Srikar Raghavan
Born in Bangalore and brought up in Mysore, Srikar wrote this book while living in a small village named Parkala in South Canara. Something of that inward trajectory has permeated these pages, he believes. An inveterate bookworm, Srikar fancies himself more of a reader than a writer. He also loves to trek, travel and fiddle around on a guitar.
He is graduated from Manipal Center for Humanities (MCH) with an M.A in English in 2020.
NIF Books
Karnataka is one of India’s most diverse states, as rich in literary and cultural traditions as it is in democratic struggles and political churns. The twentieth century witnessed the birth of a modern Kannada renaissance, accompanied by the emergence of a powerful social conscience. One young man’s desire to explore this vibrant historical backyard, born out of a feeling of being linguistically unmoored, compounded by worries over an increasingly opaque political direction, leads to an ambitious—no, audacious—attempt to unpack the region’s social and cultural histories.
Rama Bhima Soma is an enterprise of translation and rediscovery, packed with stories and conversations. The life and times of legends like Kuvempu and Shivaram Karanth; the fall of Socialism and the rise of the Hindu Right; the intellectual ruminations of U.R. Ananthamurthy, D.R. Nagaraj and M.M. Kalburgi; the wildly popular television serials of T.N. Seetharam and the community-centred one-woman theatre shows of Du Saraswathi; a brief history of Naxalism in Karnataka and glimpses of other complicated legacies of the 1970s’ Left—the book explores a dizzyingly wide sweep of Karnataka’s contemporary history, seeking, above all, to forge new connections and begin fresh conversations.
Marshalling a diverse range of literary and scholarly resources, framed through biographical sketches and immersive reportage, Srikar Raghavan’s genre-bending work of narrative non-fiction reanimates some pivotal moments in the making of modern Karnataka. The result is a sizzling dish of ideas rescued from the deep freeze of historical amnesia.
Reviews:
‘A wonderfully fresh rediscovery of Kannada modernity. Srikar’s hunger for ideas from the great intellectual crosscurrents of the 1970s and ’80s gives us a book rich in educated hope—that this past could breathe new life into our increasingly stultified present.’ — ANJUM HASAN, author, most recently of History’s Angel
‘Srikar Raghavan’s Rama Bhima Soma defies easy categorisation. Part rumination, part scholarly survey, it seamlessly blends literary, cultural, intellectual and social history to paint a portrait of Karnataka … Learned, richly detailed and eminently readable …’ — MANU S. PILLAI, historian and author, most recently of Gods, Guns and Missionaries: The Making of the Modern Hindu Identity
‘A brilliant exposition of the many sagas within the cultural history of post-Independence Karnataka, with considerable focus on dalits, women and the urban working class … An exhilarating read.’ — MUDNAKUDU CHINNASWAMY, Kannada poet and Sahitya Akademi awardee
‘The research is rich, the prose finely crafted. Rama Bhima Soma shall have an enduring influence on how we view what is one of the most interesting and important states of the Union.’ — RAMACHANDRA GUHA, author, most recently of Speaking with Nature
‘Rama Bhima Soma takes a mighty go at characterising the cultural life of Karnataka and succeeds admirably … A bold and brilliant book, as vigorous and enjoyable as the game of its title.’ — SRINATH PERUR, author and translator, most recently of Vivek Shanbhag’s Sakina’s Kiss
Book Awards
Atta Galatta–Bangalore Literature Festival Book Prize 2025 for Non-Fiction
Shortlisted for the Godrej Literature Live! Literary Awards 2025