Culture

A group of men gathered at a theatre event. At the centre, Swadesh Deepak, wearing a white shawl and brown trousers, smiles warmly while shaking hands with a man in a striped shirt and jeans. Another man in a white shirt and blue jeans stands nearby, applauding. A few actors in military uniforms and casual clothes stand in the background, also clapping.
Culture
Searching for Swadesh Deepak in Hindi literature
By
Kinshuk Gupta
Two new translations recall the lasting legacy of the Hindi playwright Swadesh Deepak, who disappeared in 2006 but whose critique of power in India remains prescient
A young Anupam Debashish Roy with his paternal grandmother and aunt. They were among members of his family who adopted Brahmin myths and names to pursue reading and education, practices once considered taboo for people from the Namasudra caste.
Culture
My “Namasudra Brahmin” family’s quest for caste dignity in Bangladesh
By
Anupam Debashis Roy
A memoir of one Dalit family’s mythological and actual battles against caste discrimination and religious prejudice in Bangladesh, East Pakistan and colonial Bengal
The present and deep past of anti-caste speculative fiction
Culture
The present and deep past of anti-caste speculative fiction
By
Sreyartha Krishna
‘The Blaft Book of Anti-Caste SF’ demonstrates the power of speculative and science fiction as instruments of the anti-caste struggle in Southasia, and these genres’ connections to the wide traditions ...
Photo of three workers packing tea on a Ceylon estate supervised by a kanganie
Culture
Languages and labour on tea estates in South India and Sri Lanka
By
Abhishek Avtans
How colonial-era tea cultivation drove migration and shaped the languages and lived experiences of estate workers in Southasia
A photograph of Parveen Shakir in speaking into a microphone at a public event. She is mid-sentence, with one hand raised in an expressive gesture. She's wearing a cream-coloured kameez with a red and green dupatta and a pearl necklace, and she's sitting on a platform in front of a dark background with another person slightly visible in the distance.
Culture
Enduring lessons from the Pakistani poet Parveen Shakir’s ‘Khushboo’
By
Karishma M
The renowned Urdu poet’s 1976 debut collection finds new life online even as romantic expression for and by women continues to be dismissed
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