In The Dig: Keeladi and the Politics of India’s Past, the Chennai-based journalist Sowmiya Ashok begins with an archaeological excavation in a village outside Madurai in the state of Tamil Nadu and unfolds a much larger story about history, identity, and the struggle over who gets to narrate India’s past. Since its discovery in 2014, Keeladi has become one of India’s most contested archaeological sites, drawing in debates around Tamil identity, language and nationalism. Moving between excavation trenches, museums, literary texts, and conversations with archaeologists, historians, and people across India, the book explores how political battles over science and history shape the way the past is understood in the present, and what the contestations around these sites Keeladi reveal about contemporary India itself. 

This episode is now available on Youtube: https://youtu.be/PN3pGg5t3qg

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sowmiya-ashok-on-what-keeladi-tells-us-about-indias/id1464880116?i=1000784834408

✨ Thank you for listening to the Southasia Review of Books podcast from Himal Southasian. If you enjoyed this episode, please share, subscribe, rate and review the show on your favourite podcast apps.▶️ If you haven’t already, please subscribe to the Himal Southasian YouTube channel and help us spread the word by sharing these conversations widely.

✉️ We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave a comment on YouTube or write to us at [email protected].

📚 Sign up for the Southasia Review of Books newsletter for a roundup of our latest reviews, essays, interviews and literary news from across Southasia: https://www.himalmag.com/newsletters/ 

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https://www.himalmag.com/#/portal 

What does it mean to reckon with loss when there are no clear answers? In Maryam & Son, Mirza Waheed explores that question through the story of Maryam Ali, a mother in London whose son disappears and is drawn into a distant conflict in Iraq. As she waits for answers, the novel moves between memory and grief, tracing what happens when the certainties of motherhood begin to unravel and private grief collides with public narratives. Waheed is the author of four acclaimed novels, including The Collaborator, The Book of Gold Leaves and Tell Her Everything. His work has been widely recognised for its explorations of conflict, memory and belonging, particularly in relation to Kashmir. 

In this episode of the Southasia Review of Books podcast, Waheed discusses his new novel, the language of bureaucracy and surveillance, motherhood, and the ways in which the media transforms deeply personal tragedies into public spectacle. 

This episode is now available on Youtube: https://youtu.be/kQZ-GZvH1jQ

✨ Thank you for listening to the Southasia Review of Books podcast from Himal Southasian. If you enjoyed this episode, please share, subscribe, rate and review the show on your favourite podcast apps.▶️ If you haven’t already, please subscribe to the Himal Southasian YouTube channel and help us spread the word by sharing these conversations widely.

✉️ We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave a comment on YouTube or write to us at [email protected].

📚 Sign up for the Southasia Review of Books newsletter for a roundup of our latest reviews, essays, interviews and literary news from across Southasia: https://www.himalmag.com/newsletters/ 

🙏🏼 If you’d like to support our work, please consider becoming a Himal Patron to help make conversations like this possible and sustain our work throughout the year: 

https://www.himalmag.com/#/portal 

Episode description: 

For more than three decades, Joe Sacco has been at the forefront of graphic journalism, combining rigorous reporting with comics to document conflict, displacement and political violence. His landmark works, including ‘Palestine’ and ‘Footnotes in Gaza’, have helped define an entire genre and inspired generations of cartoonists and journalists.

His latest book, ‘The Once and Future Riot’ (2025), turns its attention to India, examining the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots in Uttar Pradesh and the political forces that shaped them. In doing so, it asks larger questions about violence, democracy, memory and the stories societies tell about themselves in the aftermath of conflict.

The book has also become the subject of a controversy of its own. Earlier this year, Penguin India decided not to distribute it after raising a series of legal and editorial objections, prompting wider debates about censorship and how histories of violence are told.

In this episode of the Southasia Review of Books podcast – a show from Himal Southasian featuring conversations with celebrated authors and emerging literary voices from across Southasia – we speak to Sacco about ‘The Once and Future Riot’, the controversy surrounding its publication, and more. 

This episode is also available on-

Youtube: https://youtu.be/FemACGTJhyw

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/joe-sacco-on-the-book-penguin-india-wouldnt/id1464880116?i=1000774285127

Nepal goes to the polls on 5 March 2026. But what do these elections actually mean for a country still navigating the turbulence of its recent past?In this episode, Himal's editor Roman Gautam and associate editor Nayantara Narayanan are joined by law student and intersectional feminist Anjali Sah and writer and journalist Pranaya Rana for a wide-ranging conversation on Nepal's upcoming general elections.They dig into the parties contesting and what they actually stand for, the tired persistence of the old guard and whether a new generation of politics is genuinely possible, the unfinished business of federalism, the stubborn underrepresentation of women candidates, and very importantly - what last year's Gen Z protests revealed about the deep frustrations simmering beneath the surface of Nepali public life.Nepal has been through a remarkable and often painful political journey, from monarchy to republic, from civil war to constitution, and yet the same faces, the same compromises, and the same impunity have a way of enduring. This conversation asks whether March 5 is a turning point, or another chapter in a longer story of deferred hope.

On 12 February 2026, Bangladesh holds its first election since the July Revolution in 2024 that overthrew the authoritarian government of Sheikh Hasina and the Awami League. These polls are among the most critical in the country’s tumultuous history. Hasina’s exile, a ban on the Awami League and a generational change in the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) after Khaleda Zia’s death have transformed the face of Bangladesh politics. Himal's editor Roman Gautam and associate editor Nayantara Narayanan speak to Bangladeshi journalists Zyma Islam and Nusmita Lohani to unpack Bangladesh’s contested present and recent past, offering nuance and deeper perspective to make sense of the election and what comes after it.

Read the rest of our coverage here :https://www.himalmag.com/politics/bangladesh-election-bnp-jamaat-islamist-hasin

You can also listen to this conversation on

🎧 YouTube: https://youtu.be/HqEEI5GNna4

🎧 Apple podcasts:Himal Southasian is Southasia’s first and only regional news and analysis magazine. Stretching from Afghanistan to Burma, from Tibet to the Maldives, this region of more than 1.4 billion people shares great swathes of interlocking geography, culture and history. Yet today neighbouring countries can barely talk to one another, much less speak in a common voice. For three decades, Himal Southasian has strived to define, nurture, and amplify that voice.

Read more: https://www.himalmag.com/

Support our independent journalism and become a Patron of Himal: https://www.himalmag.com/support-himalFind us on:

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In this special episode of Saffron Siege: The RSS at 100, Harsh Mander speaks to Felix Pal, a lecturer on political science and international relations at the University of Western Australia, about his six-year long research into the RSS and its affiliates recently published in The Caravan magazine. The research revealed a network of 2500 organisations around the world that are directly or indirectly connected to the RSS, and overtly or covertly espousing its ideas.

Commenting on the findings are Christophe Jaffrelot, a political scientist at Sciences Po who specialises in Southasia and has written several important books in India’s politics, and Tanika Sarkar, a historian of modern India who works on religion, gender and politics in Southasia, in particular on women and the Hindu Right.

You can watch this full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/FSg9h0NXipU

This episode is part of Season Two of Partitions of the Heart. In this season, Harsh Mander speaks to leading scholars and observers who have studied the RSS closely. Together, they examine its roots and core principles, its Hindutva agenda, and its corrosive role in India’s public and social life across a century.

Production: Imaad ul Hasan, Lydia Smith, Ritika Chauhan, Nayantara Narayanan

Himal Southasian is Southasia’s first and only regional news and analysis magazine. Stretching from Afghanistan to Burma, from Tibet to the Maldives, this region of more than 1.4 billion people shares great swathes of interlocking geography, culture and history. Yet today neighbouring countries can barely talk to one another, much less speak in a common voice. For three decades, Himal Southasian has strived to define, nurture, and amplify that voice.

Read more: https://www.himalmag.com/

Support our independent journalism and become a Patron of Himal: https://www.himalmag.com/support-himal

Find us on:

https://twitter.com/Himalistan

https://www.facebook.com/himal.southasian

https://www.instagram.com/himalistan/

Pakistan has been reshaped by its 27th constitutional amendment that was passed in November. The amendment has formalised the military’s so-far unofficial dominance in the country’s governing structure into explicit constitutional supremacy. It was passed by a politically fragile parliament facing questions over its own legitimacy and elevates the army chief Asim Munir to an almost unassailable position as the Chief of Defence Forces. What had long operated as an informal military veto over civilian politics is now written into the basic law of the state, transforming Pakistan’s power structure for years to come.​

The amendment also rewires the judiciary, creating a new Federal Constitutional Court whose judges are effectively chosen and controlled by the executive and legislature, both themselves deeply aligned with the military establishment. By stripping the existing Supreme Court of most constitutional jurisdiction and reshaping the body that appoints and transfers judges, the changes leave little room for independent legal scrutiny of military or executive overreach.

In this episode of State of Southasia, Ayesha Jalal, the Mary Richardson professor of history, arts and sciences at the Fletcher graduate school in Tufts University, speaks to Ayesha Jalal about Pakistan after the 27th amendment – what has changed and what has not, and what political players and civil society must do to reclaim democratic spaces in the country.

You can also listen to this episode on:

🎧 YouTube: https://youtu.be/eXiuTQ6ppkM

🎧 Apple podcasts:https://apple.co/4p7YhHt

Episode notes:

Ayesha Jalal’s recommendations:

- The State of Martial Rule: The Origins of Pakistan's Political Economy of Defence – Ayesha Jalal (non-fiction)

- Crossed Swords: Pakistan, Its Army, and the Wars Within – Shuja Nawaz (non-fiction)

- A Case of Exploding Mangoes – Mohammed Hanif (fiction)

Further reading from Himal’s archives:

In Pakistan, a mightier military and a judiciary undone (https://www.himalmag.com/politics/pakistan-27amendment-constitution-military-asim-munir)

- Pakistan’s struggle to reshape its fiscal federalism (https://www.himalmag.com/politics/pakistan-fiscal-federalism-province-punjab-budget)

- Asim Munir’s promotion to field marshal signals an authoritarian Pakistan (https://www.himalmag.com/politics/pakistan-military-asim-munir-authoritarianism)

- Pakistan is losing friends fast in both Beijing and Washington DC (https://www.himalmag.com/politics/pakistan-unitedstates-china-taliban-security)

Himal Southasian is Southasia’s first and only regional news and analysis magazine. Stretching from Afghanistan to Burma, from Tibet to the Maldives, this region of more than 1.4 billion people shares great swathes of interlocking geography, culture and history. Yet today neighbouring countries can barely talk to one another, much less speak in a common voice. For three decades, Himal Southasian has strived to define, nurture, and amplify that voice.

Read more: https://www.himalmag.com/

Support our independent journalism and become a Patron of Himal: https://www.himalmag.com/support-himal

Find us on:

https://twitter.com/Himalistan

https://www.facebook.com/himal.southasian

https://www.instagram.com/himalistan/

A conversation with the writer and filmmaker Nirvana Bhandary on her collection of essays exploring feminist thought, lived experience and the generational shifts transforming contemporary Nepali womanhood.

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 and filmmaker Nirvana Bhandary about her new book, ⁠Unsanskari: A Feminist Life⁠ (October 2025).

Unsanskari: A Feminist Life by Nirvana Bhandary is a collection of essays, reflections and sharp cultural observations on what it means to be a Nepali woman beyond traditional expectations and patriarchal norms. From queerness and body politics to marriage, migration, intersectionality and intergenerational feminism, the book traces the cultural and political shifts shaping women’s lives today – and makes a compelling case for why claiming one’s femininity, and refusing to be “sanskari”, remains a radical act.

This episode is now available on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5VYhKdPlydfIkUivuDYtAd

Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3KBb1s6

Youtube: https://youtu.be/4TeurmZBBcA

'Unsanskari: A Feminist Life' by Nirvana Bhandary (October 2025): https://linktr.ee/Unsanskari

✨ Thank you for listening to the Southasia Review of Books Podcast from Himal Southasian. If you like this episode, please share widely, rate, review, subscribe and download the show on your favourite podcast apps.

✉️ Let’s keep the conversation going – please share your thoughts on the episode. Leave us a comment on Youtube or write to us at [email protected].

🙏🏼 To make conversations like this possible, we need the support of our listeners like you. Become a paying Himal Patron to support the Southasia Review of Books: https://www.himalmag.com/support-himal

📚 Sign up to receive the Southasia Review of Books newsletter for Himal’s spotlight on Southasian literature, our latest conversations, and more: https://bit.ly/southasia-review-of-books

In this episode of Saffron Siege, the writer, historian and social activist Ram Puniyani explains the background of India’s freedom struggle in which the RSS was founded. He says the the founders of the RSS were reacting to the education of Dalits and women and the influx of average people into the national movement. On the other hand, they were influenced by the fascist nationalism growing in Europe. “The RSS stands for the presentation of old values, which they call the golden period of Hindu history represented by the Manusmriti, the values of caste and gender hierarchy,” Puniyani says. It also stands against religious minorities – Muslims to begin with and Christians to be followed up.

Over the years the RSS and its ideologues, many who went forward to become BJP leaders, systematically entrenched the RSS’s influence over India’s citizenry – from Lal Krishna Advani as information and broadcasting minister planting RSS characters into the media to Narendran Modi co-opting big corporates as chief minister of Gujarat in the early 2000s world to building their own social media in recent years. “This chain which has grown and is very powerful, very difficult to break. And mainly because I think we have to blame ourselves when all this was going on, what were we doing?” Puniyani says.

You can watch this whole conversation on YouTube: https://youtu.be/orGOdfpGFxo

This episode is part of Season Two of Partitions of the Heart. In this season, Harsh Mander speaks to leading scholars and observers who have studied the RSS closely. Together, they examine its roots and core principles, its Hindutva agenda, and its corrosive role in India’s public and social life across a century.

“Saffron Siege” runs from 17 September to 3 December 2025, with a new episode releasing every Wednesday. Himal’s podcasts are available on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Production: Imaad ul Hasan, Lydia Smith, Ritika Chauhan, Nayantara Narayanan

Support Himal Podcasts and Himal's independent journalism for just USD 5 per month: https://payhere.lk/pay/oee1bdaf1

Himal Southasian is Southasia’s first and only regional news and analysis magazine. Stretching from Afghanistan to Burma, from Tibet to the Maldives, this region of more than 1.4 billion people shares great swathes of interlocking geography, culture and history. Yet today neighbouring countries can barely talk to one another, much less speak in a common voice. For three decades, Himal Southasian has strived to define, nurture, and amplify that voice.

Read more: https://www.himalmag.com/

Support our independent journalism and become a Patron of Himal: https://www.himalmag.com/support-himal

Find us on:

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India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru has become a figure of hate and derision for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) under the leadership of Narendra Modi and for the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), its ideological parent. In this episode of Saffron Siege, Harsh Mander and historian Purushottam Agrawal examine the reasons for their particular resentment against Nehru.

Agrawal ways that Nehru’s modernity of thought, the fact that he never used the idioms of religion in public speech and his relatability to Indians across geography and social divides makes him a symbol that the RSS has never been able to appropriate. “Nehru does not allow them to appropriate himself. So, if you cannot appropriate, you destroy”, says Agrawal.

They also discuss the lack of the RSS’s self-identity beyond its antagonism towards India’s minorities, the fickleness of political parties who once opposed to the RSS and BJP’s fascist ideas and later became their allies, and the reasons behind Hindu radicalisation. You can watch the full conversation on YouTube: https://youtu.be/-0qrJfdTW0k

This episode is part of Season Two of Partitions of the Heart. In this season, Harsh Mander speaks to leading scholars and observers who have studied the RSS closely. Together, they examine its roots and core principles, its Hindutva agenda, and its corrosive role in India’s public and social life across a century

“Saffron Siege” runs from 17 September to 3 December 2025, with a new episode releasing every Wednesday. Himal’s podcasts are available on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Production: Imaad ul Hasan, Lydia Smith, Ritika Chauhan, Nayantara Narayanan

Himal Southasian is Southasia’s first and only regional news and analysis magazine. Stretching from Afghanistan to Burma, from Tibet to the Maldives, this region of more than 1.4 billion people shares great swathes of interlocking geography, culture and history. Yet today neighbouring countries can barely talk to one another, much less speak in a common voice. For three decades, Himal Southasian has strived to define, nurture, and amplify that voice.

Read more: https://www.himalmag.com/

Support our independent journalism and become a Patron of Himal: https://www.himalmag.com/support-himal

Find us on:

https://twitter.com/Himalistan

https://www.facebook.com/himal.southasian

https://www.instagram.com/himalistan/

The Election Commission of India was, for many years, one of the country’s most trusted public institutions lauded around the world for carrying out, every five years, the seemingly impossible task of India’s general elections. The commission was seen as non-partisan that did its work without fear or favour. That reputation has taken a hit in recent years.   

Since August this year, it has been facing a particularly difficult test of its credibility after Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the opposition, made allegations against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the Election Commission ranging from voter fraud to inconsistencies in electoral rolls. These allegation were based on investigations into the Election Commission’s own records. Questions have also been raised over the commission’s Special Intensive Revision of voter lists before the Bihar state elections as to the timing and manner in which it was conducted and the commission’s possible motivations for such an exercise.

In this episode of State of Southasia, Anjali Bhardwaj, a transparency and accountability activist speaks to Nayantara Narayanan about the behaviour of the Election Commission in the conduct of elections over the past decade, the recent allegations it and its reluctance to share election and voter data. She says all this raises “very serious concerns both about the health of India's democracy and about the legitimacy of the governments that are functioning at the centre and in the states.”

You can also listen to this episode on:

🎧 YouTube: https://youtu.be/V6XhVNmMzJo

🎧 Apple podcasts: https://bit.ly/44iEnBY

Episode notes:

Anjali Bhardwaj’s recommendations:

Newton - Amit V. Masurkar (Hindi-language film)

Janne Bhi Do Yaaro - Anjali Bhardwaj and Amrita Johri (podcast on The Wire)

Electoral Democracy?: An Inquiry into the Fairness and Integrity of Elections in India – edited by M G Devasahayam (non-fiction)

Further reading from Himal’s archives:
India’s BJP government gamed the Jammu and Kashmir election – and still lost

Aakar Patel on the unprecedented threats to India’s election: State of Southasia #03

With an unfree and unfair election, Pakistan prepares to repeat its past
In Bangladesh’s sham election, the only real contest is geopolitical

Himal Southasian is Southasia’s first and only regional news and analysis magazine. Stretching from Afghanistan to Burma, from Tibet to the Maldives, this region of more than 1.4 billion people shares great swathes of interlocking geography, culture and history. Yet today neighbouring countries can barely talk to one another, much less speak in a common voice. For three decades, Himal Southasian has strived to define, nurture, and amplify that voice.

Read more: https://www.himalmag.com/

Support our independent journalism and become a Patron of Himal: https://www.himalmag.com/support-himal

Find us on:

https://twitter.com/Himalistan

https://www.facebook.com/himal.southasian

https://www.instagram.com/himalistan/