An unsung giant of Gujarati literature, Dalpat Chauhan has fought to reclaim a Dalit history, identity and idiom that resist Gujarat’s exclusivist politics and pride
V T Rajshekar deployed ‘Dalit Voice’ in an assault on the caste system, amplifying Ambedkar and exposing both the Brahminical enemies of Indian democracy and its Brahminical guardians
This is part of the second season of Partitions of the Heart: Conversations with Harsh Mander, a Himal Southasian podcast series produced in association with Karwan-e-Mohabbat.
Zohran Mamdani becomes first Southasian New York mayor, Rana Ayyub faces death threats, Dhaka protests around July charter and more in our weekly regional newsletter
This is part of the second season of Partitions of the Heart: Conversations with Harsh Mander, a Himal Southasian podcast series produced in association with Karwan-e-Mohabbat.
A memoir of one Dalit family’s mythological and actual battles against caste discrimination and religious prejudice in Bangladesh, East Pakistan and colonial Bengal
This week in Himal
This week, Zahra Nader writes about the escalating deportations of Afghan refugees in Iran, with Afghans navigating growing hostility, systemic neglect and violence while being forcibly
‘The Blaft Book of Anti-Caste SF’ demonstrates the power of speculative and science fiction as instruments of the anti-caste struggle in Southasia, and these genres’ connections to the wide traditions of Dalit and Adivasi literature
The BK-16 case links India’s harmful neoliberal policies, state authorities abuse of laws, and the collapse of institutions, says the social anthropologist
In a sharp critique of iconisation, Teltumbde challenges the hagiography surrounding B R Ambedkar, calling for a nuanced reassessment of his contested legacy in view of the ongoing oppression of Dalits in India today
Three new books unpack the violent roots of caste-based vegetarianism and India’s dairy industry as Dalits and Muslims continue to be targeted by cow-protection vigilantes
