Pakistan needs to go beyond the 18th amendment to end the military’s role in politics

Reviving the 2010 reform process can be key to resolving Pakistan’s continued crises, but the reforms need to also target the military's massive business empire
Climate change in Bangladesh is driving a dengue outbreak in winter

Dengue is endemic in Bangladesh but the current outbreak is unusual in its scale and seasonality. Many experts have linked the surge in dengue cases with extreme climate events
China courts influence in Sri Lanka via the Buddhist clergy

Beijing needs new allies now that the Rajapaksas are reeling, but the enmeshing of politics and religion in Sri Lanka is always cause for concern
Protests in Gwadar, a BBC documentary on Modi, Tamil fiction in translation and more

January 25, 2023 - Updates and analysis from around the region
Rebound or relapse: Debt restructuring in a time of crisis

A crossborder discussion on economic precarity and the impacts of ongoing debt restructuring processes and negotiations with the IMF in Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

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Protests in Gwadar, a BBC documentary on Modi, Tamil fiction in translation and more

Yameen’s conviction, the Taliban ban on women’s education, Kite Tales and more

Nepal elections, Pakistan’s new Army Chief, ‘Moshari’, and more.

Resisting a coup

How civil society is responding in the face of escalating violence in Myanmar.

From Himal Archives EXPLORE

The general’s atoll

The political grooming of the Maldivian armed forces threatens democracy, as well as the sanctity of the public sphere.

| Sep 26, 2014

Bhutanese mists: ‘Within the Realm of Happiness’ by Kinley Dorji and ‘Becoming a Journalist in Exile’ by T.P. Mishra

Two books present the dichotomy of Bhutan´s image - from one perspective, the progressive-though-traditional idyll, to another, the authoritarian-to-dictatorial regime.

| Jan 01, 2010

The Sweet Perfume of Numafung

A feature film from Nepal remains ethnographically sensitive and provides a window to the specificities of the patriarchy that controls rural life in one corner of the country.

| Nov 01, 2002

A thousand Nepali mutinies(NEpal)

Post-Mandal, post-Mandir (INDIA)

The dowager’s last days

Economic liberalisation and smart new entrants have finally caught up with the manufactures of the Ambassador who had for decades successfully resisted advances in technology and management.

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What’s really behind Jammu and Kashmir’s new Family ID?

Kashmiris fear the scheme is another tool for surveillance and collective punishment by the Indian state.

Sri Lanka’s Easter bombing verdict is reshaping politics and power

Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court has ordered former president Maithripala Sirisena and top security officials to compensate victims of the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings. But Ranil Wickremesinghe, the prime minister at the time, has escaped scrutiny.

Will a new multiplex revive Kashmir’s cinema culture?

India-administered Kashmir opened its first multiplex in September 2022 after nearly three decades

Adivasis in Chhattisgarh use technology to reclaim maps and forest rights

How organisations like Khoj have empowered Adivasis in their bid to redefine state-imposed borders

Southasia Climate Events Tracker

Mapping the impact of the climate crisis across Southasia

Yameen’s conviction, the Taliban ban on women’s education, Kite Tales and more

Southasiasphere episode January 11, 2023: Updates and analysis from around the region

The Muslim-left legacy of an Urdu library in Mumbai

The Awami Idara, rooted in a working-class Muslim neighbourhood, connects the long history of Southasian Muslim labour activism to political movements and events across Mumbai, Southasia and beyond.

What Southasia read in 2022

Book recommendations from a year of reading by Southasian writers, poets, translators and journalists