Incarnations: India in 50 Lives

The lives and afterlives of 50 incredible Indian people from ancient India to the 21st century

'Essential... whoppingly aurally intense' New Statesman

'... makes the mind fly across time, place and history. You may smile as, mentally, you walk alongside Khilnani up some flinty slope. You will keep thinking about what he said long after.' The Telegraph

Historian Sunil Khilnani, Professor of History and Politics at Ashoka University, takes listeners on an immersive, whirlwind journey from ancient India to the 21st century through the life stories of 50 remarkable individuals, exploring their surprising legacies and illuminating both the wonders and the urgent conflicts of India today.

From the 5th century grammarian Panini, a pioneer in algorithmic thinking, to the wandering poetess Mirabai, challenger of the gender and caste order; from Malik Ambar, a 16th century north African who became a Deccan kingmaker, to Dhirubhai Ambani, the 20th century entrepreneur whose son now ranks among the world's richest billionaires; from Lakshmibai, the 19th century queen who enjoyed weightlifting, wrestling and steeplechasing, and who became a lightning rod for India's attitudes to women, to the contemporary painter M.F. Husain, who shaped a distinctive Indian modernism; Khilnani brings to life an extraordinary panorama of India's most revealing and resonant lives.

Guests featured include Javed Akhtar, one of the great songwriters of Indian cinema, renowned actress Sharmila Tagore, historian Romila Thapar, poet Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, artists Howard Hodgkin and Bharti Kher, Nobel prize-winning economist Amartya Sen, author and political activist Arundhati Roy, and Sanskrit scholar Sheldon Pollock.

With the help of these experts, Khilnani investigates the lives of political strategists and social reformers, filmmakers and farmers, mathematicians and religious gurus, warriors and saints, artists and slaves, industry titans and freedom fighters, who have co-existed in a country bound together by its people, in all their differences and commonalities. The chosen lives conjure up an India full of relevance and infinite range, celebrating the variety of the country in all its diversity of thought, religion, politics and art.

Production credits
Presented by Sunil Khilnani
Produced by Mark Savage, Jeremy Grange and Martin Williams


Editor: Hugh Levinson
Music composed by: Talvin Singh
Researcher: Manu Pillai
Executive Producer: Martin Smith

First broadcast BBC Radio 4 on the following dates:
The Buddha: 11 May 2015
Mahavira: 12 May 2015
Panini: 13 May 2015
Kautilya: 14 May 2015
Ashoka: 15 May 2015
Charaka: 18 May 2015
Aryabhata: 19 May 2015
Shankaracharya: 20 May 2015
Rajaraja Chola: 21 May 2015
Basavana: 22 May 2015
Amir Khusro: 25 May 2015
Kabir: 26 May 2015
Guru Nanak: 27 May 2015
Krishnadevaraya: 28 May 2015
Mirabai: 29 May 2015
Akbar: 1 June 2015
Malik Ambar: 2 June 2015
Dara Shikoh: 3 June 2015
Shivaji: 4 June 2015
Nainsukh: 5 June 2015
William Jones: 8 June 2015
Rammohan Roy: 9 June 2015
Lakshmibai, Rani of Jhansi: 10 June 2015
Jyotirao Phule: 11 June 2015
Birsa Munda: 12 June 2015
Deen Dayal: 26 July 2021
Jamsetji Tata: 27 July 2021
Vivekananda: 28 July 2021
Annie Besant: 29 July 2021
Chidambaram Pillai: 30 July 2021
Ramanujan: 2 August 2021
Tagore: 3 August 2021
Visvesvaraya: 4 August 2021
Periyar: 5 August 2021
Iqbal: 6 August 2021
Amrita Sher-Gil: 9 August 2021
Subhas Chandra Bose: 10 August 2021
Gandhi: 11 August 2021
Jinnah: 12 August 2021
Manto: 13 August 2021
Bhimrao Ambedkar: 16 August 2021
Raj Kapoor: 17 August 2021
Sheikh Abdullah: 18 August 2021
Krishna Menon: 19 August 2021
Subbulakshmi: 20 August 2021
Indira Gandhi: 23 August 2021
Satyajit Ray: 24 August 2021
Charan Singh: 25 August 2021
MF Husain: 26 August 2021
Dhirubhai Ambani: 27 August 2021

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