This is part of the first season of Partitions of the Heart: Conversations with Harsh Mander, a Himal Southasian podcast series produced in association with Karwan-e-Mohabbat.
A conversation with the Assamese writer Aruni Kashyap on crafting stories on love, resistance and belonging set against the long shadow of violence in India’s Northeast
This week in Himal
This week, Abhishek Avtans writes about the languages of tea-estate workers in Assam and Darjeeling, following the migration of diverse people to tea estates for work.
Labour migration to the tea gardens of colonial India fostered contact and convergence among diverse languages, prompting the rise of new linguas francas and the erosion of many mother tongues
India’s ruling BJP claims to have overcome the “tyranny of distance” that has plagued the Northeast but its politics have created greater division within the region, as the Manipur crisis shows
Contemporary poetry recitations in urban public spaces in Assam are rare now – many have switched to slam genres or remain limited to select circles. But the nostalgic aspect of a
