Podcast - Himal Southasian (Page 6)

State of Southasia #13: Pankaj Sekhsaria on India’s Great Nicobar misadventure

Environmental researcher Pankaj Sekhsaria says that large-scale disruptions to a geologically sensitive region like Great Nicobar puts ecology, infrastructure, indigenous people and migrants to the island at significant risk.

By The Editors

/ 18 Nov 2024

A Giant Leatherback Turtle laying its eggs on a beach within a bay on the Great Nicobar Islands. In view is foliage along the

Southasia Review of Books podcast #11: Sex, scandal and the death of a poet in 1970s Karachi

The journalists Saba Imtiaz and Tooba Masood-Khan talk about their new book ‘Society Girl’, and their investigation into the mysterious death of the Pakistani poet Mustafa Zaidi, and Shahnaz Gul, the much-maligned woman at the centre of these events

By The Editors

/ 11 Nov 2024

The Mashriq newspaper from 1 December 1970 showing Shahnaz Gul (left) among stories on the election and Cyclone Bhola. One of

State of Southasia #12: Hurmat Ali Shah on Pashtuns and the Pakistani state

The Pakistani state has always tried to define itself as against ethnic identities, particularly the Pashtuns, and the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement is pushing back, says socio-political commentator Hurmat Ali Shah

By The Editors

/ 4 Nov 2024

A large crowd of Pashtun men dressed in their traditional attire of kurta and salwar raise their hands as they appear to chee

Southasia Review of Books podcast #10: Zara Chowdhary on ‘The Lucky Ones’ and surviving the violence of the 2002 Gujarat pogrom

A conversation with the writer Zara Chowdhary on her debut memoir ‘The Lucky Ones’, exploring the past of her multigenerational Muslim family and reckoning with a sense of unbelonging within one’s own home and state

By The Editors

/ 28 Oct 2024

In her memoir, Zara Chowdhary recounts visiting the Jama Masjid in Ahmedabad with her grandfather, where Ahmad Shah I, the fi

State of Southasia #11: Jyoti Rahman on rebuilding democracy in Bangladesh

Muhammad Yunus’ interim government needs to implement reforms to resurrect institutions that Sheikh Hasina had all but dismantled, starting with law and order and banking, says economist and political commentator Jyoti Rahman

By The Editors

/ 21 Oct 2024

A man in a green security guard uniform stands with arms spread out in front of a poster of Muhammad Yunus in a grey checked

Southasia Review of Books podcast #09: Geetanjali Shree and Daisy Rockwell on ‘Our City That Year’ and India’s invisible partitions

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

By The Editors

/ 14 Oct 2024

Rising hatred against India’s minority Muslim community is a central theme in Geentanjali Shree’s ‘Our City That Year’, trans

State of Southasia #10: Ambika Satkunanathan on Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s win and the landmark political shift in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka rejected the Rajapaksas and an entire political establishment in the presidential election, with voters serious about a break with the past, says human rights advocate Ambika Satkunanathan

By The Editors

/ 30 Sep 2024

Anura Kumara Dissanayake wearing a grey shirt smiles at cameras outside his party office after winning Sri Lanka’s presidenti

State of Southasia #09: Anna M M Vetticad on the gender reckoning in Malayalam cinema – and India’s film industries

Film journalist Anna M M Vetticad explains the landmark Hema Committee report and how it has sparked a reckoning over the discrimination and abuse facing women in the Malayalam film industry

By The Editors

/ 16 Sep 2024

A selfie of 13 women from the Women in Cinema Collective with Kerala’s chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who is dressed in a w

Southasia Review of Books podcast #08: The Afghan women writers who bore witness to the fall of Kabul

A conversation on the collective diary of 21 Afghan women writers who offer courageous and intimate testimonies on the events of August 2021, life under Taliban rule and far from home in exile

By The Editors

/ 9 Sep 2024

The Shah-Du Shamshira Mosque in Kabul. In the immediate aftermath of the fall, Maryam, among the 21 contributors of the diary

State of Southasia #08: Kate Clark on how Afghans are coping after three years of Taliban rule

Veteran journalist and Afghanistan analyst Kate Clark explains how Afghan people have been living under the Taliban’s ultra-conservative rule while grappling with global isolation and a crumbling economy

By The Editors

/ 26 Aug 2024

State of Southasia #08: Kate Clark on how Afghans are coping after three years of Taliban rule

Southasia Review of Books podcast #7: Neha Dixit on her history of a working-class Muslim woman in India

In ‘The Many Lives of Syeda X: The Story of an Unknown Indian’, Neha Dixit studies the past 30 years of inequalities and majoritarianism in urban India through the eyes of a Muslim migrant woman

By The Editors

/ 12 Aug 2024

Southasia Review of Books podcast #7: Neha Dixit on her history of a working-class Muslim woman in India

State of Southasia #07: Ali Riaz on how Bangladesh’s mass protests have already transformed the country

Political scientist Ali Riaz details how the Sheikh Hasina government has displayed absolute disregard for the lives of its citizens, causing the political ground to shift in Bangladesh

By The Editors

/ 29 Jul 2024

State of Southasia #07: Ali Riaz on how Bangladesh’s mass protests have already transformed the country