Watch: Vikram Seth on His Translation of the Hanuman Chalisa, Narendra Modi and a Suitable Girl

Just changing Section 377 not enough: Vikram Seth

Vikram Seth, who revels in the pleasures of both religious poetry and translation, called his translation of the ‘The Hanuman Chalisa’ a labour of love. He has dedicated it to Bhaskar, a character in his epic novel A Suitable Boy (1993). In the novel, Bhaskar learns the poem before he is five. When he is older, he resists the co-option of this poem and other religious texts by those with vested interests. “I learnt the ‘Chalisa’ because I had to know what my characters were seeped in,” Seth says

We are happy to be claimed but not disclaimed the way M F Husain was: Vikram Seth

‘I did it for my own private pleasure’: Vikram Seth on translating the Hanuman Chalisa into English