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“India’s history is a curiously unpeopled place. As usually told it has dynasties, epochs, religions, and castes—but not that many individuals,” Sunil Khilnani writes in his book Incarnations: India in Fifty Lives. In Incarnations, also released as a BBC radio series and podcast, Khilnani explores how the lives of fifty Indians across 2,500 years have shaped India’s history as we know it. We hear from Khilnani about a few of these figures, including the Buddha, poet Mirabai, and filmmaker Satyajit Ray. Khilnani is author of The Idea of India and professor of politics and director of the India Institute at King’s College, London.

Statue workshop India Khilnani

Statue workshop, India. Photo by Sunil Khilnani

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Incarnations: India in 50 Lives podcast

Incarnations book

JIM CUNO:  Hello, I’m Jim Cuno, president of the J. Paul Getty Trust. Welcome to Art and Ideas, a podcast in which I speak to artists, conservators, authors, and scholars about their work.

SUNIL KHILNANI:  I said, “Maybe we should do something really ambitious and think about telling...

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This post is part of Art + Ideas, a podcast in which Getty president Jim Cuno talks with artists, writers, curators, and scholars about their work.
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