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.

The Saudi–UAE contest may well spur an escalation of conflicts in Southasia, with the two countries now aligning with opposing regional powers and getting entangled in regional conflicts through proxies: https://www.himalmag.com/politics-pakistan-saudi-uae-iran-war/

Thant Myint-U’s new book on his grandfather, the first non-white secretary-general of the UN, revisits an era when the institution inspired expectations of internationalist diplomatic leadership that have since faded away. Read Maximillian Morch's review essay for Himal: https://ow.ly/36Uh50Z6vgn

An online launch event on 8 June, will feature a panel discussion with the International Booker Prize-winning writer and translator Deepa Bhasthi and the scholar, poet, and translator Parwana Fayyaz. Register here : https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/0oo_atO-Q6WmLjqZ9W4EIA#/registration#/registration

Bengali exceptionalism is always a partial claim. But the question of who it excludes is not merely a matter of geography or religion. It is a question of which Hindus were ever included in the first place: https://ow.ly/SLSM50Z69oG

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).

As the mediator, and with the world paying minute attention to the US-Iran negotiations, Pakistan finds itself in a prominent but tricky position. Salman Rafi Sheikh writes that Pakistan has brought the Gulf rivalry to Southasia: https://www.himalmag.com/politics/pakistan-saudi-uae-iran-war

This week in Southasia : Myanmar ramps up forced conscription. We've got our finger on the pulse. Sign up for Southasia Weekly to receive the latest from Himal and across the region: https://www.himalmag.com/newsletters

Chronicling the fall and resurrection of the Jaffna Public Library, and mourning all that can never be recovered: https://www.himalmag.com/comment/requiem-jaffna-library

As Saudi Arabia and the UAE openly back rival forces in various theatres, Islamabad’s pact with Riyadh confirmed Pakistan as a party to a Gulf rivalry it once claimed to merely observe. Salman Rafi Sheikh writes: https://www.himalmag.com/comment/pakistan-saudi-uae-iran-war

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

Nepal’s civil war ended two decades ago, but the reckoning with the Maoists’ destruction of heritage and culture has barely begun: https://www.himalmag.com/culture/nepal-heritage-culture-maoist-civil-war

This month for Screen Southasia, we’re featuring two films by Rafeeq Ellias – 'The Legend of Fat Mama' (2005) and 'Beyond Barbed Wires' (2015) – that centre Chinese-Indian narratives. Subscribe to our free documentary service: ow.ly/uKhr50Yytzn

Arun Shourie helped build the intellectual scaffolding of Hindu nationalism and now calls Modi's India "true fascism." MihirDalal speaks to Himal editor RomanGautam about his landmark essay on the man who shaped modern India. Watch: https://youtu.be/a1oHwfhANyw

This week in Southasia: Narendra Modi went on a diplomatic offensive this week, signing key pacts on defence, energy and shipping with the United Arab Emirates. Sign up for Southasia Weekly to receive the latest from Himal and across the region: https://www.himalmag.com/newsletters

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

Romila Thapar’s new memoir, a study of student resistance in Myanmar, Goan histories in Zanzibar, and more: our latest Southasia Review of Books newsletter rounds up new fiction and non-fiction releases from across the region. Read this fortnight’s edition: https://www.himalmag.com/newsletters

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

The journalist and writer Zeyad Masroor Khan talks to Harsh Mander about his childhood in Aligarh and the deepening communal divisions in present-day India: https://ow.ly/b4Xf50Z2I1e This interview is from a June 2025 podcast series launched by Himal Southasian titled Partitions of the Heart.

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

Audrey Truschke’s new history of the Subcontinent reconsiders Southasia’s past beyond dynasties and nationalist mythmaking while raising questions about historiography and method. Read Arshia Sattar's review essay of ‘India: 5,000 Years of History in the Subcontinent’ : https://ow.ly/IUQG50Z295T

To understand the current political moment, with the BJP triumphant in West Bengal, one must first understand the mirror the bhadralok – Bengal’s “gentlefolk” elite – has been holding up to itself for nearly two centuries: https://www.himalmag.com/politics/bjp-west-bengal-bhadralok-caste-hindutva

The Zetland Memorial of 1932, signed by Tagore and other bhadralok icons, argued that the Hindus of Bengal, “though numerically a minority, are overwhelmingly superior culturally” to their Muslim counterparts, writes Ankush Pal: https://ow.ly/NtZw50Z1ACy

An online launch event on 8 June, will feature a panel discussion with the International Booker Prize-winning writer and translator Deepa Bhasthi and the scholar, poet, and translator Parwana Fayyaz. Register here : https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/0oo_atO-Q6WmLjqZ9W4EIA#/registration#/registration

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

This week in Southasia : Maldives detains two journalists under gag order We've got our finger on the pulse. Sign up for Southasia Weekly to receive the latest from Himal and across the region : https://www.himalmag.com/newsletters

Himal’s in-depth, long-form reportage shows you Southasia like you’ve never seen it before. Become a Patron today to support our work! https://www.himalmag.com/support-himal

The biggest consequence of the BJP’s politics has been the weakening of regional parties in non-Hindi-speaking states, writes Shweta Desai: https://www.himalmag.com/politics/india-delimitation-womens-reservation-bjp-supermajority

As 'Dhurandhar: The Revenge' starts streaming outside India, revisit Anna MM Vetticad's April 2026 review where she wrote how Dhurandhar’s meshing of imagination with reality conjure up a fantastical vision of India’s omnipotence under the rule of the Hindu Right: https://ow.ly/ggN250Z0573

Perhaps no other journalist or thinker has impressed his passions, furies and perfidies as thoroughly upon India’s public sphere as Arun Shourie. Yet his influence on post-Emergency politics is poorly understood, writes Mihir Dalal: https://ow.ly/khte50Z02HN

Commanding a supermajority in both houses is crucial for securing the passage of constitutional amendments. Proposed legislation put forward by the BJP has raised apprehensions about the party’s agenda to reshape India’s electoral map: https://ow.ly/JqtK50YZrC7

In Bangladesh, Tarique Rahman’s administration has let several reform ordinances lapse, despite campaign promises from the BNP to prevent a return to authoritarian governance structures, writes Maruf Hasan: https://www.himalmag.com/politics/bangladesh-bnp-reform-referendum-july-charter

Halfway through the Narendra Modi government’s third term, the BJP has amped up efforts to gain a two-thirds majority in the Indian parliament and open the door to drastic constitutional change. Shweta Desai writes : https://ow.ly/jLt050YYSrP

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

Himal Southasian is looking for a Fact-checker/Researcher to join our remote editorial team. Send your CV and cover letter to [email protected] with the subject line "Fact-checker/Researcher 2026".Application review begins 20 May 2026. Find the full description at himalmag.com/careers

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

In our latest Southasia Review of Books newsletter: Tamil writing in Sri Lanka, authoritarianism and radical democracy, Afghan food and exile memoirs, Ambedkarite sonic histories, and more. Read and subscribe: https://himalmag.us3.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=0c87df9f0948bcfa1bc80d2b4&id=949b3d6c7a

Maruf Hasan writes about Tarique Rahman's BNP government dragging its feet on reforms and whether it will repeat its predecessor's mistake of entrenching political power: https://www.himalmag.com/politics/bangladesh-bnp-reform-referendum-july-charter Illustration by Manna Phanjoubam

This week in Southasia : BJP gains, India’s political opposition eroded after assembly elections . We've got our finger on the pulse. Sign up for Southasia Weekly to receive the latest from Himal and across the region : https://www.himalmag.com/newsletters

The politician Manoj Jha talks to Harsh Mander about how the moral compass of India’s political class has been destroyed. This interview is part of a podcast series launched in June 2025 by Himal Southasian titled Partitions of the Heart. https://ow.ly/qAJC50YWs2m

Tarique Rahman’s BNP, which swept to power in Bangladesh in February, has dragged its feet on key reforms that it had earlier agreed to with other political parties under the July Charter. Read the piece by Maruf Hasan: www.himalmag.com/politics/ban...

If you read Himal, share our work, or believe that Southasia deserves rigorous, independent journalism free of government and corporate influence — become a Himal Patron today. Your support keeps us going: https://www.himalmag.com/support-himal

"Good satire spares no one. Zurza holds up a mirror to contemporary Tibetan life in all its complexity, producing an image that neither state propaganda nor diaspora nationalism could bear to look into. The trickster, it turns out, was a truth-teller all along." https://ow.ly/RZOH50YVt8o

Prageeth was a journalist and cartoonist for the website Lankaenews, where he exposed government corruption. He was last seen on 24 January 2010. The timing of his disappearance was significant as it came in the lead-up to a presidential election : https://ow.ly/3yzf50YV7Vh

🎥 Only a few more days to watch ‘two films on wheels’, short Southasian documentaries about tyres. Watch the duo before they expire on 8 May. Subscribe here: ow.ly/uKhr50Yytzn

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

In 'Satirical Tibet: The Politics of Humor in Contemporary Amdo', the scholar Timothy Thurston shows how Tibetan artists have mastered the art of zurza (ཟུར་ཟ་), to deliver one of the most remarkably inventive forms of cultural resistance under the Chinese state : https://ow.ly/wgLE50YUStj

Vijay, the Tamil cinema megastar has led his debut party, Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam, to a stunning electoral victory in Tamil Nadu, leaving the DMK and AIADMK far behind. What was he up against? Read Vignesh Karthik K R's piece on Himal to understand the stakes : https://ow.ly/pBW250YUCqm

On this World Press Freedom Day, Himal revisits its series on the many unresolved cases of attacks on Sri Lankan journalists, published in collaboration with the media-freedom watchdog Free Media Movement. https://www.himalmag.com/politics/sri-lanka-black-january-journalist-attacks