Essay

A new generation of Tamil filmmakers are confronting the caste-glorification films of the past – but controversy is often quick to follow, and Tamil cinema’s history with caste is more complex than many recognise

Six new reappraisals show the gulf between Dalit-Bahujan and anglophone writing on B R Ambedkar

An extraordinary burst of anglophone SF writing from Sri Lanka looks afresh at home and the universe(s)

Western cli-fi seems almost addicted to Southasia as a theatre for exploring its greatest concerns, yet often falls prey to uninformed perspectives. But there is also a growing tide of climate fiction by Southasians themselves.

A path-breaking personal essay calling for social acceptance and full rights for Nepal’s LGBTIQ+ community

India’s Supreme Court set off a storm by describing Sikkimese-Nepalis as people of “foreign origin.” As “Indian” Old Settlers fight for new rights, Sikkim’s Bhutia-Lepcha and Nepali communities face a reckoning over belonging and identity.

The idealised "village" was at the core of the people’s struggle last year. As a fundamental of Sri Lankan nationalist thought, agrarian utopianism helps to explain the country’s past and imagine a different future.

Five years after a people’s movement to stop a power plant near the Sundarban, Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government has pushed the project through. Why did this movement fail where others in Bangladesh have succeeded?

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.

An up-close account of hunger, food insecurity and ineffective state policies from a district in central India.