Editorial: Issue 15/ September 2024

This rather short issue contains three works of fiction, features six poets, and showcases the brilliant cover art by Mad Paule. Just as the refusal to turn into a rhinoceros (from Eugene Ionesco’s play “Rhinoceros,” 1959) is a testament to our sustained efforts at remaining human, refusing to be flattened into a mob or herd, literary spaces are a cultivation of what imbues meaning to retaining the politics of human dignity. This issue studies the theme of oppression, experiences from the margins of social life as well as the emotional register of these invocations in literature. The poets here are eager to articulate the ineffable residing in the everyday, and simultaneously, the greatly tragic arc of everyday developments. History speaks through this issue in various expressions—in forms of solidarity, resistance, regret, gentle repose, faith, and wonder. If we listen closely to these, we are to discover ourselves in our capacity of remaining, or even becoming, human.

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gulmohur stands in solidarity with the jailed activists and intellectuals of the Bhima Koregaon case; the victims of communal hatred and of state violence; the victims of caste and gender violence; the victims of fundamentalist oppression anywhere in the world; and with all those who dissent in the spirit of democracy to safeguard our ever-diminishing freedoms. We stand for the liberation of Palestine.  

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We would like to express our profound thankfulness to our readers and well-wishers everywhere. We are immensely grateful to all our friends (on and off social media) who have helped us reach out. We also thank our contributors for trusting us with their submissions.

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We hope you enjoy reading Issue 15 of the quarterly. 


Editors

gulmohur

September 2024