The narrative of Nepal’s 2026 election has centred on three political personalities – Balendra Shah, Gagan Thapa and K P Sharma Oli (left to right) – but that framing oversimplifies the stakes. The bigger question is institutional: can Nepal reconcile urgency with restraint?

6 hours ago

After the Gen Z protests, Nepalis will choose between distinct political personalities – Balen Shah, Gagan Thapa and K P Sharma Oli – and different directions for the country’s democracy

Women pose with a cut-out of India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, during a 2023 welfare outreach campaign in Guwahati. In the state of Assam, a life insurance programme meant for low-income households is at the centre of a web of fake deaths and forged documents, revealing the fragility of India’s welfare architecture.

Politics

The business of fake deaths in Assam

Snigdha Poonam

25 Feb 2026

Himanta Biswa Sarma, Assam’s chief minister, addresses a public rally of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Ahead of Assam’s state assembly election, Sarma is ratcheting up anti-Muslim hate as part of a tested BJP strategy to play up communal strife for votes.

Politics

Ahead of Assam’s assembly election, Himanta Biswa Sarma ramps up the hate

Angshuman Choudhury

24 Feb 2026

In 1976, nearing death, Phanishwar Nath Renu wrote to B P Koirala, “My sickness does not allow me to help you with the democratic revolution in Nepal for now.” But the great Hindi writer had done his part, with the pen and with the gun, in the Nepali Congress's 1950 insurrection against autocratic Rana rule. (From left: Mohan Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana, Matrika Prasad Koirala, Phanishwar Nath Renu, King Tribhuvan, B P Koirala, Subarna Shamsher Rana, King Mahendra)

Politics

Phanishwar Nath Renu’s story of Nepal’s 1950–51 insurrection

Phanishwar Nath Renu

19 Feb 2026

In early and medieval India, identities were deeply local and fragmented along the lines of region, caste, tribe, language and kinship. Even widely shared cultural practices and texts suggest commonality only among elites, not the broader population.

Politics

Romila Thapar on the emergence of a common Indian identity

Romila Thapar

28 Jan 2026

Bangladesh: The ballot and beyond

Tarique Rahman has led the Bangladesh Nationalist Party to a landslide victory and now has the tough task of building a credible government, preventing a slide towards authoritarianism or further Islamisation in the country, and recalibrating ties with India.

In Bangladesh, a centrist reset and an Islamist breakthrough

Shakeel Anwar

16 Feb 2026

10 min read

A soldier tries to control Rohingya people as they wait for relief at the Balukhali refugee camp. All major political forces in Bangladesh – past, present and emerging – have used the promise of Rohingya repatriation not as the fulfilment of a humanitarian obligation but as political performance for their own benefit.

The Rohingya are perennial pawns in Bangladesh’s politics

Shafiur Rahman

11 Feb 2026

13 min read

A Jamaat-e-Islami election rally in Sylhet. Progressives who hoped for democratic renewal in Bangladesh after Sheikh Hasina’s downfall now fear a rightward drift, as the Jamaat’s rise reshapes electoral politics and the freedoms of women and minorities.

Bangladesh’s drift to the right before its historic election

Cyrus Naji

10 Feb 2026

9 min read

A woman puts her vote into a ballot box during a mock polling exercise in Dhaka in November 2025. The election on 12 February will have only four percent women candidates in the race for 300 parliamentary seats.

Bangladesh’s women have lost before the country has even voted

Navine Murshid

09 Feb 2026

16 min read

Podcast: The high stakes of the 2026 Bangladesh election

Journalists Zyma Islam and Nusmila Lohani examine the transformations in Bangladesh since Sheikh Hasina’s ouster that will determine the outcome of the 2026 election