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📚 Southasia Review of Books - 25 February 2026
Newsletters
📚 Southasia Review of Books - 25 February 2026
By
Shwetha Srikanthan
The business of fake deaths in Assam, Tibet in translation, and more
Himal Interviews: How Gen Z shook up Nepal’s entrenched political class
Politics
Himal Interviews: How Gen Z shook up Nepal’s entrenched political class
By
Nayantara Narayanan
The poet Ujjwalla Maharjan, law student Anjali Sah and climate activist Tashi Lhazom talk about how a new Nepal must pay attention to marginalised groups
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
By
Snigdha Poonam
In this excerpt from Snigdha Poonam’s ‘Scamlands’, forged death certificates and digital loopholes expose massive life-insurance fraud in rural Assam
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
By
Angshuman Choudhury
The Assam chief minister’s verbal violence against Bengali Muslims distracts from the Bharatiya Janata Party’s failings ahead of assembly elections
Southasia Weekly 20 February 2026. The only way to see Southasia. Support independent journalism. Become a Patron today.
Newsletters
🇮🇳 🤖 Reality check at India’s AI summit – Southasia Weekly #106
By
Raisa Wickrematunge
Hype vs reality at India’s AI summit, Sri Lanka eliminates pensions for MPs, explosions and a gun battle in northwest Pakistan and more
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
By
Phanishwar Nath Renu
Ratik Asokan’s translation of ‘Nepali Kranti Katha’, a rare eyewitness account of Nepal’s 1950-1951 revolution by a giant of Hindi literature
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