The Hindu Right has dispossessed India’s Muslims of meaningful political participation and fair representation while altering electoral politics to cast Muslims as a political liability
Rollo Romig’s book uncovers the making of Gauri Lankesh, her fight against Hindu nationalism, and how the journalist’s murder exposes the cost of dissent in an increasingly intolerant India
A conversation with the Mumbai-based journalist on the roots of Hindutva, the proliferation of Aadhaar and the surprising origins of India’s identification project
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
Violent pro-monarchy protests reveal Nepal’s incomplete transition from Hindu kingdom to secular republic, with nationalist myths and India’s Hindu Right feeding into royalist resurgence
This week in Himal
This week, Frances Harrison revisits the Batalanda Commission Report detailing human rights abuses at the torture site in Sri Lanka during the leftist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna
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
Vanya Vaidehi Bhargav’s biography of Lajpat Rai helps trace the Indian freedom fighter’s ideas on nationalism and caste – which, when compared to Gandhi’s, point to the often counterintuitive caste politics of India’s Hindu and “secular” nationalisms
Maharashtra’s politics has been pushed so far to the right that progressive voices are endorsing the Maha Vikas Aghadi – which includes Uddhav Thackeray’s faction of the Shiv Sena, with its history of Hindutva vigilantism
The International Booker Prize-winning author-translator duo discuss their latest book – and why its story, based loosely around the 1992 demolition of the Babri Masjid, remains deeply relevant today
