Politics

Stay informed on the latest political developments in South Asia with in-depth analysis, news, and stories from across the region at Himal Southasian

A new royal role

King Birendra of Nepal, who just turned 55, should be more actively involved in the development concerns of his long-suffering subjects. His constitutional position would allow such a role. During

By Kanak Mani Dixit

/ 1 Jan 2000

CRACKDOWN

The suspense mounted as 16 November drew near. A month earlier, the new military ruler of Pakistan, Gen Pervez Musharraf, had warned all "willful" loan defaulters to repay

By Zaigham Khan

/ 1 Dec 1999

MILITARY DEMOCRACY?

The commonwealth team that visited Pakistan at the end of October to make an on-the-spot assessment of the official, political and public opinion in the country, will have found that

By The Editors

/ 1 Nov 1999

The emperor’s new fatigues

Even generals have to be accountable, and should depart if they cannot perform. It is an insufferable irony. A nation anticipates that decentralised participatory rule will be delivered by those

By Kazim Saeed

/ 1 Nov 1999

SHE’S EARLY

Political circles in Colombo couldn't resist the joke. "This time she's early," they chuckled when Sri Lanka's notoriously unpunctual president, Chandrika Bandaranaike

By The Editors

/ 1 Nov 1999

Return of the khaki

Pakistan's military coup truncated a democratic process that would have thrown out Nawaz Sharif as decisively as Benazir Bhutto was rejected in the last election.

By Zia Mian and A H Nayyar

/ 1 Nov 1999

Director’s choice

For long years, the rest of India and the Western world identified Bengali cinema with either the pain and poverty of Satyajit Ray's pathbreaking Pather Panchall or with

By Sujoy Dhar

/ 1 Oct 1999

Assembly-line sisters

The 'Nepali women' you get to know from the development blurb are conveniently homogenous. All are equally poor, illiterate and oppressed. In the struggle against patriarchy, the idea

By Seira Tamang

/ 1 Sep 1999

Lies out of control

A couple of months after the Kargil conflict, some intense soul-searching by the Indian print and electronic media is revealing that much of the national press meekly toed the government

By S.N.M. Abdi

/ 1 Sep 1999

Between Rebellion and Submission

It is a tricky, intricately structured dance that the Indian woman does on the screen—one fluid step forward and two lurching steps backward—and one that has remained the

By Maithili Rao

/ 1 Sep 1999

SHOOTING THE SHARIF

Credited for putting together almost all the anti-government political alliances in the last four decades, Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan, the wily old man of Pakistani politics, was at it again. Sporting

By Zaigham Khan

/ 1 Sep 1999

AFTER NEELAN

The assassination came barely a week after the Colombo government had announced its intention of placing its constitutional package on which its peace hopes rest before Parliament in August. It

By Manik de Silva

/ 1 Aug 1999