Afleveringen
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Over the last many decades, India has taken pride in an election process that, while allowing close to a billion people to exercise their franchise, has always been largely free and fair. However, Narendra Modi’s government has taken a series of actions that have called the sanctity of the country's 2024 general elections into question. This includes a dubious scheme of electoral bonds that has allowed parties – Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party more than others – to raise funds from anonymous donors, as well as a reconstitution of the Election Commission that will likely favour the ruling party. The BJP has also dealt a hammer blow to the opposition by arresting two chief ministers on charges of corruption and freezing the largest opposition party’s assets.
In this episode of State of Southasia, Nayantara Narayanan speaks to Aakar Patel on how hard-won gains in democratic processes including elections have been squandered by the Modi government at great cost to the Indian republic. They also discusswhat the opposition’s options are and what an unfree and unfair election in the world's largest democracy meansfor the rest of Southasia.
State of Southasia releases a new interview every four weeks.
Episode notes:
Further reading from Himal’s archives:
The enduring personality cult of Narendra Modi: https://www.himalmag.com/politics/christophe-jaffrelot-gujarat-narendra-modi-bharatiya-janata-party-hindu-nationalism
With an unfree and unfair election, Pakistan prepares to repeat its past: https://www.himalmag.com/politics/pakistan-unfree-unfair-election-military-nawaz-sharif-imran-khan
State of Southasia #02: Ayesha Siddiqa on Pakistan’s stormy election and its message for the military: https://www.himalmag.com/podcast/ayesha-siddiqa-pakistan-election-2024-imran-khan-shebaz-sharif-pml-nawaz-military
In Bangladesh’s sham election, the only real contest is geopolitical: https://www.himalmag.com/politics/geopolitics-us-europe-china-india-sheikh-hasina-awami-league-2024-bangladesh-election
Prabir Purkayastha’s fight against two Emergencies in India – under Modi and Indira Gandhi
Every vote counts in Kashmir: https://www.himalmag.com/reviews/prabir-purkayastha-newsclick-arrest-emergency-india-indira-gandhi-narendra-modi -
This Southasian Conversation looks at the costs of Reliance's wildlife ambitions, featuring conservationist M D Madhusudan, environmental lawyer Shibani Ghosh and journalist M Rajshekhar in conversation with Roman Gautam, Editor of Himal Southasian.
Led by Anant Ambani and supported by the Indian government, the Reliance conglomerate’s effort to shelter abused elephants has transmuted into an enormous wildlife centre – raising concerns over the sourcing of some animals as well as over India’s wildlife management. Here we dive deeper into the past and disturbing present of wildlife conservation in India and beyond.
Read M Rajshekhar's story 'The costs of Reliance’s wildlife ambitions' here: https://www.himalmag.com/politics/reliance-ambani-anant-elephants-wildlife-vantara-radhe-krishna-trust-greens
This online conversation was recorded on 4 April, 2024 at 7 PM IST.
You can listen to this conversation on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Youtube. -
Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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Welcome to the Southasia Review of Books Podcast from Himal Southasian, where we speak to celebrated authors and emerging literary voices from across Southasia.
In this episode, Shwetha Srikanthan, assistant editor at Himal Southasian, speaks to the author Smriti Ravindra about her debut novel 'The Woman Who Climbed Trees' and the representation of the Madhesi community in the literary imagination of Nepal.
The Nepali-Indian writer Smriti Ravindra is a Fulbright scholar and holds an MFA in creative writing from the North Carolina State University. Her fiction and journalism have been published in the United States and in India, and she is the author of The Woman Who Climbed Trees, a searing story of three generations of women and the challenges faced by them in traditional societies across India and Nepal.
The novel begins with the story of a woman who climbed trees every night, and she gets labeled as a witch by her community. And the title also lets on, this is a story of women who break rules and will keep climbing trees despite the constraints of society weighing them down. With the lyrical use of folklore and mythology, Smriti Ravindra unravels the experiences of women who leave their parent’s homes after marriage, and in the process become strangers to their own selves, and outsiders in these settings.
The story, set partly in the late 1980s and early 1990s of Kathmandu, also traces the major political transitions of Nepal, addressing questions of ethnicity and corruption, and in doing so, the book sheds light on the long-ignored topic of the Madhesi experience, particularly that of women, in Nepali literature – which we explore further in this conversation.
This episode is now available on
Soundcloud: on.soundcloud.com/tnv3Tfpg39EG4sPC8
Spotify: spoti.fi/498g4Gv
Apple Podcasts: apple.co/3TxYgyF
Youtube: youtu.be/bX4IvY311-0
himalmag.com/podcast/smriti-ravindra-the-woman-who-climbed-trees-madhesi-women-identity-nepal-literature
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Southasia Review of Books is a podcast and a monthly newsletter that threads together our latest reviews and literary essays, with curated reading lists and all things books-related from Himal’s extensive archive. A special reading list curated by Smriti Ravindra will be featured in this month’s Southasia Review of Books Newsletter. You can subscribe to Himal’s newsletters here: bit.ly/HimalNewsletters
A new episode of the Southasia Review of Books Podcast will be available once every four weeks. If you like this episode, please share widely, rate, review, subscribe and download the show on your favourite podcast apps. -
In this episode of State of Southasia, Nayantara Narayanan speaks to Ayesha Siddiqa, a political and military analyst from Pakistan and currently a senior fellow at the department of war studies at King’s College in London. Siddiqa is also the author of Military Inc, a revelatory book about the Pakistan military’s economic activities and their fallout. Ayesha Siddiqa discusses the support for Imran Khan in Pakistan’s recent election, the formation of a new government under Shebaz Sharif and growing public disaffection with the military
State of Southasia releases a new interview every four weeks. -
Welcome to the Southasia Review of Books Podcast from Himal Southasian, where we speak to celebrated authors and emerging literary voices from across Southasia. In this episode, the novelist V V Ganeshananthan joins host Shwetha Srikanthan, assistant editor at Himal Southasian, to talk about the books that define her latest novel, Brotherless Night, and women’s writing on Sri Lanka’s long history of anti-Tamil violence.
V V Ganeshananthan, also known as Sugi, is the author of the novels Brotherless Night (a New York Times Editors’ Choice) and Love Marriage, which was longlisted for the Women’s Prize and named one of the best books of the year by The Washington Post. She also teaches in the MFA program at the University of Minnesota, where she is an associate professor of English, and co-hosts the Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast on Literary Hub, looking at the intersection of literature and the news.
Brotherless Night, published in 2023, contends with the Sri Lankan civil war’s end by returning to its beginning through the voice of Sashi, a young Tamil woman growing up in the northern city of Jaffna. As violence unfolds around Sashi, her four brothers and their friends, they navigate the complexities and contradictions of seeking political liberation while confronting the cruelty of the Sri Lankan government, Indian peacekeepers and Tamil militant groups.
As the book’s title lets on, there were huge costs to this war absorbed by young men in Sri Lanka’s north and east, but there’s also immense loss experienced by women - mothers, students, civilians and activists. Part of the success of Brotherless Night is that it’s not only an essential contribution to writings on Sri Lanka’s civil war, but it humanises the lived experiences of Tamil women and the ways in which they’ve been affected by anti-Tamil violence. Through Brotherless Night, Ganeshananthan poses urgent questions on whose stories are told and who gets to tell the stories and histories of conflict in Sri Lanka – which we explore further in this conversation.
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Southasia Review of Books is a podcast and a monthly newsletter that threads together our latest reviews and literary essays, with curated reading lists and all things books-related from Himal’s extensive archive. A special reading list curated by V V Ganeshananthan will be featured in this month’s Southasia Review of Books Newsletter. You can subscribe to Himal’s newsletters at bit.ly/HimalNewsletters. A new episode of the Southasia Review of Books Podcast will be available once every four weeks. If you like this episode, please share widely, rate, review, subscribe and download the show on your favourite podcast apps. -
At Screen Southasia, we host monthly online screenings of compelling documentaries from the region, including Nepal, India, Kashmir, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Tibet, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Maldives and Sri Lanka. We present a diverse range of films, both classic and new, that showcase the unique cultures, histories and perspectives of Southasia.
Screen Southasia is a partnership between Himal Southasian and Film Southasia.
In this Screen Southasia Q&A session, recorded on 5 February 2024, we speak with the filmmaker Jude Ratnam on his film 'Demons in Paradise'
Synopsis
Sri Lanka 1983 – Jude Ratnam is five years old. On a red train, he flees the massacre of Tamils instigated by the Pro-Sinhalese majoritarian government. Now a filmmaker, he takes the same train from South to North. As he advances, the traces of the violence of the 26-year-old war, which turned the Tamil fight for freedom into self-destructive terrorism pass before his eyes. He unveils the repressed memories of his compatriots, opening the door to a new era and making peace possible again. Demons in Paradise is the result of ten years of work. For the first time, a Tamil documentary filmmaker living in Sri Lanka is seeing the Civil war from the inside. -
On 22 January 2024, as India’s prime minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the new Ram temple in Ayodhya, a 32-year old film was recirculated across India on social media platforms. Many Indians felt the need to watch and share the documentary Ram ke naam made by Anand Parwardhan in 1990. The film captured the mobilisation of hundreds of Hindu activists who were made to believe that Ram was born at the exact spot where the 16th century Babri Masjid stood and, as a result, wanted a temple built there instead of the mosque. The film was released in September 1992 just months before a group of militant Hindu activists illegally tore down the Babri Masjid.
In this episode of State of Southasia, our assistant editor Nayantara Narayanan speaks to Patwardhan about the making of Ram ke naam, why India ignored its warnings about religious fundamentalism and what lessons it still holds three decades later.
State of Southasia releases with a new interview every four weeks. -
Anil Varghese and Nawal Kishore Kumar discuss Bihar’s caste survey and its implications for affirmative action
In October 2023, the chief minister of Bihar, Nitish Kumar, released the results of a caste survey of his state – a landmark development given that India has not had a comprehensive count of its caste composition since 1931, and pushed through despite resistance from the central government under the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Bihar’s survey found that over two-thirds of the state’s population of 130 million belonged to oppressed castes, establishing an essential fact in the wider battle for expanded affirmative action for oppressed communities. The results of Bihar’s caste count will likely trigger more such exercises in other parts of India.
In this edition of Himal Interviews, our Editor, Roman Gautam, interviews Anil Varghese and Nawal Kishore Kumar of Forward Press, a Delhi-based publishing house and website dedicated to anti-caste thought and caste emancipation. Varghese is the editor-in-chief of Forward Press, while Kumar is the Hindi editor. Varghese and Kumar also collaborated on an article for Himal Southasian, titled ‘India needs a caste census – and Southasia does too’, published on 13 January.
Why has a country-wide caste census in India been delayed for so long? How might Bihar’s survey results impact the representation of oppressed castes in all spheres of Indian public life? -
Southasiasphere is our roundup of news events and analysis of regional affairs, out every two weeks. If you are a member, you will automatically receive links to new episodes in your inbox. We are in the process of upgrading and improving our podcast offerings, including experimenting with different formats. We will continue to bring you news and analysis. Please stay tuned for more in the coming weeks.
In this episode, we talk about two key members pulling out of the opposition-led India National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) months before elections, fisticuffs in Maldives’ Parliament, Pakistan accusing India of targeted assassinations, Nepal’s National Assembly poll results, the Taliban detaining an Afghan poet, Sri Lanka’s passage of the Online Safety Bill, India’s plans to fence the Myanmar border and Hindus being given leave to pray in the Gyanvapi Mosque. -
Southasiasphere is our roundup of news events and analysis of regional affairs, now out every two weeks. If you are a member, you will automatically receive links to new episodes in your inbox.
In this episode, we talk about escalating tensions between the Maldives and India, national elections in Bangladesh and Bhutan, justice for Bilkis Bano and the inauguration of Ram Mandir, PTI losing its cricket bat symbol, the continuation of Operation 1027 despite a China-brokered ceasefire, Nepal’s former cricket captain receiving an 8 year sentence for rape, Iran launching a missile attack on Balochistan, the new Dhaka-Kathmandu bus service and escalating dengue cases in Bangladesh.
Episode Notes:
Himal’s future is in your hands! Become a member to support our work: http://www.himalmag.com/membership
Share your feedback with this survey: https://us3.list-manage.com/survey?u=0c87df9f0948bcfa1bc80d2b4&id=ba236fbe73&attribution=false -
Israel’s brutal bombardment of Gaza has killed over 20,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 50,000 others since the 7 October attack by Hamas.
While India strongly condemned the attack and expressed solidarity with Israel, India recently voted in favour of several draft resolutions in the United Nations that criticised Israel’s conduct in Gaza and supported aid for Palestinian civilians, after initially abstaining on a resolution that had called for an immediate humanitarian truce and unhindered humanitarian access in the Gaza strip. This signifies that deeper shifts have taken place in India’s approach to Israel.
For most of independent India’s history, New Delhi had no diplomatic relations with Israel. Today, Indian and Israeli flags are displayed together at rallies demonstrating solidarity with Israel. India and Israel under Narendra Modi and Benjamin Netanyahu have developed a significant military partnership and growing economic ties.
In a review essay on Azad Essa’s Hostile Homelands: The New Alliance between India and Israel, for Himal Southasian, Rohan Venkat explores the ideological convergence of Hindutva and Zionism, and the consequences for Kashmir and Palestine – and argues there is much more driving India and Israel’s deepening ties. Rohan Venkat is a Non-Resident Visiting Scholar and Consulting Editor at the Centre for the Advanced Study of India, University of Pennsylvania. He writes India Inside Out, a newsletter on Indian politics, foreign policy and history.
In this edition of Himal Interviews, Rohan Venkat talks about how the most potent commonality between India and Israel isn’t in the trade and defence ties they have been building over the past three decades. Instead, Rohan explores how the ideological movements that lie at the core of India and Israel’s political leadership today serve to justify the excesses of both states, and the wider implications of this for Southasia.
Rohan Venkat’s recommendations:
Hostile Homelands: The New Alliance Between India and Israel by Azad Essa Pluto Press (February 2023)
The Evolution of India’s Israel Policy: Continuity, Change, and Compromise Since 1922 by Nicolas Blarel. Oxford University Press (January 2015)
India’s Israel Policy by P R Kumaraswamy. Columbia University Press (July 2010)
The Ezra Klein Show by The New York Times
Minor Detail Adania Shibli. Fitzcarraldo Editions and New Directions Publishing (June 2017)
The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit by Lucette Lagnado. Ecco (June 2007) -
January 2024 - Updates and analysis from around the region
Southasiasphere is our roundup of news events and analysis of regional affairs, now out every two weeks. If you are a member, you will automatically receive links to new episodes in your inbox.
In this episode, we talk about truckers protesting India’s proposed hit and run laws, Pakistan’s Election Commission rejecting Imran Khan’s nomination for upcoming elections, India’s Space Research Organisation launching a rocket to study black holes, Nobel laureate Muhammed Yunus being convicted of violating Bangladesh’s labour laws, protests in Balochistan, the resumption of work on a Chinese-funded deep seawater port in Myanmar, Sri Lanka’s moratorium on Chinese research vessels, the deaths of two protesters in Kathmandu and the closure of the UNHCR office in Sri Lanka.
Episode Notes:
Become a Himal member to support our work: http://www.himalmag.com/membership
Share your feedback with this survey. https://us3.list-manage.com/survey?u=0c87df9f0948bcfa1bc80d2b4&id=ba236fbe73&attribution=false -
December 2023 - Updates and analysis from around the region
Southasiasphere is our roundup of news events and analysis of regional affairs, now out every two weeks. If you are a member, you will automatically receive links to new episodes in your inbox.
In this episode, we talk about flooding in Tamil Nadu, the mass suspension of India’s opposition MPs and key bills passed in the Lok Sabha, Imran Khan using AI to participate in a virtual Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf rally, a large Bangladesh Nationalist Party rally ahead of Bangladesh’s elections, Maldives ending a hydrographic survey of India, 56 Sri Lankans being held captive at the Thai-Myanmar border, Bhutan’s upcoming national assembly elections, Myanmar overtaking Afghanistan as the world’s largest opium producer and a landmark decision on caste discrimination in Nepal.
Episode Notes:
Himal’s future is in your hands! Become a member to support our work: http://www.himalmag.com/membership
Share your feedback with this survey: https://us3.list-manage.com/survey?u=0c87df9f0948bcfa1bc80d2b4&id=ba236fbe73&attribution=false -
The 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference, more commonly known as COP28, was held from 30 November to 12 December in Dubai. This year the main focus was global progress on the Paris Agreement, a crucial legally binding climate change deal signed by the parties in 2015. For Southasia, the conference was primarily about finding financial assistance for their communities, who face the worst impacts of climate change and have the highest adaptation costs.
At the end of COP28, participants agreed to transition away from fossil fuels for the first time. Another milestone was the establishment of a loss and damage fund to help countries vulnerable to climate change. However, many participants said the language of the agreement did not go far enough and left too many loopholes to ensure the delivery of commitments on climate change. Developing countries were also left disappointed by a lack of financial support to mitigate the impacts of climate change
In this edition of Himal Interviews, Assistant Editor Nayantara Narayanan interviews Simon Evans, deputy editor and senior policy editor at Carbon Brief. Simon covers climate and energy policy and closely followed the negotiations in Dubai during COP28 and spoke to Himal Southasian about historical carbon emissions and what they indicate about the impact of colonialism on climate change. -
Bangladesh’s parliamentary elections are scheduled to be held on 7 January. In the run up to the elections, there have been escalating protests led by the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party calling for Bangladesh’s prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, to resign and transfer power to a non-partisan caretaker government to ensure a free and fair election. Historically, Bangladesh’s elections have been marred by violence and crackdowns on political opposition. This election has already seen a number of BNP party members and supporters being arrested by the Awami League government, and there are now calls from political opposition to boycott the election altogether.
In this edition of Himal Interviews, Assistant Editor Nayantara Narayanan interviews Himal Southasian contributor Anupam Debashis Roy on Bangladesh’s elections, the crackdown on political opposition and the impact of US-imposed visa restrictions.
What is the atmosphere in Bangladesh like in the run-up to parliamentary elections?
Anupam Debashis Roy’s reading list:
Bangladesh’s blueprint for engineering an election - Ali Riaz
Is Awami League heading towards a Pyrrhic victory? - Mahfuz Anam
The Election Commission’s credibility problem - Badiul Alam Majumdar
We are heading towards another one-sided election - Badiul Alam Majumdar
Has BNP served its supporters well? - Mahfuz Anam
More than meets the eye: Essays on Bangladeshi politics - Ali Riaz -
December 2023 - Updates and analysis from around the region
Southasiasphere is our roundup of news events and analysis of regional affairs, now out every two weeks. If you are a member, you will automatically receive links to new episodes in your inbox.
In this episode, we talk about Uttar Pradesh’s halal ban, Myanmar’s armed groups exposing the weakness of the military junta, the US uncovering a foiled assassination plot targeting the founder of Sikhs for Justice, an ongoing sit-in at the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, Maldives’ former president Abdullah Yameen forming a new political party, the extension of the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor to Sri Lanka, Pakistan application to BRICS, the release of founding editor of The Kashmir Walla Fahad Shah and pro-monarchy protests tapping into public discontent with Nepal’s government.
Episode Notes:
Become a member to support our work.
Sign up for the Southasiasphere newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.
Aung Kaung Myat’s reading list:
Burma: Insurgency and the politics of ethnicity - Martin Smith
Making enemies: War and state building in Burma - Mary P Callahan
Myanmar’s enemy within: Buddhist violence and the making of a Muslim ‘Other’ - Francis Wade -
Southasiasphere is our roundup of news events and analysis of regional affairs, now out every two weeks. If you are a member, you will automatically receive links to new episodes in your inbox.
In this episode, we talk about armed groups challenging the military junta across Chin, Shan and Rakhine states, Sri Lanka’s budget for 2024, the collapse of a tunnel in Uttarkashi, Nepal’s TikTok ban, garment factory workers’ strikes in Bangladesh, earthquakes in Nepal, the chequered legacy of Indian tycoon Subrata Roy, the International Cricket Council’s suspension of Sri Lanka Cricket for government interference, and over 170,000 Afghan refugees fleeing Pakistan after a deportation order. This week, Himal Southasian interviews Sanaa Alimia, Assistant Professor at the Aga Khan University and the author of Refugee Cities, a history of Afghan migration to Pakistan since the 1970s, in light of Pakistan’s deportation order impacting Afghan refugees.
Episode Notes:
Himal’s future is in your hands! Become a member to support our work: http://www.himalmag.com/membership
Sign up for the Southasiasphere newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes: https://himalmag.us3.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=0c87df9f0948bcfa1bc80d2b4&id=2c748501e0
Share your feedback with this survey: https://us3.list-manage.com/survey?u=0c87df9f0948bcfa1bc80d2b4&id=ba236fbe73&attribution=false
Sanaa Alimia’s reading list:
Anila Daulatzai on refugee regimes
Conversation with Paniz Musawi Natanzi
Floating upwards from history: Afghan women’s experience of displacement - Saba Gul Khattak
Gender, sexuality and Islam under the shadow of empire - Sadia Toor
Making Reliable Persons: Managing Descent and Genealogical Computation in Pakistan - Zehra Hashmi -
Southasiasphere is our roundup of news events and analysis of regional affairs, now out every two weeks. If you are a member, you will automatically receive links to new episodes in your inbox.
In this episode, we talk about Apple’s alerts warning of potential state-sponsored cyberattacks targeting Indian opposition leaders and journalists, an explosion in Kerala targeting a Jehovah’s Witness convention, Nawaz Sharif’s return to Pakistan, advances by armed groups battling Myanmar’s military junta in Shan state, arrests and deaths of Bangladesh Nationalist Party activists following a three-day blockade in Bangladesh, the launch of an India-Bangladesh railway link and the incoming Maldivian president Mohammed Muizzu’s plan to evict Indian troops within a week of his inauguration.
In this episode, Himal Southasian interviews Daniel Bosley, a journalist and blogger working on the Maldives, about the recently held Maldivian presidential elections (interview begins at 10:27).
Episode Notes:
Himal’s future is in your hands! Become a member to support our work.
http://www.himalmag.com/membership
Sign up for the Southasiasphere newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes:
https://himalmag.us3.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=0c87df9f0948bcfa1bc80d2b4&id=2c748501e0
Share your feedback with this survey:
https://us3.list-manage.com/survey?u=0c87df9f0948bcfa1bc80d2b4&id=ba236fbe73&attribution=false
Daniel Bosley’s reading list:
The Costliest Pearl: China’s struggle for India’s Ocean
Stealing Paradise -
Southasiasphere is our roundup of news events and analysis of regional affairs, now out every two weeks.
In this episode, we talk about fresh scrutiny on the Adani group in the wake of recent reporting, Pakistan’s deportation order impacting Afghan refugees, the release of two rights activists in Bangladesh on bail, China replacing the name ‘Tibet’ with the Chinese romanised name ‘Xizang’ on official documents, India’s Supreme Court declining to legalise same-sex marriage, Southasian deaths and repatriation efforts in Israel and Gaza, an air strike on a camp for the internally displaced in Myanmar’s Kachin state, and the reopening of an old sea route between Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu and Kankesanthurai in the Jaffna peninsula.
For this episode, we also interview Najibullah Sadid, an expert on water resources and the environment, to discuss the devastating recent earthquakes in Herat as well as the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.
Episode Notes:
Himal’s future is in your hands! Become a member to support our work: http://www.himalmag.com/membership
Sign up for the Southasiasphere newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes: https://himalmag.us3.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=0c87df9f0948bcfa1bc80d2b4&id=2c748501e0
Share your feedback with this survey: https://us3.list-manage.com/survey?u=0c87df9f0948bcfa1bc80d2b4&id=ba236fbe73&attribution=false
Najibullah Sadid’s Reading list:
The Natural Resources in Afghanistan: Geographic and geologic perspectives on centuries of conflict - John F Shroder: https://www.sciencedirect.com/book/9780128001356/natural-resources-in-afghanistan
Devastating earthquakes hit Afghanistan - Science in Action by BBC World Service: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct4scy
Afghanistan earthquakes in Herat province: Situation report 15-16 October 2023 - Reliefweb: https://reliefweb.int/report/afghanistan/afghanistan-earthquakes-herat-province-health-situation-report-no-8-15-16-october-2023 -
In this episode, we talk about the Delhi Police raid on the office of the Indian news outlet Newsclick as well as numerous journalists’ homes; and debates around delimitation and the women’s reservation bill in India’s parliament. In “Around Southasia in 5 minutes”, we talk about the presidential election results in the Maldives, the reimposition of an internet ban in strife-torn Manipur, the BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri’s Islamophobic language in the Indian parliament, concerns over the Online Safety Bill and antiterrorism legislation in Sri Lanka, price controls impacting farmers in Myanmar and a recent massacre of resistance fighters in the country, and brewing controversy around elections for the position of the World Health Organisation’s South Asia regional director. For “Bookmarked”, we discuss the novel “The Laughter” by Sonora Jha.
Episode Notes:
BJP highlights NYT report linking NewsClick to China, targets Congress for defending news site: https://scroll.in/latest/1053926/bjp-highlights-nyt-report-linking-newsclick-to-china-targets-congress-for-defending-news-site
A Global Web of Chinese Propaganda Leads to a U.S. Tech Mogul: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/05/world/europe/neville-roy-singham-china-propaganda.html
The Maldives’ ruling party is fighting itself and the opposition in the race for president: https://www.himalmag.com/maldives-presidential-election-ibrahim-solih-mohamed-nasheed-abdulla-yameen-mdp-ppm/
G20 summit in Delhi, new allegations on the Easter Sunday bombings, the return of Nawaz Sharif and more: https://www.himalmag.com/g20-summit-delhi-2023-easter-sunday-attack-nipah-kerala-bangladesh-dengue-nawaz-sharif-jawan/
2023 Half-Yearly Report: Anti-Muslim Hate Speech Events in India: https://hindutvawatch.org/hate-speech-events-india/
He live-streamed his attacks on Indian Muslims. YouTube gave him an award: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/09/26/india-monu-manesar-viligante-social-media/
The Bajaur bombing, India’s ban on rice exports, violence in Haryana and Gurugram and more: https://www.himalmag.com/bajaur-bombing-india-ban-rice-exports-communal-violence-haryana-gurugram-nuh-2023-rahul-gandhi-defamation/
Proposed Online Safety Bill: Sparking concerns over freedom of expression: https://www.themorning.lk/articles/kJoknFck7KnJZNZA6iG0
Myanmar junta slaps struggling farmers with price controls: https://www.irrawaddy.com/business/myanmar-junta-slaps-struggling-farmers-with-price-controls.html
The Laughter: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/sonora-jha/the-laughter/
Southasiasphere is our roundup of news events and analysis of regional affairs, now out every two weeks. - Laat meer zien
