Himal Southasian

Ashik Kahina is a Tamil poet and translator. His translation of the Tamil short story 'What a Time! What a Creature' by G Nagarajan was originally published in Kannadasan magazine in December 1968. Read the translation beginning 8 June. Register for the launch event here: https://ow.ly/VjGp50Z7xr3

Introducing the selections of Himal Fiction Fest 2026: Southasian Fiction in Translation! Sri Lankan translator Gaya Nagahawatta's translation of the Sinhala language short story ‘Aachari seeya dutu didulana andakaraya' by Piyal Kariyawasam was originally published in 2008.

Introducing the selections of Himal Fiction Fest 2026: Southasian Fiction in Translation! Rounak Bhat is an editor and emerging literary translator working between English, Kashmiri, Urdu and Hindi. His translation of ‘The Shroud Thief’ is an excerpt of Amin Kamil’s Kathi Manz Kath (1966).

The writer and tech journalist Vauhini Vara discusses the limits of machine communication in an age shaped by Big Tech power, and the possibility of imagining different digital futures in a conversation for the Southasia Review of Books podcast, recorded in June 2025: https://ow.ly/vw9Q50Z5ttz

Read Arshia Sattar's review of Audrey Truschke’s ‘India: 5,000 Years of History in the Subcontinent’: https://www.himalmag.com/politics/audrey-truschke-india-southasia-history

The opening event for Himal Fiction Fest 2026 will be held Monday, 8 June at 7 pm IST. Hear from one of our panelists and stay tuned for the announcement of the 2026 Armory Square Prize in South Asian Literature! You may register for the event using this link: https://ow.ly/Y8ez50Z12LV

Audrey Truschke’s '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. Read the review essay: https://ow.ly/CIRu50Z2GCn

The defeat of three bills hastily introduced in parliament on delimitation, women's reservation and increasing the size of the Lok Sabha seems to be only a temporary setback to the BJP’s unchecked ambitions. Shweta Desai writes: https://ow.ly/1O0m50Z0b02

A conversation from April 2025 with the award-winning writer and journalist Rahul Bhatia on the surprising origins of Aadhaar, the afterlives of the 2020 Delhi violence, and the people still resisting India’s majoritarian turn : https://ow.ly/Aaci50YYyYW

How do Tibetans express dissent under authoritarian rule? In “Satirical Tibet”, Timothy Thurston explores how comedians and rappers use humour as resistance. Read Palden Gyal’s review: https://www.himalmag.com/culture/satire-tibet-humour-china-surveillance

When did Bollywood stop telling India's full story? Film critic Anna MM Vetticad, journalist Raza Rumi & editor Nayantara Narayanan on Hindi cinema's Hindutva turn: https://youtu.be/DjR9rtrhGL0

April at Himal Southasian moved across borders, languages, and debates. From India-Bangladesh ties to Sri Lanka’s free education battles, press freedom, and the month’s sharpest books and culture reads. Support our Patron program to help us sustain this work : https://ow.ly/85xA50YV1v3

A conversation with the renowned Indologist on how myths endure across cultures and traditions, why they resist fixed meanings, and what is at stake in attempts to control them : https://www.himalmag.com/culture/myths-sanskrit-epics-hinduism-india

Every quarter, a small team of journalists covers a subcontinent and this one was no different. Join our Patron program to support our work : https://www.himalmag.com/support-himal

In Kashmir, the protests over Iran and Palestine are indirect expressions of local politics because every direct avenue for its expression has been almost completely sealed off, Anuradha Bhasin writes : https://ow.ly/QH2050YEAOH

Writing for Himal Southasian, Muskan Tibrewala and Ankush Pal examine the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Bill's legal provisions and its broader implications, drawing on the history of the colonial Criminal Tribes Act of 1871. Read the full piece - https://ow.ly/7OSE50YCeCg

"Buddhism’s revival in India has been marginal at best, a story of false dawns and dead ends. Its appropriation was primarily an intellectual endeavour, not a religious one: for that reason, perhaps, it was bound to fail." https://ow.ly/uNbZ50Yz4IY Voiceover by Shwetha Srikanthan

Coming to Screen Southasia in April 2026, filmmaker Anam Abbas takes viewers behind the scenes with the women organisers of 2020’s Aurat March in Pakistan. Sign up to watch from 1-8 April and stay tuned for details about a director Q&A at the end of its run : https://ow.ly/W8Ww50YytzY

In his latest piece for Himal, writer and scholar Raza Rumi traces how recent Bollywood has drifted systematically toward Hindutva politics. In this video, he talks about why this conversation matters far beyond India's borders. You can read the full piece here : https://ow.ly/1z5k50Yxujr

“It is an important framing to not ask two separate questions: one about democracy and one about Muslims. They are one and the same”. We are revisiting our 2025 podcast interview with legal academic Mohsin Alam this week. Watch on Youtube or read the transcript here : https://ow.ly/XjjI50Ywf2w

✒️📝Booker Prize winner and featured panelist Deepa Bhasthi encourages Southasian language translators to submit to Himal Fiction Fest: Southasian Fiction in Translation by 1 April. Mark your calendars for 8-18 June, and stay tuned for more updates about our 2026 programming.

A Quran teacher in Herat was detained for wearing a manto. The Taliban's morality police summoned her father. “One of them said to my father, ‘It would have been better if you had shot your daughter rather than let her come out like this.’” https://ow.ly/SvZf50YsOFT

"This most recent war in Palestine has totally exposed the double standards of the West." We’re revisiting our 2024 Southasia Review of Books podcast conversation with the writer and activist Tariq Ali. Read the full interview on our website : https://ow.ly/ShUc50YsiJO

Nepal goes to the polls next week. But what do the elections actually mean for the country's fractured political landscape? Nayantara Narayanan, Associate Editor of Himal Southasian, and Roman Gautam, Editor of Himal Southasian, sit down with law student Anjali Sah and journalist Pranaya Rana.

With Nepal's elections days away, we return to a conversation where poet Ujjwalla Maharjan, law student Anjali Sah and climate activist Tashi Lhazom talk about how a new Nepal must pay attention to marginalised groups. Read here : https://ow.ly/ltTs50Ymk60 Listen : https://ow.ly/mbzA50Ymk61

Coming soon to Screen Southasia, the story of a young boy who ferries sacks of rice across the Ganga River while his home is transformed by erosion. Watch Sourav Sarangi’s ‘Char… No-Man’s Island’ (2012) from 1-8 March with our free documentary streaming program. Sign up : https://ow.ly/MTH350YmfUT

"Nepal, my beloved mother, let me touch your feet!" Ahead of Nepal’s first elections since the 2025 Gen Z Revolution, Roman Gautam explores Phanishwar Nath Renu’s 1950-51 chronicles and asks - why must we look back at the unfinished revolutions of yesteryear? https://ow.ly/swgq50YiM1s