U.R. Ananthamurthy (1932-2014), author of Samskara and such other contemporary Indian classics, wrote in Kannada. Born in the heart of the Western Ghats, he grew up in an atmosphere steeped in Vedic thought. Suragi is his autobiographical work where he recounts how he grappled with questions of religion and secularism, orthodoxy and modernity, authoritarianism, and democracy. Drawing from Indian thought, he developed the concept of the critical insider,...