“There's nothing dead about the Indian classics. It's not a revival of anything. It's not a museum piece. I think our classical tradition is alive through the stories our parents and grandparents told us…[and through popular culture]…..but with few exceptions, we don't know about the classics from our neighboring state, right? I always hope that the girl in Chandigarh can read a Mangal Kavya from Bengal, a boy in Patna can read a Telugu classic. Someone sitting in your old hometown, Pune can read Bulleh Shah.”

🎙️ In this episode (100!) of The Indian Edit, join me with writer, scholar, and Editorial Director of Harvard University Press, Sharmila Sen. We explore Sharmila’s personal journey from growing up in Bengal to immigrating to the United States as a child, her reflections on race, belonging, and visibility, and her work stewarding the linguistically ambitious literary project: The Murty Classical Library of India.

Shownotes for Episide 100:

Growing Up Between Worlds

Sharmila’s childhood in Calcutta (Kolkata) and her move to Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1982

Assimilation, accent, and the desire to “disappear” as a young immigrant

Learning Americanness through television, language, and cultural mimicry

Race, Privilege, and Visibility

Coming to understand race in the U.S. as an immigrant from India

The contrast between being part of a dominant group in India and a racial minority in America

The persistent “foreignness” assigned to Asian Americans

Passing, names, and the refusal to erase one’s identity

Language as Identity

Bengali as a lived, literary, and emotional language

Experiences living and working in Pakistan and Bangladesh

Learning Urdu (including Nastaliq script) and Punjabi

The cultural and political significance of language in South Asia

The Murty Classical Library of India

Founded in 2010 with support from Rohan Murty

Inspired by Harvard’s Loeb Classical Library (Greek & Latin classics)

Publishes bilingual editions (original text + English translation)

Covers 2,500 years of writing across 19 South Asian languages

Aims to make Indian classics accessible to scholars, general readers, and future generations

Ten Indian Classics (10th Anniversary Anthology)

Curated selections from the Murty Classical Library

Spans 2,500 years and 9 languages

Includes:

Poems of the early Buddhist nuns (Therīgāthā)

Tulsidas’s Ramayana

Sufi poetry by Bulleh Shah

Guru Nanak’s hymns

Persian chronicles of Emperor Akbar

Urdu, Tamil, Sanskrit, Punjabi, and more

Explores the idea of classics as living traditions, not museum artifacts

Why Indian Classics Still Matter

Classics as “background noise” that continues to shape culture

Stories and verses that live on through oral tradition, popular culture, and daily life

Reading across regions and languages as an act of cultural connection and nation-building

📚 Books & Resources Mentioned

Not Quite Not White – Sharmila Sen (memoir)

The Murty Classical Library of India (Harvard University Press)

Ten Indian Classics – Edited by Sharmila Sen

Amar Chitra Katha

The Ramayana and Mahabharata (regional retellings)

🔗 Find all books and resources at theindianedit.com

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Ep. 100: Bringing Indian Classics to us all with Harvard University Press's Editorial Director Sharmila Sen