Behind the language of protection, India’s new transgender law advances a Hindu nationalist project that recasts gender variance through state classification while deepening exclusions along caste and religious lines
A top monk’s alleged rape of a child threatens to unmask the Sri Lankan sangha, but its moral decay is rooted in the millennia-long transformation of the Buddha’s dhamma into Sinhala Buddhism
The acclaimed comic-journalist discusses ‘The Once and Future Riot’, violence as a political tool, and the controversy surrounding Penguin India’s decision not to distribute his book
‘India: 5,000 Years of History in the Subcontinent’ revisits millennia of Southasia’s past beyond dynasties and nationalist mythmaking, while raising larger questions about the intellectual traditions that shape historiography.
Angela W Little’s book spans the original vision and contemporary debates around Sri Lanka’s system of free education, but fails to fully capture its intertwined dynamics of learning, politics and nationalism
From manufacturing mythic pasts to promoting muscular nationalism, militarism and Islamophobia, Hindi cinema is increasingly aligning with Hindutva politics, and ripping up Indian secularism and democracy in the process
Last month, as we prepared to fly into Kathmandu, our colleagues from Nepal warned us to prepare for rain, and we packed umbrellas and raincoats. As it happened, we only
On the precipice of generalisations, ‘The Gujaratis’ exposes a shameful underside of Gujarati pride, Gujarat’s conflicted cultural landscape, and the community’s broader moral and political failings
Excavating the intellectual and political convictions of M M Kalburgi ten years on from the Kannada scholar’s assassination by Hindu nationalist fanatics
Dear reader,
Hello from Nayantara and Ritika! We’re writing to you just as we wrap up Season 1 of our special podcast series ‘Partitions of the Heart’. We’re
Operation Kagar, India’s escalating anti-Naxalite campaign in Chhattisgarh, leaves Adivasis reeling from repression, displacement, killings and other violence by state authorities and security forces
This week in Himal
We’re just 3 Patrons short of making our target of 38 Patrons, to mark the 38th anniversary of Himal Southasian this May! Click here to
