Politics

Kashmiri Muslim girls wearing hijab hold a poster of slain Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei during a demonstration in Budgam district in India-administered Kashmir on 13 March protesting his killing in US airstrikes.
Protests in India-administered Kashmir over Gaza and the Iran war express international solidarity, but also resistance to the Indian state amid its repression and growing ties to Israel
Himal Interviews: The threat to Muslims is a crisis for India’s democracy
By
The Editors
Mohsin Alam tells Harsh Mander that anti-democratisation of the economy has had a terrible impact on minorities and Muslims in particular
A miniature painting depicting young Brahmins studying Hindu scripture, circa 1820. Tradition, in Ravikant Kisana’s telling in ‘Meet the Savarnas’, becomes training in hierarchy, where excellence from the margins is permitted only insofar as it does not unsettle the dominant-caste hold on knowledge.
By
Shainal Verma
Ravikant Kisana’s ‘Meet the Savarnas’ dissects dominant-caste notions of merit, intimacy and power, showing how caste survives beneath India’s claims to modernity
Himal Interviews: Tariq Ali on a life in writing and dissent
In a conversation on his latest memoir, the Pakistani-British writer and activist reflects on decades of political upheaval, from neoliberalism in the West to turmoil in Southasia, and offers sharp cr ...
Since January 2026, the Taliban’s morality police has stepped up hijab enforcement across Afghanistan. Women found not to be complying are stopped, interrogated and sometimes detained.
As the Taliban enforces more severe moral policing and hijab standards in Herat and other provinces, women in Afghanistan speak of escalating public terror and coercion
Balendra Shah (right) and Rabi Lamicchane (second from left) of the Rashtriya Swatantra Party campaign for Nepal’s 2026 election. The RSP is poised to dominate Nepal’s new parliament, with voters roundly rejecting the country’s establishment parties.
By
Pranaya Rana
A landslide victory in Nepal’s 2026 election sees the RSP sweep out the old establishment, leaving Balendra Shah and Rabi Lamichhane as the big new faces of Nepali politics
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Himal Southasian
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