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Himal Southasian

@himalmag.bsky.social

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Southasia’s magazine of politics and culture. Get our newsletters in your inbox: bit.ly/HimalNewsletters

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Himal Southasian @himalmag.bsky.social · Sep 9

"For many young #Nepalis, this was their first large-scale protest. They will never forget that the very first protest they led was met with a hail of bullets," writes Pranaya Rana

Nepal’s K P Oli government has murdered 19 people

This story first appeared in Kalam Weekly. It has been republished with updates and edits. Monday, 8 September, started out optimistic. A Gen Z protest against

Himal Southasian @himalmag.bsky.social · 1m

The ripple effects of #Israel’s genocide in Gaza, which followed the 7 October 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas, have reached Sri Lankan shores – and not just with the targeting of Sri Lankan Muslims who oppose Israel’s actions. A piece by Tisaranee Gunasekara

The growing dangers of Sri Lanka’s Israel nexus

MOHAMED SUHAIL, a 21-year-old student, was searching for lodgings in the Colombo suburb of Dehiwala on 23 October 2024 when a mobile police unit arrested him ne

Himal Southasian @himalmag.bsky.social · 1h

SOUTHASIA NEWS ROUNDUP | October 10

Subscribe to our weekly newsletters here: bit.ly/HimalNewslet...

#afghanistan #india #bangladesh #myanmar #pakistan #srilanka #maldives

Himal Southasian @himalmag.bsky.social · 2h

"Vidyan Ravinthiran illuminates the emotional labour required of non-white voices to be acknowledged in environments that claim to be anti-racist yet remain unprepared to listen."

Meena Venkataramanan on the Sri Lankan-British poet's memoir ‘Asian/Other’

Vidyan Ravinthiran’s bold take on otherness and “Asian” diaspora identity

ON PAPER, Vidyan Ravinthiran and I are strikingly similar. We are both British Southasian writers, of Tamil descent, who immigrated to the United States. We bot

Himal Southasian @himalmag.bsky.social · 3h

In 1983, a World Cup triumph transformed cricket’s fortunes in India. This tournament is an opportunity to do that again for women's cricket. A piece by Tanushree Bhasin
#icc2025 #womenscricket #india

The 2025 Women’s World Cup could be India’s biggest cricketing moment in over 50 years

Indian women’s cricket’s long struggle for equality and World Cup glory

Himal Southasian @himalmag.bsky.social · 3h

"Salil Tripathi’s ‘The Gujaratis’ probes the contradictions the community lives with unquestioningly – ones that belie its fussy vegetarianism, its self-proclaimed non-violence, its chest-thumping about women’s safety, and so on."

Hemang Ashwinkumar: buff.ly/SQXNYzH

Salil Tripathi’s portrait of Gujarati pride and contradictions

INARGUABLY, these are Dickensian best-of-times to read a tome on the Gujaratis. If the opposition’s loud protests in India’s parliament are to be believed, a fo

www.himalmag.com

Himal Southasian @himalmag.bsky.social · 5h

An edition of Southasian Conversations on uprisings in #Nepal, #Bangladesh and Sri Lanka (#lka) – and what comes next. The transcript for Southasia's Youthquakes is now available.

Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka uprisings: Why and what next?

Southasia’s Youthquakes – on Gen Z protests in Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka

Himal Southasian @himalmag.bsky.social · 5h

We've got our finger on the pulse of #Southasia. Sign up to our newsletters to get the latest from Himal and across the region.

buff.ly/UacCbcL

Himal Southasian @himalmag.bsky.social · 6h

🎙️ "Whether it is the various laws over the last few years, whether it is the love jihad, land jihad, the conversion laws – they're an extension of what #Savarkar imagined for a Hindu nation," Rana Ayyub says to Harsh Mander for Saffron Siege

Aakar Patel, Rana Ayyub and Harsh Mander on the RSS and Hindu Rashtra today

In this episode, writer Aakar Patel and journalist Rana Ayyub examine with Harsh Mander whether India under Narendra Modi has transformed into a Hindu Rashtra or, and to what extent, India’s secular…

Himal Southasian @himalmag.bsky.social · 7h

As #SriLanka is reprimanded on the global stage for its underwhelming effort to investigate enforced disappearances during its civil war, revisit Bhavani Fonseka’s August 2020 piece about the country’s track record of impunity buff.ly/DVxSeYa

The long wait for justice: On the chronic failures of criminal justice in Sri Lanka

Recent events have brought to the fore, yet again, Sri Lanka's legacy of past abuses, its challenges with accountability and its entrenched culture of impunity.

www.himalmag.com

Himal Southasian @himalmag.bsky.social · 8h

Support independent journalism and help produce crucial analysis of Southasia.
Click on the link to become a paying Patron.
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Himal Southasian @himalmag.bsky.social · 18h

As #snakebites surge in #Southasia due to flood conditions, revisit Diwash Gahatraj and Ali Jabir Malik'ss award-winning reporting linking climate change and snakebite prevalence in #Southasia. Read their piece from May 2024 now:

Snakebites surge across Southasia amid rising heat, floods and habitat loss

Climate change is driving an increase in snakebites and envenomation deaths in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and beyond – and community-driven solutions are leading the fightback

Himal Southasian @himalmag.bsky.social · 19h

Support independent journalism and help produce crucial analysis of Southasia.
Click on the link to become a paying Patron.
buff.ly/dR6n1KA

Himal Southasian @himalmag.bsky.social · 20h

“Three established parties continued to strike deals to share power, but no government completed a full term in office since #Nepal’s return to democracy in 2008,” write Anupam Debashis Roy and Rishija Singh about parallels in Southasian youth protests

The overlapping factors behind Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka’s uprisings

ABOUT 15 YEARS AGO, three Southasian nations underwent political transitions. In 2008, Nepal became a federal republic, ending 250 years of monarchy. Bangladesh

Himal Southasian @himalmag.bsky.social · 21h

#Nepal’s Department of Roads estimated that the damage to roads and bridges alone could cost over NPR 4 billion.

Our top story in Southasia Weekly, out now: bit.ly/HimalNewslet...

Himal Southasian @himalmag.bsky.social · 22h

"#Israel’s cause has never been a popular one in Sri Lanka, especially among the country’s left and Muslims, and the livestreamed genocide in Gaza has only caused its public image to sink further," writes Tisaranee Gunasekara about #lka

The growing dangers of Sri Lanka’s Israel nexus

MOHAMED SUHAIL, a 21-year-old student, was searching for lodgings in the Colombo suburb of Dehiwala on 23 October 2024 when a mobile police unit arrested him ne

Himal Southasian @himalmag.bsky.social · 23h

In 1983, a World Cup triumph transformed cricket’s fortunes in India. This tournament is an opportunity to do that again for women's cricket. A piece by Tanushree Bhasin

#icc2025 #womenscricket #india

The 2025 Women’s World Cup could be India’s biggest cricketing moment in over 50 years

Indian women’s cricket’s long struggle for equality and World Cup glory

Himal Southasian @himalmag.bsky.social · 1d

🎙️📚 “In Mongolia, one was witnessing in a very modern iteration, the way that Buddhism had started to creep back. And it was like an echo of almost 1500 years of Buddhist history.”

Aatish Taseer on his new book, 'A Return to Self':

Aatish Taseer on exile and the idea of return: Southasia Review of Books podcast #34

Welcome to the Southasia Review of Books podcast, where we speak to celebrated authors and emerging literary voices from across Southasia. In this episode, Shwetha Srikanthan speaks to the writer…

Himal Southasian @himalmag.bsky.social · 1d

Where in Southasia was this photo taken?

Take a guess in Snap Southasia, the photography segment of Southasia Weekly: bit.ly/HimalNewslet...

Himal Southasian @himalmag.bsky.social · 1d

On the precipice of generalisations, Salil Tripathi’s ‘The Gujaratis’ exposes a shameful underside of Gujarati pride, Gujarat’s conflicted cultural landscape, and the community’s broader moral and political failings.

A review essay by Hemang Ashwinkumar:

Salil Tripathi’s portrait of Gujarati pride and contradictions

INARGUABLY, these are Dickensian best-of-times to read a tome on the Gujaratis. If the opposition’s loud protests in India’s parliament are to be believed, a fo

Himal Southasian @himalmag.bsky.social · 1d

After #Ladakh activist Sonam Wangchuk's arrest, revisit Auqib Javeed and Zaid Bin Shabir's piece from June 2024 on how the Buddhist-majority #Leh and Muslim-majority #Kargil united in protest against the BJP and the #Modi gov

Ladakh’s resentment of New Delhi has overridden old Buddhist–Muslim acrimony

After the revocation of Article 370, Buddhist-majority Leh and Muslim-majority Kargil have united in protest against the BJP and the Modi government, demanding statehood for Ladakh and Sixth Schedule…

Himal Southasian @himalmag.bsky.social · 1d

We've got our finger on the pulse of #Southasia. Sign up to our newsletters to get the latest from Himal and across the region.

buff.ly/UacCbcL

Himal Southasian @himalmag.bsky.social · 1d

🎙️Writer Aakar Patel and journalist Rana Ayyub examine, with Harsh Mander, whether #India under Narendra Modi has transformed into a Hindu Rashtra.

Aakar Patel, Rana Ayyub and Harsh Mander on the RSS and Hindu Rashtra today

In this episode, writer Aakar Patel and journalist Rana Ayyub examine with Harsh Mander whether India under Narendra Modi has transformed into a Hindu Rashtra or, and to what extent, India’s secular…

Himal Southasian @himalmag.bsky.social · 1d

Himal Southasian presents the October 2025 virtual cover: Southasia's Youthquakes 💥
Explore our collection of reportage, essays, podcasts & events reflecting the state of change in #Nepal, #Bangladesh , and #SriLanka

Virtual Cover - October 2025

Nepal’s GenZ uprising this September marked the third time in three years that a ruling government and political establishment has been routed by a youth-led po

Himal Southasian @himalmag.bsky.social · 1d

As floods in #Nepal and #Southasia lead to landslides and evacuations, read Peter Gill and Bhola Paswan’s August 2018 article about why the government’s flood-control strategy of embankments is not as full-proof as it may appear

Explainer: Why embankments won’t solve Nepal’s flood woes

On 18 August 2008, the Kosi River, a large tributary of the Ganga, burst through a man-made embankment on its eastern edge at Kusaha village in Nepal's southeas

Himal Southasian @himalmag.bsky.social · 1d

Three uprisings in three years across #Nepal, #Bangladesh and Sri Lanka (#lka). Where did they come from? Where are they going? And what happens next? The transcript from our discussion is now online, here:

Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka uprisings: Why and what next?

Southasia’s Youthquakes – on Gen Z protests in Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka