Dear Reader, 

What a year! 2025 has flown by and the end of the year is almost here – and I’m trying to process a massive 12 months for us at Himal. Where do I even begin?

You’ve been reading our newsletters and seeing all the work we’ve done, from the incredible stories to the essential podcasts and beyond. Himal has put out so much terrific journalism in 2025 that I could never recap it all in just one newsletter. So, from now till the end of the year, you’ll see a few newsletters coming your way to highlight just some of the fantastic things that a tiny team of committed journalists can do when given real independence and freedom.

Here’s just a brief preview:

• We stood up in court to defend our investigative story on Vantara – and won! And we saw the story selected as one of the best pieces of investigative journalism produced anywhere in the world in the last two years.

• We published a review essay that pushed the publishing giant Penguin India withdraw a memoir by an alleged Sri Lankan war criminal

• As the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the fountainhead of Hindu nationalism, turned 100, we co-produced a podcast series like none other examining its corrosion of India in the past and the present

• During the Gen Z uprising in Nepal, we covered the country with the depth, accuracy, context and insight that was absent from almost all international coverage

I know I’m not exaggerating when I say that no other publication could have done all this – and much more! – for Southasia and Southasian journalism. In India, with the mainstream media throttled by government pressure and corporate control, almost nobody dares ask hard questions of the RSS in its centenary year or of the Ambani family and its controversial Vantara project. In Sri Lanka, there is still a pervasive silence around powerful figures accused of gross abuses during the country’s civil war. In Nepal, as across the region, the international media struggles to grasp the many complexities and convolutions of Southasian politics and society.

We have a plan to keep doing more stories and podcasts like these, and to keep making Himal better and better. To power our journalism in the year ahead, we’ve set an ambitious goal of signing up 100 new paid supporters before we ring in the new year. And for the next two weeks only, we’re offering our annual USD 99 membership plan – and the iconic Right-Side-Up Map that comes with it – at 25 percent off.

The reason we can do what we do is you! We are nothing without our readers. You read our stories and listen to our podcasts and spread the word about our work. And hundreds of you have stepped up to become paying Himal Patrons to support and enable our uncompromising, uncompromised, independent Southasian journalism. That is what gives us the stability and the faith to keep building Himal and keep fighting for real journalism.

Two weeks left to hit 100 for Himal! Hit that support button now and help us close 2025 on a high. And, in advance – Happy New Year!

All best

Roman

Southasia Mixtape 🔊

If you’ll indulge me just this once, I’m going to cheat. I’ve brought you 11 recommendations for great Southasian music this year, but the last one for 2025 is from further afield.

Of course not all the music I listen to is Southasian, even if a lot of it is. My most-loved and most-played track for this year happens to be from Turkey, via Germany. And I would not share it with you unless I thought there’s something in it that will please your Southasian ears just as it has mine.

There’s plenty that’s shared between Turkic and Southasian music – just tune into some older tunes from Afghanistan or Balochistan, to take but two examples, and I think you’ll know what I mean. Maybe that’s why ‘Bal’, by Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek, caught hold of me so hard and hasn’t let go. Led by Derya Yıldırım, a phenomenal Turkish-German singer and bağlama player, they take the traditions of Anatoliyan folk and rock and bring them roaring into the 2020s.

I’m curious to know what you make of it – and to know if you’ve got a favourite Southasian (or Southasian-ish, like mine) song for 2025. Hit reply to let me know.