Category: Arts & Culture

Tagore at 150

 

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In the beautiful setting of Dartington Hall in Devon, poets, singers and ecologists gather to share their favourite Rabindranath Tagore verse at a festival to mark the 150th anniversary of the Bengali poet’s birth. Introduced by Satish Kumar, Artistic Director of the Festival who is a devotee of Tagore’’s ecological teachings as well as his poetry. (1 x 28′)

First broadcast  July 2011     BBC Radio 4

Contributors: Modern translators of Tagore William Radice and Ketaki Kushari Dyson, former Poet Laureate Andrew Motion, singers Debashish and Rohini Raychaudhuri, environmentalist Jonathon Porritt and internationalist Clare Short .

Producer Mukti Jain Campion

Radio choice: The Daily Mail, The Daily Telegraph

The Future is Halal

 

YNavid Halalou’ve heard of halal meat, but what about halal paintbrushes, halal perfume or halal holiday resorts? Navid Akhtar investigates the astonishing global rise of products and services specifically targeting Muslim consumers – who are predicted to make up 30% of the world’s population by 2025. (1 x 37′)

First broadcast August 2012 BBC Radio 4

 

 

Contributors include: Shelina Jan Mohammed, Abdalhamid Evans, Dr Mah Hussein-Gambles, Daud Vicary, Peter Gould, Dr Karim Douglas Crow, Fazal Bahardeen and Jumatuun Azmi.

Producer Mukti Jain Campion

Radio Choice: The Guardian Guide , The Sunday Telegraph, The Mail on Sunday, The Independent, The Daily Mail, The Times, The Daily Express, The Daily Telegraph

Radio 4 Pick of the Week

The Little Black Fish That Created Big Waves

 

Little Black FishNegar Esfandiary looks inside the covers of one of her favourite childhood books from Iran and discovers a powerful political allegory that has inspired countless activists and artists since it was first published in 1968. (1 x 28′)

First broadcast  August 2011     BBC Radio 4

Storyteller Richard Neville & Letter readings by Ravin Ganatra

Producer Mukti Jain Campion

A little hymn to freedom – Simon O’ Hagan, The Independent

 

Radio Choice: The Times, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, Radio Times

Move Over Wodehouse

India’s English-speaking middle class is expanding fast and expected to reach 500 million by 2025. It represents a dream market for publishers and one that is set to become the biggest in the world. So what books are Indians reading? How are the perennial classics such as Agatha Christie and P.G. Wodehouse faring against the emerging Indian authors? And what does it take to become a bestseller in India? Mukti Jain Campion reports from the Jaipur Literature Festival and from Trivandrum in Kerala, India’s most literate state. (1 x 28′)

The programme was full of humour, interest and symbolic import – D J Taylor, The Tablet

First broadcast   May 2012 BBC Radio 4

Contributors include: best-selling authors Jeffrey Archer, Chetan Bhagat, William Dalrymple, Jaishree Misra and Tarun Tejpal.

Producer Mukti Jain Campion

Radio Choice: The Sunday Times

Radio 4 Pick of the Week

The secret to writing a bestseller in India

Read DJ Taylor’s Tablet Review

Reclaiming the Swastika

 

RECLAIMING THE SWASTIKA

A symbol of fascism or a universal sign for good luck?  Mukti Jain Campion uncovers the long history of the swastika and examines calls for it to be reclaimed from its Nazi links. (1 x 28′)

First broadcast October 2014 BBC Radio 4

Producer Mukti Jain Campion

 

fair, fascinating and exemplary – Paul Donovan, The Sunday Times

 

Radio Choice: The Times, The Daily Mail, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, The Sunday Times, The Mail on Sunday, The Sunday Telegraph, The Observer and Radio Times

BBC Radio 4 Pick of the Week

You can see the swastikas discussed in the programme

Read BBC News article   How the world loved the swastika – until Hitler stole it

Hearing ear