Aatish Taseer on exile and the idea of return: Southasia Review of Books podcast #34

Welcome to the Southasia Review of Books podcast, where we speak to celebrated authors and emerging literary voices from across Southasia. In this episode, Shwetha Srikanthan speaks to the writer Aatish Taseer on history, syncretism and the search for belonging at the heart of his new book, A Return to Self: Excursions in Exile (HarperCollins Fourth Estate India, July 2025). https://www.himalmag.com/podcast/aatish-taseer-history-exile-return-to-selfIn 2019, the Indian government under Narendra Modi revoked the writer Aatish Taseer’s Overseas Citizenship, exiling him from the country where he had grown up and lived for thirty years. This loss prompted a journey revisiting the places that shaped his identity, exploring broader questions of the ties that bind us to home. Spanning Istanbul to Uzbekistan, the high Andes to Mongolia, Taseer’s new book, A Return to Self: Excursions in Exile traces a life shaped by displacement and curiosities. He examines how overlapping pasts of culture, migration, and faith shapes both people and places, and what it means to exist in societies scarred by prejudice, exclusion and a contempt of history. This episode is now available on Youtube: https://youtu.be/kXecyexfed8Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/4nC6unjSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6kW2u2LhfxK1AR86405Z52✨Thank you for listening to the Southasia Review of Books Podcast from Himal Southasian. If you like this episode, please share widely, rate, review, subscribe and download the show on your favourite podcast apps. ✉️Let’s keep the conversation going – please share your thoughts on the episode. Leave us a comment on Youtube or write to us at [email protected].📼If you haven’t already, do subscribe to the Himal Southasian YouTube channel and help us spread the word by sharing these episodes widely.🙏🏼 To make conversations like this possible, we need the support of our listeners like you. Become a paying Himal Patron to support the Southasia Review of Books: https://www.himalmag.com/support-himal📚 Sign up to receive the Southasia Review of Books newsletter for Himal’s spotlight on Southasian literature, our latest conversations, and more: https://bit.ly/southasia-review-of-books