Professor
Ravikant is an intermedia historian, translator and archivist. He is the author of Media ki Bhasha-leela, Vani Prakashan, New Delhi, 2016, a book that drew on his doctoral work ‘Words in Motion Pictures’ from Department of History, Delhi University. His collaboratively edited books include Translating Partition: Stories, Essays, Criticism with Tarun Saint (2001); Deewan e Sarai 01: Media Vimarsh: Hindi Janpad (2002), Deewan e Sarai 02: Shaharnama with Sanjay Sharma (2005) and Hinglish Live: Language mixing across media (2021) with Francesca Orsini. He has edited several special issues of journals: with Vineet Kumar, the special issue of Hans: Navsanchar ke Janachar on New/Social Media (September 2018), with Arjumand Ara, Naya Path’s special number published on Sahir Ludhiyanvi’s Birth Centenary (April-June 2021), and with Gajendra Pathak, a special issue of Lamahi on proscribed Hindi-Urdu literature. His collaborative filmography includes Andaz Production's Kali Shalwar (2001), an adaptation of Sa’adat Hasan Manto's eponymous story.
He is the Director of the Indian Languages Programme, and the editor of the peer-reviewed journal, Pratiman. In his archivist avatar, he has conceived several digitisation projects, including the recently delivered Endangered Archives Programme, 1435, granted by the British Library’, and Hindi-Urdu Print for Cinema Project, Modern Endangered Archives Programme, UCLA, which is currently underway. ‘An Intermedia Digital Archive of Folk Culture in North India’, granted by ICSSR, is focused on the public resources of two eastern languages: Magahi and Bhojpuri. Ravikant continues to research the social history of radio-cinema interface in South Asia, and is working on a couple of collaborative exhibitions on popular film appreciation.
Email: ravikant(at)csds.in
Select Publications (Click to Read)
