. I reviewed a couple of books for Dawn (link).
PPPPS: Here are the previous year-end summaries: 2010, 2011, and 2012.