Through the last five decades, Nayantara Sahgal has found herself constantly responding to the changes that enveloped India and the world. This book collects her writings and lectures through some of India’s most turbulent phases, written with the critical thought that has made her one of India’s foremost political commentators and with the deeply personal wisdom that comes from lived experience. Known for her refusal to compromise and her analytical acumen, Sahgal has watched some of India’s most historic moments unfold in her own backyard and has always appraised the situation with a critical eye.

The Political Imagination draws from Sahgal’s rich body of work and includes letters and commendations written to her that have never been published before. Combining public history with personal reflections, Sahgal reveals the politics of her own imagination in this collection of her most culturally insightful and politically conscious writings.