The Overseas Student, Cherie Jones, India's Parliamentary District row
Tanika Gupta on her play about an 19 year old Gandhi studying law in UK and Cherie Jones on her Women's Prize For Fiction shortlisted novel.
We're speaking to all the authors shortlisted for the Womenβs Prize for Fiction 2021 and tonight it's the turn of Cherie Jones. Her novel, How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House, is set on and around the Barbados beaches of the 80s. Lala braids touristsβ hair in the idyllic setting but her home life is blighted by poverty, violence and lack of choices β and when she has a baby, a dangerous chain of events is set in motion. Cherie Jones talks about this debut novel that has been years in the writing.
Anish Kapoor wrote an article earlier this month decrying what he described as a βhate-filled campaign to de-Islamify Indiaβ¦via the destruction of a world-class monument.β The monument he was referring to was Indiaβs Parliament which he said was βthe greatest set of government buildings anywhere in the world.β Professor Sarover Zaidi, from the Jindal School of Art and Architecture, and ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ journalist Geeta Pandey, who is based in the ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔβs Delhi bureau, join Samira to discuss the controversial Central Vista Project which aims to redevelop Indiaβs Parliamentary district.
In Tanika Guptaβs new play The Overseas Student the young man who comes from India to study Law is Mohandas Gandhi. While here he strove to fit in as an English gentleman, and was not politically active. But, the playwright tells Samira that his years living in Hammersmith and walking the streets of London shaped the man who became the great leader in Indiaβs independence movement.
Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Julian May
Studio Engineer: Duncan Hannant
Main image: Esh Alladi in The Overseas Student at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith.
Image credit: Helen Maybanks
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Cherie Jones
Image: .Β Image credit: BrooksLaTouche Photography.
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The Overseas Student
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- Wed 23 Jun 2021 19:15ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4
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