Himal Southasian

The educationist, writer and women's rights activist Syeda Hameed had a ringside view on much of what was unfolding in the new India in the years after it became independent. This was a country that… Syeda Hameed & Harsh Mander on Partition, pluralism and poetry

🎙️“There were these lovely [Muslim] poets who talked about Brindavan and Mathura. The most renowned poets who happened to be Muslims talked about all the Hindu scriptures,”
Syeda Hameed tells Harsh Mander

Searching for Swadesh Deepak in Hindi literature I FIRST ENCOUNTERED Swadesh Deepak – the playwright and icon of Hindi literature, known for his hyperrealist stories – through his Sankalit Kahaniyan, a collect

"The most haunting of Deepak’s fears was that of psychological crippling, of losing his grip on words, language and cognition."

Kinshuk Gupta:

My “Namasudra Brahmin” family’s quest for caste dignity in Bangladesh MY GRANDMOTHER died over a decade ago. Every now and then, I am reminded of the tales she used to tell me when I was a child. Many were from the Mahabharata, th

"The word 'Namasudra' did not mean much to me when I was young. It was something my father would mention when he reminded me to stay quiet about our caste," writes Anupam Debashis Roy in an essay about his family's battles against caste discrimination.

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Rawalpindi, Malabe or Sunamganj? Guess where this photo was taken in Snap Southasia, featuring striking photography from across the region. Sign up to Southasia Weekly and try it out! bit.ly/HimalNewsletters

Wendy Doniger on the many lives of myths: Southasia Review of Books podcast #29 Welcome to the Southasia Review of Books podcast, where we speak to celebrated authors and emerging literary voices from across Southasia. In this episode, Shwe

“Myth does not take off from facts or historical events. It takes off from shared insoluble human problems. But it enters the same cloudy territory of human emotion that history and legend have to plow through with similar distortions.”

Wendy Doniger:

On 3 August, the trial of Bangladesh’s former prime minister Sheikh Hasina began. Hasina faces multiple charges including crimes against humanity, abetment of murder and torture. Read more in Southasia Weekly, out now: bit.ly/HimalNewslet...

Maximillian Morch on the disquiet behind Bhutan’s Geluphu Mindfulness City: State of Southasia #29 Bhutan’s bold new urban venture, the Geluphu Mindfulness City, is being pitched as a landmark in values-based development. Envisioned as an economic hub rooted

🎙️"For the Lhotshampa, this announcement of the Geluphu Mindfulness City is incredibly painful because it is just yet another erosion of the identity of the existence within Bhutan," @maxmorch.bsky.social #StateofSouthasia

What is the Belt and Road Initiative really? IN APRIL of this year, the United States, seemingly no longer content to uphold the status quo of global trade and power, unleashed a barrage of tariffs against

"Depending on whom you ask, the BRI is a 21st-century Marshall Plan for the Global South, a series of crippling debt traps, or a herald of China’s new role as the dominant global superpower."

@joshuaqyang.bsky.social writes:

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Searching for Swadesh Deepak in Hindi literature I FIRST ENCOUNTERED Swadesh Deepak – the playwright and icon of Hindi literature, known for his hyperrealist stories – through his Sankalit Kahaniyan, a collect

"Pulling the curtain away from the vices in the military does not seem to be Swadesh Deepak’s only motive; he also highlights the slow leaching of humanity due to rigid hierarchies and the nature of institutional work."

Kinshuk Gupta:

The educationist, writer and women's rights activist Syeda Hameed had a ringside view on much of what was unfolding in the new India in the years after it became independent. This was a country that… Syeda Hameed & Harsh Mander on Partition, pluralism and poetry

🎙️“To get power you have to divide. The British did it and it’s happening now, but Nehru and Gandhi and Azad kept on talking of Hindu-Muslim unity and there were spectacular examples of Hindu-Muslim unity,” Syeda Hameed tells Harsh Mander

Filmmaker Shaheen Dill-Riaz introduces the viewer to the rough world of the men who have been working in the woods and on the river for generations. Watch 'Bamboo Stories' streaming 1-8 August: bit.ly/ScreenSouthasia

My “Namasudra Brahmin” family’s quest for caste dignity in Bangladesh MY GRANDMOTHER died over a decade ago. Every now and then, I am reminded of the tales she used to tell me when I was a child. Many were from the Mahabharata, th

"My great-grandfather did not have the vocabulary of caste abolition or subaltern resistance. But he understood survival," Anupam Debashis Roy writes about his Namasudra Dalit family's battles against caste discrimination.

Wendy Doniger on the many lives of myths: Southasia Review of Books podcast #29 Welcome to the Southasia Review of Books podcast, where we speak to celebrated authors and emerging literary voices from across Southasia. In this episode, Shwe

“The oldest written versions we have of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana are in Sanskrit. And Sanskrit has been traditionally the language of male Brahmins. But there always were some women Sanskritists right from the start.”

Wendy Doniger:

What is the Belt and Road Initiative really? IN APRIL of this year, the United States, seemingly no longer content to uphold the status quo of global trade and power, unleashed a barrage of tariffs against

"China has been increasingly emboldened to view the present moment as an opportunity to shift, if not entirely supplant, this besieged global order in its own favour."

What is the Belt and Road Initiative really? @joshuaqyang.bsky.social asks:

Maximillian Morch on the disquiet behind Bhutan’s Geluphu Mindfulness City: State of Southasia #29 Bhutan’s bold new urban venture, the Geluphu Mindfulness City, is being pitched as a landmark in values-based development. Envisioned as an economic hub rooted

🎙️"This whole Geluphu Mindfulness City project is being framed and designed to reverse the brain drain and revitalise the Bhutanese economy. But there are some really significant concerns about its impact." @maxmorch.bsky.social #StateofSouthasia

Searching for Swadesh Deepak in Hindi literature I FIRST ENCOUNTERED Swadesh Deepak – the playwright and icon of Hindi literature, known for his hyperrealist stories – through his Sankalit Kahaniyan, a collect

"In Swadesh Deepak's most critically acclaimed play, ‘Court Martial’, the final act doesn’t resolve, it unsettles. A closer reading reveals that it problematises the grand ideas of truth and justice."

Kinshuk Gupta:

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Click on the link to become a paying Patron.
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My “Namasudra Brahmin” family’s quest for caste dignity in Bangladesh MY GRANDMOTHER died over a decade ago. Every now and then, I am reminded of the tales she used to tell me when I was a child. Many were from the Mahabharata, th

"Sometime in the last two centuries, some clever ancestor of mine changed our family name to Roy from Mandal, which is a marker of Namasudra identity." Anupam Debashis Roy writes about his Dalit family's battles against caste discrimination.

Wendy Doniger on the many lives of myths: Southasia Review of Books podcast #29 Welcome to the Southasia Review of Books podcast, where we speak to celebrated authors and emerging literary voices from across Southasia. In this episode, Shwe

“I don’t think that Modi can ruin Hinduism. I don’t think anybody can ruin Hinduism. But he can certainly ruin the lives of an awful lot of people in India.”

A conversation with the Indologist Wendy Doniger: www.himalmag.com/podcast/wend...

The educationist, writer and women's rights activist Syeda Hameed had a ringside view on much of what was unfolding in the new India in the years after it became independent. This was a country that… Syeda Hameed & Harsh Mander on Partition, pluralism and poetry

🎙️Syeda Hameed speaks to Harsh Mander in the latest episode of ‘Muslim Life – and Death – in Modi’s India’ ”Maulana Azad on the steps of Jama Masjid in that famous speech said to the Muslims ‘Why are you so scared? This is your country.’”

What is the Belt and Road Initiative really? IN APRIL of this year, the United States, seemingly no longer content to uphold the status quo of global trade and power, unleashed a barrage of tariffs against

‘The Belt and Road City’ by Simon Curtis and Ian Klaus argues that China is wielding the BRI to reshape the global cities around its own ideals – but good luck pinning down what those are.

@joshuaqyang.bsky.social writes:

Maximillian Morch on the disquiet behind Bhutan’s Geluphu Mindfulness City: State of Southasia #29 Bhutan’s bold new urban venture, the Geluphu Mindfulness City, is being pitched as a landmark in values-based development. Envisioned as an economic hub rooted

🎙️ #StateofSouthasia: @maxmorch.bsky.social discusses Bhutan's ambitions to revive its ailing economy with the Geluphu Mindfulness City and how it ignores the displacement of the Lhotshampa people from the region.

My “Namasudra Brahmin” family’s quest for caste dignity in Bangladesh MY GRANDMOTHER died over a decade ago. Every now and then, I am reminded of the tales she used to tell me when I was a child. Many were from the Mahabharata, th

In an essay about his Namasudra Dalit family, Anupam Debashis Roy writes that the first inheritance he got from his grandmother was "a myth of once being Brahmin that empowered me to venture down the road of education."

Searching for Swadesh Deepak in Hindi literature I FIRST ENCOUNTERED Swadesh Deepak – the playwright and icon of Hindi literature, known for his hyperrealist stories – through his Sankalit Kahaniyan, a collect

"Pulling the curtain away from the vices in the military does not seem to be Swadesh Deepak’s only motive; he also highlights the slow leaching of humanity due to rigid hierarchies and the nature of institutional work."

Kinshuk Gupta:

What is the Belt and Road Initiative really? IN APRIL of this year, the United States, seemingly no longer content to uphold the status quo of global trade and power, unleashed a barrage of tariffs against

"The Belt and Road City argues there is more to the BRI than the fact that a different superpower is now signing the same foreign aid cheques."

What is the Belt and Road Initiative really? @joshuaqyang.bsky.social asks:

The educationist, writer and women's rights activist Syeda Hameed had a ringside view on much of what was unfolding in the new India in the years after it became independent. This was a country that… Syeda Hameed & Harsh Mander on Partition, pluralism and poetry

🎙️ “My family comes from Panipat, which was a symbol of Ganga-Jamuni Tehzeeb – the Hindu-Muslim composite culture, there was a beautiful commingling of those two. That was my tradition, that was my DNA,” Syeda Hameed tells Harsh Mander

The educationist, writer and women's rights activist Syeda Hameed had a ringside view on much of what was unfolding in the new India in the years after it became independent. This was a country that… Syeda Hameed & Harsh Mander on Partition, pluralism and poetry

🎙️ “My family comes from Panipat, which was a symbol of Ganga-Jamuni Tehzeeb – the Hindu-Muslim composite culture, there was a beautiful commingling of those two. That was my tradition, that was my DNA,” Syeda Hameed tells Harsh Mander

Maximillian Morch on the disquiet behind Bhutan’s Geluphu Mindfulness City: State of Southasia #29 Bhutan’s bold new urban venture, the Geluphu Mindfulness City, is being pitched as a landmark in values-based development. Envisioned as an economic hub rooted

🎙️ "The situation inside Bhutan is really quite dire. Civic repression is not something you picture when you think of #Bhutan. This 'mindfulness' term is able to deflect a lot of these criticisms," says @maxmorch.bsky.social #Geluphu #StateofSouthasia