Sociologist Samina Luthfa talks about how women have been caught between an interim government failing to protect them and rising Islamist conservatism targeting their freedoms
The sexual assault case that shook Malayalam cinema, in which the actor Dileep was the suspected mastermind but was acquitted, shows how Kerala’s systems continue to shield the powerful and well-connected – especially men
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge’s charms lent a deceptive lustre to its ultra-conservatism, which helped pave the way for the brazen misogyny and Hindu nationalism in Hindi cinema three decades later
The sports journalist discusses the lazy marketing of ICC Women’s World Cup, pay disparities between men and women cricketers and the change to the game in recent years
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.
At our edit meeting this Wednesday, we debated what should be highlighted as the main story in this newsletter. Should we talk about the broader implications of Sonam Wangchuk’s
The 1975 Hindi blockbuster Sholay now unwittingly underlines the degradation of India’s landscape over the last five decades and the representation of gender, caste and Muslims in Bollywood
Nearly a million Afghan refugees have been deported from Iran in 2025 – many after brutal detention and abuse – to face uncertainty and a humanitarian crisis in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan
Alina Gufran’s ‘No Place to Call My Own’ seethes with a quiet anger of our times, where a young woman struggles with her own sense of self and belonging, and the restless anxieties of adulthood in urban India
