On the Shoulders of Elephants

Once a while comes a Master who has the power to tame elephants with mere sight, with their very presence. The story about the Buddha subjugating the elephant in masth, Nalagiri, is well known. It is also, of course, symbolic: We take it that the Buddha here is taming desire, lust and attachment. The Awakened One himself is seen as a symbol of immense restraint. The bodhi tree of enlightenment is also a symbol. What is a symbol? It is ‘a sign where the signifier appears to align directly with the signified’. What does this mean? How does the symbolic order shape our collective sense of reality? What is reality? What is a fantasy? What is consciousness?

Navayana is proud to present The Book of Answers: our latest title Elephants in a Sugarcane Field: The Limits of Desire, God, Dreams, Language, Self by Prof Sebastian Vattamattam.

This book exemplifies philosophy—the love of knowledge. Professor Vattamattam, having taught in school and colleges for over five decades, helps us understand complex philosophical theories in the most accessible terms. The elephants that this Master from Ettumanoor, Kottayam, tames are the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek, the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, and the Malayali liberation theologian Sebastian Kappen.

Elephants in Sugarcane Field explains the ideas these thinkers grappled with. In doing so, Sebastian Vattamattam leaves us with profound insights about India’s social and political life. He discusses why swearwords often involve mothers and sisters; he tells us how the Ram Temple acts as a fantasy for Indians; he shows how even anti-caste thinkers fall prey to unconscious structures of caste. From Vipassana to Vaikom Muhammad Basheer, Professor Vattamattam takes recognizable cultural examples to explain heady concepts like objet petit a, the big Other, the unconscious and the Lacanian real.

As a sixteen-year-old, stricken by a fatal heart condition, Sebastian found solace in reading. His prophesied death never came, but he was left with an enduring desire for learning. Now, as an eighty-something retired teacher of mathematics, he wants to share all that he has learned with a new generation of students. A joyous teacher of our times, Vijeta Kumar of St Joseph’s College, Bangalore, says this book is ‘a thing of joy’, for ‘Lacan and Žižek become watchable, touchable, playable.’

Get the book today to understand how your deepest dreams, desires and fantasies are structured.

 

Upcoming Events:

This is also the first time that six of Navayana authors will gather under one roof in Kochi at Hortus, the lit fest hosted by the Manorama group. This will see the formal launch of Prof Vattamattam’s book and also Anand Teltumbde’s rare public appearance outside of Mumbai for the launch of The Caste Con Census, a book that has made waves.

At Manorama Hortus:

  • Anand Teltumbde, author of The Caste Con Census, in conversation with Anand of Navayana
    • 27 November 2025
  • Sebastian Vattmattam in conversation with A/nil (author of The Absent Color)
    • 28 November 2025 | 2.30 pm
  • Gita Ramaswamy, author of Land, Guns, Caste, Woman, in conversation with Malavika Binny
    • 28 November 2025 | 2 pm
  • Ashok Gopal, author of A Part Apart, in conversation with Sanal Mohan P.
    • 28 November 2025 | 5 pm

You can also catch these authors at the Mehrab Bookshop in Kochi:

  • Book signing and meet-and-greet with Gita Ramaswamy and Anand Teltumbde
    • 28 November 2025 | 5 to 7 pm
  • Book signing and meet-and-greet with A/nil and Sebastian Vattamattam
    • 29 November 2025 | 10 am to 12 pm
  • Book signing and conversation between Ashok Gopal and Anand of Navayana
    • 29 November 2025 | 4 to 6 pm
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