Comment - Himal Southasian (Page 2)

Youth protests take on the Maldives’s political culture after a woman’s fall

A woman’s unexplained fall from a Malé building has set off protests against “nepo-babies” and an alleged cover-up as a new generation confronts the Maldives’s political culture

By J J Robinson

/ 2 May 2025

Youth protests take on the Maldives’s political culture after a woman’s fall

The future of Bangladesh’s fragile media freedom

Under Mohammad Yunus’s interim government, a Media Reform Commission has set out to address long-standing problems facing journalists in Bangladesh – but old threats and patterns of control remain

By Cyrus Naji

/ 8 Apr 2025

Four men standing in a row holding protest signs in Dhaka. The man in the centre holds a sign that reads 'JOURNALISM IS NOT C

Ranil Wickremesinghe in the hot seat over Batalanda torture site

Why I confronted the former president with the Batalanda Commission report during his Al Jazeera interview – and why Sri Lanka must face up to the torture, disappearances and human rights abuses of the 1980s JVP insurrection

By Frances Harrison

/ 21 Mar 2025

An old black and white photograph of two men in white shirts and ties crouching on the ground near a tyre. The man on the rig

New reports caution Bangladesh against “replicating poor practices” of the Sheikh Hasina regime

Reports from the United Nations and Human Rights Watch confirm the Awami League regime’s responsibility for the bloodshed of the Monsoon Revolution, but also warn the Muhammad Yunus-led interim government about persisting abusive practices

By Cyrus Naji

/ 20 Feb 2025

Ten or more Bangladesh police officers drag a protester across the streets of Dhaka by force.

A fraught new frontier in Bangladesh–Pakistan relations

Bangladesh’s relationship with Pakistan has become markedly more friendly since the fall of Sheikh Hasina, even as anti-India sentiment has reached an all-time high in the country

By Cyrus Naji

/ 14 Jan 2025

Muhammad Yunus (left) shakes hands with Shehbaz Sharif (right) amid a group of officials at a reception in New York in Septem

How state repression and deliberate ethnic polarisation made Manipur boil over

Biren Singh’s BJP-led Manipur state government has used arrests, intimidation and narrative manipulation as tools to dominate the public and exacerbate decades-old tensions between Meiteis and Kuki-Zomi-Hmars.

By Sangmuan Hangsing

/ 24 Dec 2024

A group of protestors against Manipur’s chief minister with a sign that reads "End the bloodshed. N.Biren Singh must answer f

India’s warped narrative of an “anti-Hindu” Bangladesh imperils its own future standing

India risks permanent damage to its relationship with Bangladesh with a narrative of uncontrolled communal violence after Sheikh Hasina’s fall, ignoring Hasina’s weaponisation of the Hindu minority and how post-revolution violence has been driven more by political reasons

By Zia Hassan

/ 20 Dec 2024

A group of Hindu protesters wearing red, carrying torches and placards, protesting anti-Hindu violence in Bangladesh

Sri Lanka’s traditional media risks being jettisoned with its old political guard

Social media has usurped the traditional media’s influence in Sri Lankan politics, particularly after the Aragalaya – and even any improvement in media freedom under the new NPP government cannot solve the industry’s entrenched problems

By Amantha Perera

/ 4 Dec 2024

A large crowd of Aragalaya protesters gather around two individuals breaking coconuts. Several activists at the scene are hol

Pakistan’s futile ban on the PTM fails to stop a major consolidation of the Pashtun struggle

The Pashtun Qaumi Jirga marks a new phase of Pashtun nationalism, with a swathe of demands challenging the Pakistan state’s treatment of Pashtuns and growing support from mainstream political parties

By Hurmat Ali Shah

/ 31 Oct 2024

Pashtuns gather for a grand jirga at Jamrud in October 2024. The event went ahead despite a nominal ban on the Pashtun Tahafu

The quiet but resolute politics of ‘All We Imagine as Light'

Payal Kapadia’s brilliant film, a winner at the Cannes Film Festival, portrays friendship, love and acceptance amid the chauvinism and exploitation rife in India today

By Anna M M Vetticad

/ 18 Oct 2024

A still from ‘All We Imagine as Light’, Payal Kapadia’s debut fiction feature. Here Kapadia does not spell out her politics,

Modi’s tussle with the RSS echoes old power struggles within India’s Hindu Right

The BJP’s reduced seat count after the 2024 election prompted rare public criticism from the RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, offering a glimpse into the recurring power struggle between the two organisations

By Abhishek Dey

/ 20 Sep 2024

Modi’s tussle with the RSS echoes old power struggles within India’s Hindu Right

Sri Lanka enters a presidential election like no other before it

A three-party contest with no certain frontrunner, the 2024 presidential vote is the first since the economic crisis and mass protests of 2022 sparked calls for deep systemic change in Sri Lankan politics

By Marlon Ariyasinghe

/ 17 Sep 2024

Sri Lanka enters a presidential election like no other before it