The Demands of Belonging
Aatish Taseer and Karan Mahajan explore the complex terrain of exile, identity, and the search for home. This essential dialogue confronts the "unfinished detonation" of the Partition of India, revealing how its aftershocks continue to shape the modern self and challenge our understanding of what it means to belong. Listen in for a discussion rich with personal insight and historical depth.
Experience the Episode
Presented by Literatures of Annihilation, Exile, and Resistance
Aatish Taseer and Karan Mahajan explore the complex terrain of exile, identity, and the search for home. This essential dialogue confronts the “unfinished detonation” of the Partition of India, revealing how its aftershocks continue to shape the modern self and challenge our understanding of what it means to belong. Listen in for a discussion rich with personal insight and historical depth.
This event was recorded on on December 10, 2025.
Featured Speakers:
- Karan Mahajan, Author, Associate Professor in Literary Arts at Brown University
- Aatish Taseer, Reporter, Writer
- Azareen Van Der Vliet Oloomi, American Novelist and Non-Fiction Writer, Founder of Literatures of Annihilation, Exile & Resistance
Meet the Speaker: Aatish Taseer
Aatish Taseer was born in 1980 and educated at Amherst College in Massachusetts. He worked as a reporter at Time magazine and has written frequently for Time, The Sunday Times, and Prospect Magazine. He speaks five languages and currently lives between London (England) and New Delhi.
Meet the Speaker: Karan Mahajan
Karan Mahajan is the author of Family Planning, a finalist for the International Dylan Thomas Prize, and The Association of Small Bombs, which was shortlisted for the 2016 National Book Award and was named one of the New York Times Book Review’s “10 Best Books of 2016.” In 2017, he was selected as one of Granta’s Best Young American Novelists. His writing has appeared in the The New Yorker, The New York Times, Vanity Fair, The New York Review of Books, and other venues. He is an associate professor in Literary Arts at Brown University. His third novel, The Complex, will be released in March 2026.