How the IMF bailout is changing Sri Lanka’s foreign policy

The recent IMF bailout package has significantly shifted Sri Lanka’s foreign policy with major players such as China, India and the United States, though such shifts do not seem to bode well for its people
Canadian-Tamil comedian Sunthar V navigates queerness and Tamil identity

Sunthar V, founder of the Tamil Comedy Club in central London, attempts to push social boundaries with his comedy in Chennai
Is an Adani port devastating Kerala’s coast?

Activists say coastal communities and marine life around Kerala’s Vizhinjam Port are paying a heavy price for the Adani Group project
Delhi’s longest-running play reflects the changing city

The shape-shifting ‘Ghalib in New Delhi’ captures 26 years of sociopolitical change in Delhi and beyond
Imran Khan’s attempted arrest, UN appeal for Afghanistan aid, a graphic novel on Naga repatriation and more

March - Updates and analysis from around the region

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Imran Khan’s attempted arrest, UN appeal for Afghanistan aid, a graphic novel on Naga repatriation and more

Election in the Northeast, Bangladesh’s lopsided deal with Adani Power, ‘Gaadi’ and more

Delayed elections in Sri Lanka, tax raids on BBC in India, PTM leader Ali Wazir’s release and more

Swear not by the moon

The contentious politics of lunar sighting in Pakistan.

From Himal Archives EXPLORE

Caging the canary

Raids and arrests in India exhibit intolerance of dissent.

| Sep 04, 2018

Everybody loves a good earthquake

Or how a natural disaster in the neighbourhood is just what belligerent foreign policy needs.

| Jul 12, 2015

Axing Chipko

Chipko is not a movement, it 'was' one. Its energies sapped by excessive adulation, the movement wound up too quickly. For a while, though, Chipko came tantalisingly close to providing for a corner of South …

| Jan 01, 1994

Exponential advantages

Venerating localism

The price of power

Even as Washington lawmakers give their blessing to the historic — and illegal — Indo-US nuclear deal, few involved are addressing the most crucial issue: does India need nuclear power at all?

MORE FROM HIMAL VIEW ALL

A disappeared Maldivian journalist’s family still waits for closure

Eight years after he vanished, and despite an official report pointing to his abduction and murder, Ahmed Rilwan is yet to be declared dead, and powerful officials allegedly linked to the killers evade justice

Punjab’s battles over Bhagat Singh

Controversies over the anti-colonial revolutionary expose Punjab’s political fissures, with the farmers’ protest movement, Communists, Khalistanis, the AAP and other parties all having staked their own claims

Tehreek-i-Taliban is making its way back in Pakistan

Tehreek-i-Taliban’s resurgence reveals the failure of the Pakistan government’s anti-terror policy and its ambivalent, contradictory relationship with Islamist militant groups

The secrets of ‘All That Breathes’

Shaunak Sen’s Oscar-nominated documentary looks at Muslim brothers caring for kites in Delhi, but also carries a veiled message on religious hatred in Modi’s India

Scholarships cuts leave Indian minority students stranded

India has cancelled at least three scholarships supporting minority students pursuing pre-matric, MPhil and PhD degrees

Election in the Northeast, Bangladesh’s lopsided deal with Adani Power, ‘Gaadi’ and more

March - Updates and analysis from around the region

Sri Lanka’s woes with cannabis legalisation

Some propose legalising marijuana production to ease Sri Lanka’s economic crisis. Yet, any move to legalise marijuana cultivation in Sri Lanka will have to overcome a long history of prohibition, social stigma and criminalisation

On night patrol in Sri Lanka’s human-elephant conflict zone

Hambantota in Sri Lanka has been on the frontline for human-elephant conflict for years. 2022 was the worst year yet, with a death toll of 433 elephants and 145 people