In Context: Behind the Beautiful Forevers, Representing India

In Behind the Beautiful Forevers, Katherine Boo’s documentary account of life in a Mumbai slum, the poor are described in a memorably original way: not sentimentally and not as an excuse for our compassion, but as people as various and flawed as the rest of us in their ambitions and failures. As Hemingway might have said, ‘Yes, the poor are different – they have less money.’

This seminar will explore the ways the poor have appeared in journalism, writing and film-making. With the Indian historian Professor Sunil Khilnani (King’s India Institute), the journalist and writer Ian Jack and Indian film specialist, Professor Rachel Dwyer (SOAS, University of London).