Himal Southasian Podcast Channel

Nepal goes to the polls on 5 March 2026. But what do these elections actually mean for a country still navigating the turbulence of its recent past?In this episode, Himal's editor Roman Gautam and associate editor Nayantara Narayanan are joined by law student and intersectional feminist Anjali Sah and writer and journalist Pranaya Rana for a wide-ranging conversation on Nepal's upcoming general elections.They dig into the parties contesting and what they actually stand for, the tired persistence of the old guard and whether a new generation of politics is genuinely possible, the unfinished business of federalism, the stubborn underrepresentation of women candidates, and very importantly - what last year's Gen Z protests revealed about the deep frustrations simmering beneath the surface of Nepali public life.Nepal has been through a remarkable and often painful political journey, from monarchy to republic, from civil war to constitution, and yet the same faces, the same compromises, and the same impunity have a way of enduring. This conversation asks whether March 5 is a turning point, or another chapter in a longer story of deferred hope.

On 12 February 2026, Bangladesh holds its first election since the July Revolution in 2024 that overthrew the authoritarian government of Sheikh Hasina and the Awami League. These polls are among the most critical in the country’s tumultuous history. Hasina’s exile, a ban on the Awami League and a generational change in the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) after Khaleda Zia’s death have transformed the face of Bangladesh politics. Himal's editor Roman Gautam and associate editor Nayantara Narayanan speak to Bangladeshi journalists Zyma Islam and Nusmita Lohani to unpack Bangladesh’s contested present and recent past, offering nuance and deeper perspective to make sense of the election and what comes after it.

Read the rest of our coverage here :https://www.himalmag.com/politics/bangladesh-election-bnp-jamaat-islamist-hasin

You can also listen to this conversation on

🎧 YouTube: https://youtu.be/HqEEI5GNna4

🎧 Apple podcasts:Himal Southasian is Southasia’s first and only regional news and analysis magazine. Stretching from Afghanistan to Burma, from Tibet to the Maldives, this region of more than 1.4 billion people shares great swathes of interlocking geography, culture and history. Yet today neighbouring countries can barely talk to one another, much less speak in a common voice. For three decades, Himal Southasian has strived to define, nurture, and amplify that voice.

Read more: https://www.himalmag.com/

Support our independent journalism and become a Patron of Himal: https://www.himalmag.com/support-himalFind us on:

https://twitter.com/Himalistan

https://www.facebook.com/himal.southasian

https://www.instagram.com/himalistan/#bangladesh #bangladeshelection2026 #democracy #awamileague #bnp #sheikhhasina #southasianvoices #southasianlanguage #southasiageopolitics #editorialanalysis #journalism #southasianews #netrachannel #dailystar #politics #podcast #politicalupdates #politicalpodcast #generalknowledge #general #generalelections

In this special episode of Saffron Siege: The RSS at 100, Harsh Mander speaks to Felix Pal, a lecturer on political science and international relations at the University of Western Australia, about his six-year long research into the RSS and its affiliates recently published in The Caravan magazine. The research revealed a network of 2500 organisations around the world that are directly or indirectly connected to the RSS, and overtly or covertly espousing its ideas.

Commenting on the findings are Christophe Jaffrelot, a political scientist at Sciences Po who specialises in Southasia and has written several important books in India’s politics, and Tanika Sarkar, a historian of modern India who works on religion, gender and politics in Southasia, in particular on women and the Hindu Right.

You can watch this full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/FSg9h0NXipU

This episode is part of Season Two of Partitions of the Heart. In this season, Harsh Mander speaks to leading scholars and observers who have studied the RSS closely. Together, they examine its roots and core principles, its Hindutva agenda, and its corrosive role in India’s public and social life across a century.

Production: Imaad ul Hasan, Lydia Smith, Ritika Chauhan, Nayantara Narayanan

Himal Southasian is Southasia’s first and only regional news and analysis magazine. Stretching from Afghanistan to Burma, from Tibet to the Maldives, this region of more than 1.4 billion people shares great swathes of interlocking geography, culture and history. Yet today neighbouring countries can barely talk to one another, much less speak in a common voice. For three decades, Himal Southasian has strived to define, nurture, and amplify that voice.

Read more: https://www.himalmag.com/

Support our independent journalism and become a Patron of Himal: https://www.himalmag.com/support-himal

Find us on:

https://twitter.com/Himalistan

https://www.facebook.com/himal.southasian

https://www.instagram.com/himalistan/

Pakistan has been reshaped by its 27th constitutional amendment that was passed in November. The amendment has formalised the military’s so-far unofficial dominance in the country’s governing structure into explicit constitutional supremacy. It was passed by a politically fragile parliament facing questions over its own legitimacy and elevates the army chief Asim Munir to an almost unassailable position as the Chief of Defence Forces. What had long operated as an informal military veto over civilian politics is now written into the basic law of the state, transforming Pakistan’s power structure for years to come.​

The amendment also rewires the judiciary, creating a new Federal Constitutional Court whose judges are effectively chosen and controlled by the executive and legislature, both themselves deeply aligned with the military establishment. By stripping the existing Supreme Court of most constitutional jurisdiction and reshaping the body that appoints and transfers judges, the changes leave little room for independent legal scrutiny of military or executive overreach.

In this episode of State of Southasia, Ayesha Jalal, the Mary Richardson professor of history, arts and sciences at the Fletcher graduate school in Tufts University, speaks to Ayesha Jalal about Pakistan after the 27th amendment – what has changed and what has not, and what political players and civil society must do to reclaim democratic spaces in the country.

You can also listen to this episode on:

🎧 YouTube: https://youtu.be/eXiuTQ6ppkM

🎧 Apple podcasts:https://apple.co/4p7YhHt

Episode notes:

Ayesha Jalal’s recommendations:

- The State of Martial Rule: The Origins of Pakistan's Political Economy of Defence – Ayesha Jalal (non-fiction)

- Crossed Swords: Pakistan, Its Army, and the Wars Within – Shuja Nawaz (non-fiction)

- A Case of Exploding Mangoes – Mohammed Hanif (fiction)

Further reading from Himal’s archives:

In Pakistan, a mightier military and a judiciary undone (https://www.himalmag.com/politics/pakistan-27amendment-constitution-military-asim-munir)

- Pakistan’s struggle to reshape its fiscal federalism (https://www.himalmag.com/politics/pakistan-fiscal-federalism-province-punjab-budget)

- Asim Munir’s promotion to field marshal signals an authoritarian Pakistan (https://www.himalmag.com/politics/pakistan-military-asim-munir-authoritarianism)

- Pakistan is losing friends fast in both Beijing and Washington DC (https://www.himalmag.com/politics/pakistan-unitedstates-china-taliban-security)

Himal Southasian is Southasia’s first and only regional news and analysis magazine. Stretching from Afghanistan to Burma, from Tibet to the Maldives, this region of more than 1.4 billion people shares great swathes of interlocking geography, culture and history. Yet today neighbouring countries can barely talk to one another, much less speak in a common voice. For three decades, Himal Southasian has strived to define, nurture, and amplify that voice.

Read more: https://www.himalmag.com/

Support our independent journalism and become a Patron of Himal: https://www.himalmag.com/support-himal

Find us on:

https://twitter.com/Himalistan

https://www.facebook.com/himal.southasian

https://www.instagram.com/himalistan/

In this episode of Saffron Siege, the writer, historian and social activist Ram Puniyani explains the background of India’s freedom struggle in which the RSS was founded. He says the the founders of the RSS were reacting to the education of Dalits and women and the influx of average people into the national movement. On the other hand, they were influenced by the fascist nationalism growing in Europe. “The RSS stands for the presentation of old values, which they call the golden period of Hindu history represented by the Manusmriti, the values of caste and gender hierarchy,” Puniyani says. It also stands against religious minorities – Muslims to begin with and Christians to be followed up.

Over the years the RSS and its ideologues, many who went forward to become BJP leaders, systematically entrenched the RSS’s influence over India’s citizenry – from Lal Krishna Advani as information and broadcasting minister planting RSS characters into the media to Narendran Modi co-opting big corporates as chief minister of Gujarat in the early 2000s world to building their own social media in recent years. “This chain which has grown and is very powerful, very difficult to break. And mainly because I think we have to blame ourselves when all this was going on, what were we doing?” Puniyani says.

You can watch this whole conversation on YouTube: https://youtu.be/orGOdfpGFxo

This episode is part of Season Two of Partitions of the Heart. In this season, Harsh Mander speaks to leading scholars and observers who have studied the RSS closely. Together, they examine its roots and core principles, its Hindutva agenda, and its corrosive role in India’s public and social life across a century.

“Saffron Siege” runs from 17 September to 3 December 2025, with a new episode releasing every Wednesday. Himal’s podcasts are available on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Production: Imaad ul Hasan, Lydia Smith, Ritika Chauhan, Nayantara Narayanan

Support Himal Podcasts and Himal's independent journalism for just USD 5 per month: https://payhere.lk/pay/oee1bdaf1

Himal Southasian is Southasia’s first and only regional news and analysis magazine. Stretching from Afghanistan to Burma, from Tibet to the Maldives, this region of more than 1.4 billion people shares great swathes of interlocking geography, culture and history. Yet today neighbouring countries can barely talk to one another, much less speak in a common voice. For three decades, Himal Southasian has strived to define, nurture, and amplify that voice.

Read more: https://www.himalmag.com/

Support our independent journalism and become a Patron of Himal: https://www.himalmag.com/support-himal

Find us on:

https://twitter.com/Himalistan

https://www.facebook.com/himal.southasian

https://www.instagram.com/himalistan/

India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru has become a figure of hate and derision for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) under the leadership of Narendra Modi and for the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), its ideological parent. In this episode of Saffron Siege, Harsh Mander and historian Purushottam Agrawal examine the reasons for their particular resentment against Nehru.

Agrawal ways that Nehru’s modernity of thought, the fact that he never used the idioms of religion in public speech and his relatability to Indians across geography and social divides makes him a symbol that the RSS has never been able to appropriate. “Nehru does not allow them to appropriate himself. So, if you cannot appropriate, you destroy”, says Agrawal.

They also discuss the lack of the RSS’s self-identity beyond its antagonism towards India’s minorities, the fickleness of political parties who once opposed to the RSS and BJP’s fascist ideas and later became their allies, and the reasons behind Hindu radicalisation. You can watch the full conversation on YouTube: https://youtu.be/-0qrJfdTW0k

This episode is part of Season Two of Partitions of the Heart. In this season, Harsh Mander speaks to leading scholars and observers who have studied the RSS closely. Together, they examine its roots and core principles, its Hindutva agenda, and its corrosive role in India’s public and social life across a century

“Saffron Siege” runs from 17 September to 3 December 2025, with a new episode releasing every Wednesday. Himal’s podcasts are available on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Production: Imaad ul Hasan, Lydia Smith, Ritika Chauhan, Nayantara Narayanan

Himal Southasian is Southasia’s first and only regional news and analysis magazine. Stretching from Afghanistan to Burma, from Tibet to the Maldives, this region of more than 1.4 billion people shares great swathes of interlocking geography, culture and history. Yet today neighbouring countries can barely talk to one another, much less speak in a common voice. For three decades, Himal Southasian has strived to define, nurture, and amplify that voice.

Read more: https://www.himalmag.com/

Support our independent journalism and become a Patron of Himal: https://www.himalmag.com/support-himal

Find us on:

https://twitter.com/Himalistan

https://www.facebook.com/himal.southasian

https://www.instagram.com/himalistan/

In this episode of Saffron Siege, the anthropologist Thomas Blom Hansen and journalist Qurban Ali join Harsh Mande to examine how the RSS has triggered, enabled and executed riots, targeted communal attacks and other forms of communal violence in India over the 100 years of its existence. 

Ali who has reported on many of these incidents on the ground documents how many commissions have found the RSS culpable in riots dating back to Sholapur in 1967. Hansen talks about how violence is a central thesis of the RSS not only as a physical act but as a state of mind. 

You can watch this full discussion on YouTube:

This episode is part of Season Two of Partitions of the Heart. In this season, Harsh Mander speaks to leading scholars and observers who have studied the RSS closely. Together, they examine its roots and core principles, its Hindutva agenda, and its corrosive role in India’s public and social life across a century

“Saffron Siege” runs from 17 September to 3 December 2025, with a new episode releasing every Wednesday. Himal’s podcasts are available on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts

Production: Imaad ul Hasan, Lydia Smith, Ritika Chauhan, Nayantara Narayanan

Support Himal Podcasts and Himal's independent journalism for just USD 5 per month: https://payhere.lk/pay/oee1bdaf1

Himal Southasian is Southasia’s first and only regional news and analysis magazine. Stretching from Afghanistan to Burma, from Tibet to the Maldives, this region of more than 1.4 billion people shares great swathes of interlocking geography, culture and history. Yet today neighbouring countries can barely talk to one another, much less speak in a common voice. For three decades, Himal Southasian has strived to define, nurture, and amplify that voice.

Read more: https://www.himalmag.com/

Support our independent journalism and become a Patron of Himal: https://www.himalmag.com/support-himal

Find us on:

https://twitter.com/Himalistan

https://www.facebook.com/himal.southasian

https://www.instagram.com/himalistan/

Bhanwar Meghwanshi, who is a writer and a social and political activist, was once a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. He was a self-described “complete bhakt” with dreams of becoming a pracharak (preacher) till he realised that the RSS was as casteist as the rest of Hindu and Indian society. Meghwanshi who is a Dalit is now a strong opponent of the RSS and its divisive ideology. He describes his journey in this episode of Saffron Siege with Harsh Mander.

Meghwanshi talks about how the RSS and the BJP use oppressed communities, such as the Dalits, to gain power through politics and to do their dirtiest communal work, such as being on the frontlines of communal violence. He says that the time has come for oppressed communities to unite against exploitation, especially by upper caste groups and India’s right wing ecosystem.

🎧 You can watch the full episode with subtitles on YouTube: https://youtu.be/S7uXcpQrnkQ

This episode is part of Season Two of Partitions of the Heart. In this season, Harsh Mander speaks to leading scholars and observers who have studied the RSS closely. Together, they examine its roots and core principles, its Hindutva agenda, and its corrosive role in India’s public and social life across a century.

“Saffron Siege” runs from 17 September to 3 December 2025, with a new episode releasing every Wednesday. Himal’s podcasts are available on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Production: Imaad ul Hasan, Lydia Smith, Ritika Chauhan, Nayantara Narayanan

Support Himal Podcasts and Himal's independent journalism for just USD 5 per month: https://payhere.lk/pay/oee1bdaf1

Himal Southasian is Southasia’s first and only regional news and analysis magazine. Stretching from Afghanistan to Burma, from Tibet to the Maldives, this region of more than 1.4 billion people shares great swathes of interlocking geography, culture and history. Yet today neighbouring countries can barely talk to one another, much less speak in a common voice. For three decades, Himal Southasian has strived to define, nurture, and amplify that voice.

Read more: https://www.himalmag.com/

Support our independent journalism and become a Patron of Himal: https://www.himalmag.com/support-himal

Find us on:

https://twitter.com/Himalistan

https://www.facebook.com/himal.southasian

https://www.instagram.com/himalistan/

The trajectory of the RSS in south India is very different from its history and progress in the north and northeast of the country. While coastal Karnataka was the landing ground of the Sangh in the south as far back as the 1950s, Hindutva found little traction in large parts of the south till the last decade when Narendra Modi and his BJP have been in national power. The biggest resistance to the RSS and Hindutva has been in Tamil Nadu.

In this episode, musician and socio-political commentator T M Krishna speaks to Harsh Mander about Tamil Nadu’s long history of social movements that has led to this resistance. They examine how the state’s linguistic and faith traditions have stood as a bulwark against the RSS’s attempts at homogenisation under a Hindu umbrella. Krishna points out the multiple streams of religious influence on arts in India, especially in music, and how the RSS has tried to deny this past in service of the ideological project. “Carnatic music is symbolic of something for the RSS. It is symbolic of that puritanical and cultural superiority… Homogenisation, or rather a linearisation, of that is convenient for them.”

You can watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/cPIGBhmk4us

This episode is part of Season Two of Partitions of the Heart. In this season, Harsh Mander speaks to leading scholars and observers who have studied the RSS closely. Together, they examine its roots and core principles, its Hindutva agenda, and its corrosive role in India’s public and social life across a century.

“Saffron Siege” runs from 17 September to 3 December 2025, with a new episode releasing every Wednesday. Himal’s podcasts are available on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Production: Imaad ul Hasan, Lydia Smith, Ritika Chauhan, Nayantara Narayanan

Support Himal Podcasts and Himal's independent journalism for just USD 5 per month: https://payhere.lk/pay/oee1bdaf1

Himal Southasian is Southasia’s first and only regional news and analysis magazine. Stretching from Afghanistan to Burma, from Tibet to the Maldives, this region of more than 1.4 billion people shares great swathes of interlocking geography, culture and history. Yet today neighbouring countries can barely talk to one another, much less speak in a common voice. For three decades, Himal Southasian has strived to define, nurture, and amplify that voice.

Read more: https://www.himalmag.com/

Support our independent journalism and become a Patron of Himal: https://www.himalmag.com/support-himal

Find us on:

https://twitter.com/Himalistan

https://www.facebook.com/himal.southasian

https://www.instagram.com/himalistan/

How has the RSS and Hindutva propaganda worked over a century? Journalists and writers Akshaya Mukul and Kunal Purohit dive into the strategies and successes with Harsh Mander on the this episode of Saffron Siege.

Mukul examines the popularity Gita Press, which was founded in 1923 – two years before the RSS itself, and its many publications and how it insinuated itself into the consciousness of millions of Hindus. Purohit discusses the more recent phenomenon of Hindutva pop in which the internet has enabled young people in the smallest towns and villages to become Hindutva influencers regardless of education, access, gender or caste.

🎧 You can watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Kq6ffi92x5k

This episode is part of Season Two of Partitions of the Heart. In this season, Harsh Mander speaks to leading scholars and observers who have studied the RSS closely. Together, they examine its roots and core principles, its Hindutva agenda, and its corrosive role in India’s public and social life across a century.

“Saffron Siege” runs from 17 September to 3 December 2025, with a new episode releasing every Wednesday. Himal’s podcasts are available on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Production: Imaad ul Hasan, Lydia Smith, Ritika Chauhan, Nayantara Narayanan

Support Himal Podcasts and Himal's independent journalism for just USD 5 per month: https://payhere.lk/pay/oee1bdaf1

Himal Southasian is Southasia’s first and only regional news and analysis magazine. Stretching from Afghanistan to Burma, from Tibet to the Maldives, this region of more than 1.4 billion people shares great swathes of interlocking geography, culture and history. Yet today neighbouring countries can barely talk to one another, much less speak in a common voice. For three decades, Himal Southasian has strived to define, nurture, and amplify that voice.

Read more: https://www.himalmag.com/

Support our independent journalism and become a Patron of Himal: https://www.himalmag.com/support-himal

Find us on:

https://twitter.com/Himalistan

https://www.facebook.com/himal.southasian

https://www.instagram.com/himalistan/

Political scientists Tariq Thachil and Kamal Nayan Choubey speak to Harsh Mander about how the RSS and its offshoots have made inroads into and are influencing tribal and Adivasi society. They discuss the role of the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram and Ekal Vidyalayas in co-opting tribal communities into broader Hindu society and their stated goals of countering Christian missionaries and alleged conversion.

You can watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/-un2dGnUbs8

This episode is part of Season Two of Partitions of the Heart. In this season, Harsh Mander speaks to leading scholars and observers who have studied the RSS closely. Together, they examine its roots and core principles, its Hindutva agenda, and its corrosive role in India’s public and social life across a century.

“Saffron Siege” runs from 17 September to 3 December 2025, with a new episode releasing every Wednesday. Himal’s podcasts are available on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Production: Imaad ul Hasan, Ayushi Malik, Lydia Smith, Ritika Chauhan, Nayantara Narayanan

Support Himal Podcasts and Himal's independent journalism for just USD 5 per month: https://payhere.lk/pay/oee1bdaf1

Himal Southasian is Southasia’s first and only regional news and analysis magazine. Stretching from Afghanistan to Burma, from Tibet to the Maldives, this region of more than 1.4 billion people shares great swathes of interlocking geography, culture and history. Yet today neighbouring countries can barely talk to one another, much less speak in a common voice. For three decades, Himal Southasian has strived to define, nurture, and amplify that voice.

Read more: https://www.himalmag.com/

Support our independent journalism and become a Patron of Himal: https://www.himalmag.com/support-himal

Find us on:

https://twitter.com/Himalistan

https://www.facebook.com/himal.southasian

https://www.instagram.com/himalistan/

The feminist historian Tanika Sarkar speaks to Harsh Mander about the role of women in the #RSS, the organisation's view on gender and its reinforcement of patriarchy. Sarkar describes the creation of the RSS's women's wing, the Rashtra Sevika Samiti, and how it evolved over the years. She also speaks about the women leaders have emerged in the Hindutva fold to gain strategic power in the RSS's project of hate.

You can watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ghjTuQco4vw

This episode is part of Season Two of Partitions of the Heart. In this season, Harsh Mander speaks to leading scholars and observers who have studied the RSS closely. Together, they examine its roots and core principles, its Hindutva agenda, and its corrosive role in India’s public and social life across a century.

“Saffron Siege” runs from 17 September to 3 December 2025, with a new episode releasing every Wednesday. Himal’s podcasts are available on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Production: Imaad ul Hasan, Ayushi Malik, Lydia Smith, Ritika Chauhan, Nayantara Narayanan

Support Himal Podcasts and Himal's independent journalism for just USD 5 per month: https://payhere.lk/pay/oee1bdaf1

Himal Southasian is Southasia’s first and only regional news and analysis magazine. Stretching from Afghanistan to Burma, from Tibet to the Maldives, this region of more than 1.4 billion people shares great swathes of interlocking geography, culture and history. Yet today neighbouring countries can barely talk to one another, much less speak in a common voice. For three decades, Himal Southasian has strived to define, nurture, and amplify that voice.

Read more: https://www.himalmag.com/

Support our independent journalism and become a Patron of Himal: https://www.himalmag.com/support-himal

Find us on:

https://twitter.com/Himalistan

https://www.facebook.com/himal.southasian

https://www.instagram.com/himalistan/

In this writer Aakar Patel and journalist Rana Ayyub examine with Harsh Mander whether India under Narendra Modi has transformed into a Hindu Rashtra or and to what extent does India’s secular socialist democracy still endures.

You can watch this conversation on YouTube: https://youtu.be/P3mb8QO9uDU

This episode is part of Season Two of Partitions of the Heart. In this season, Harsh Mander speaks to leading scholars and observers who have studied the RSS closely. Together, they examine its roots and core principles, its Hindutva agenda, and its corrosive role in India’s public and social life across a century.

“Saffron Siege” runs from 17 September to 3 December 2025, with a new episode releasing every Wednesday. Himal’s podcasts are available on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Production: Imaad ul Hasan, Lydia Smith, Ritika Chauhan, Nayantara Narayanan

Support Himal Podcasts and Himal's independent journalism for just USD 5 per month: https://payhere.lk/pay/oee1bdaf1

Himal Southasian is Southasia’s first and only regional news and analysis magazine. Stretching from Afghanistan to Burma, from Tibet to the Maldives, this region of more than 1.4 billion people shares great swathes of interlocking geography, culture and history. Yet today neighbouring countries can barely talk to one another, much less speak in a common voice. For three decades, Himal Southasian has strived to define, nurture, and amplify that voice.

Read more: https://www.himalmag.com/

Support our independent journalism and become a Patron of Himal: https://www.himalmag.com/support-himal

Find us on:

https://twitter.com/Himalistan

https://www.facebook.com/himal.southasian

https://www.instagram.com/himalistan/

In this episode, Harsh Mander speaks to historians Mridula Mukherjee and Vinay Lal about the origins of the RSS, the ideologies of its founders, the it played (and did not play) in India’s freedom struggle, and its role during the Partition riots.

Mukherjee talks about how in pre-independence India, the idea that Hindus must constitute a separate nation that opposed including minorities already existed and the RSS was set up in 1925 with the purpose of forming a militant group – directly inspired by Europe’s fascists – that would form its ideological core. Lal points to how the RSS ideologue, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, wanted to “militarise Hindudom” to counter the British attempt to portray Indians as effeminate – which is an important reason why the RSS focuses on physical culture and hyper-masculinity.

You can watch the video of this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/7VbD_HMJF-8

This episode is part of Season Two of Partitions of the Heart. In this season, Harsh Mander speaks to leading scholars and observers who have studied the RSS closely. Together, they examine its roots and core principles, its Hindutva agenda, and its corrosive role in India’s public and social life across a century.

“Saffron Siege” runs from 17 September to 3 December 2025, with a new episode releasing every Wednesday. Himal’s podcasts are available on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Production: Imaad ul Hassan, Ayushi Malik, Lydia Smith, Ritika Chauhan, Nayantara Narayanan

Support Himal Podcasts and Himal's independent journalism for just USD 5 per month: https://payhere.lk/pay/oee1bdaf1

Himal Southasian is Southasia’s first and only regional news and analysis magazine. Stretching from Afghanistan to Burma, from Tibet to the Maldives, this region of more than 1.4 billion people shares great swathes of interlocking geography, culture and history. Yet today neighbouring countries can barely talk to one another, much less speak in a common voice. For three decades, Himal Southasian has strived to define, nurture, and amplify that voice.

Read more: https://www.himalmag.com/

Support our independent journalism and become a Patron of Himal: https://www.himalmag.com/support-himal

Find us on:

https://twitter.com/Himalistan

https://www.facebook.com/himal.southasian

https://www.instagram.com/himalistan/

In this episode of "Saffron Siege: The RSS at 100", Apoorvanand discusses how the Hindu and Hindutva common sense kept the RSS popular even though it was banned after Gandhi's assassination in 1948. He talks to Harsh Mander about how it emerged from the shadows of being a banned organisation, how it grew from strength to strength through the 1960s, 1970s up till 2014 when Narendra Modi became prime minister, and the leaders who legitimised it along the way.

You can watch the episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Osrg7Zy0GP4

This episode is part of Season Two of Partitions of the Heart. In this season, Harsh Mander speaks to leading scholars and observers who have studied the RSS closely. Together, they examine its roots and core principles, its Hindutva agenda, and its corrosive role in India’s public and social life across a century.

“Saffron Siege” runs from 17 September to 3 December 2025, with a new episode releasing every Wednesday. Himal’s podcasts are available on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Production: Imaad ul Hassan, Ayushi Malik, Lydia Smith, Ritika Chauhan, Nayantara Narayanan

Support Himal Podcasts and Himal's independent journalism for just USD 5 per month: https://payhere.lk/pay/oee1bdaf1

Himal Southasian is Southasia’s first and only regional news and analysis magazine. Stretching from Afghanistan to Burma, from Tibet to the Maldives, this region of more than 1.4 billion people shares great swathes of interlocking geography, culture and history. Yet today neighbouring countries can barely talk to one another, much less speak in a common voice. For three decades, Himal Southasian has strived to define, nurture, and amplify that voice.

Read more: https://www.himalmag.com/

Become a paying Patron of Himal: https://www.himalmag.com/support-himalFind us on:

https://twitter.com/Himalistan

https://www.facebook.com/himal.southasian

https://www.instagram.com/himalistan/

In this inaugural episode of the podcast “Saffron Siege”, Harsh Mander speaks to Rajmohan Gandhi, a renowned historian and grandson of Mohandas Gandhi, on the hostility of the Hindu Mahasabha and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh towards Gandhi that ultimately led to his assasination in January 1948.

Rajmohan Gandhi describes how Gandhi's demand for an India that belonged equally to all religions, communities and identities set him against the Hindu right. “Those who ultimately did kill him did not want an India for everybody. They wanted an India where some people would be supreme, others would be subservient or junior or second-class,” says Rajmohan Gandhi.

He describes how the Hindu Mahasabha and Hindutva ideologues were also advocates of Partition and kept their distance from India’s struggle for independence from British rule. “Those who do any serious study will know that the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha kept aloof from the freedom struggle and they openly said that the Muslims are a real enemy and in fact we should cooperate with the British.”You can watch this conversation on YouTube:

This episode is part of Season Two of Partitions of the Heart. In this season, Harsh Mander speaks to leading scholars and observers who have studied the RSS closely. Together, they examine its roots and core principles, its Hindutva agenda, and its corrosive role in India’s public and social life across a century.

“Saffron Siege” runs from 17 September to 3 December 2025, with a new episode releasing every Wednesday. Himal’s podcasts are available on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Himal Southasian is Southasia’s first and only regional news and analysis magazine. Stretching from Afghanistan to Burma, from Tibet to the Maldives, this region of more than 1.4 billion people shares great swathes of interlocking geography, culture and history. Yet today neighbouring countries can barely talk to one another, much less speak in a common voice. For three decades, Himal Southasian has strived to define, nurture, and amplify that voice.

Read more: https://www.himalmag.com/

Support our independent journalism and become a Patron of Himal: https://www.himalmag.com/support-himal

Find us on:

https://twitter.com/Himalistan

https://www.facebook.com/himal.southasian

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All eyes have been on Nepal since last week when a large but loosely organised protest by young people in Kathmandu turned into a revolution that brought down the government. On September 8th, many groups of young college and school goers took out a peaceful protest march in Kathmandu. There had been rising anger about systemic corruption and nepotism among the political class that was the foundation for these protests.

The immediate trigger, however, was a government announcement of a social media ban.The announcement of the ban itself was due to a government requirement that tech companies register in Nepal and many not having done so but was also seen, by many of the protesters, as a way for the government to silence dissent and criticism. For many weeks before the protest, videos had been circulating of so-called “nepo babies”, that is, children of rich and influential people flaunting lavish lifestyles while much of the rest of Nepal was dealing with poverty and the lack of jobs and opportunities for advancement.

The government came down hard on the protests. Police fired into the crowds and at least 19 people were killed on 8th September. Things then got out of hand. On the 9th, there was widespread violence in anger and retaliation. Mobs set buildings, including the parliament, ablaze, and attacked politicians, their families and anyone who as seen to be close to power. More people were killed with a reported death toll of 51 by the weekend. The prime minister KP Oli resigned, army patrols took over the streets and rumours and speculation took over. The power vacuum has led to fears in Nepal of foreign interference, or a push for a return to monarchy, or even a takeover by the army. Meanwhile, Gen Z-ers have been holding public town hall-style meetings on the online platform Discord to discuss their agendas and a way forward. On Friday night, they voted for Sushila Karki, a former chief justice, to lead the interim government.

In this episode, we look at what Nepal’s GenZ and others hope for in the coming days, months and years, and what about Nepal’s politics, economy and society they see as needs fixing. Nayantara Narayanan speaks to the Ujjawala Maharjan, a poet and educator from Kathmandu, Anjali Sah, a law student in Kathmandu originally from Madhesh, and Tashi Lhozam, a climate activist and social scientists from the Humla district in the highlands of Nepal.

This episode is also available on

🎧YouTube: https://youtu.be/qQwZGV6gWVk

🎧 Apple podcasts: https://apple.co/4n0KJx3

Himal Southasian is Southasia’s first and only regional news and analysis magazine. Stretching from Afghanistan to Burma, from Tibet to the Maldives, this region of more than 1.4 billion people shares great swathes of interlocking geography, culture and history. Yet today neighbouring countries can barely talk to one another, much less speak in a common voice. For three decades, Himal Southasian has strived to define, nurture, and amplify that voice.

Read more: https://www.himalmag.com/

Support our independent journalism and become a Patron of Himal: https://www.himalmag.com/support-himal

Find us on:

https://twitter.com/Himalistan

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On the 22nd of August, Colombo police arrested the former president of Sri Lanka Ranil Wickremesinghe over allegations that he used public funds on a two-day personal visit to the United Kingdom in September 2023.

Sri Lanka’s anticorruption units have been cracking down on corruption cases since the president Anura Kumara Dissanayake came to power in September last year on a promise to fight corruption. More than a dozen political leaders from the previous government and former government officials have been arrested or being investigated for corruption and malpractice. Wickremesinghe’s arrest is the most high-profile one in this yet. In the wake of his arrest, a number of politicians from Wickfremesinghe’s party and others in the opposition have rallied behind him, calling the case unfair and politically motivated.

In this episode of State of Southasia episode, associate editor Nayantara Narayanan speaks to writer, editor and researcher Marlon Ariyasinghe to talk about what Wickremesinghe’s signifies in the larger politics of Sri Lanka, what about its culture has changed and what has remained stubbornly unchanging. You can also listen to this episode on:

🎧 YouTube: https://youtu.be/Z6s98j6P0K0

🎧 Apple podcasts: https://apple.co/3I29HNk

♦️Himal Southasian is Southasia’s first and only regional news and analysis magazine. Stretching from Afghanistan to Burma, from Tibet to the Maldives, this region of more than 1.4 billion people shares great swathes of interlocking geography, culture and history. Yet today neighbouring countries can barely talk to one another, much less speak in a common voice. For three decades, Himal Southasian has strived to define, nurture, and amplify that voice.

♦️ Read more: https://www.himalmag.com/

♦️ Support our independent journalism and become a Patron of Himal: https://www.himalmag.com/support-himal

Find us on:

♦️ https://twitter.com/Himalistan

♦️ https://www.facebook.com/himal.southasian

♦️ https://www.instagram.com/himalistan/

Harsh Mander wraps up Season 1 of this podcast series with Himal associate editor Nayantara Narayanan. They talk about the significant moments and takeaways from Mander's conversations with eminent and emerging voices on the crisis of Muslims in India: Afreen Fatima, Hilal Ahmed, Amirullah Khan, Seema Chishti, Shahrukh Alam, Aman Wadud, Irfan Habib, Mohsin Alam Bhat, Saeed Mirza, Syeda Hameed, Manoj Jha and Zeyad Masroor Khan.

This episode is part of the podcast series Partitions of the Heart: Conversations with Harsh Mander, produced in association with Karwan-e-Mohabbat. The inaugural season called Muslim Life – and Death – in Modi's India, focuses on the deepening crisis of Muslims in India under the rule of Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Mander hosts conversations with a powerful array of Indian Muslim figures both eminent and emerging, young and old. Together, they talk about the lived experiences of Indian Muslims amid the rise of the Hindu Right and escalating Islamophobia, as well as the politics and the history that have brought India to this shocking new reality.

You can watch this episodes on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Uw3bGOXSbgU

Watch and listen to the full season on Himal Southasian's podcast channels.

Himal Southasian is Southasia’s first and only regional news and analysis magazine. Stretching from Afghanistan to Burma, from Tibet to the Maldives, this region of more than 1.4 billion people shares great swathes of interlocking geography, culture and history. Yet today neighbouring countries can barely talk to one another, much less speak in a common voice. For three decades, Himal Southasian has strived to define, nurture, and amplify that voice.

Read more: https://www.himalmag.com/

Support our independent journalism and become a Patron of Himal: https://www.himalmag.com/support-himal

Find us on:

https://twitter.com/Himalistan

https://www.facebook.com/himal.southasian

https://www.instagram.com/himalistan/

Zeyad Masroor Khan grew up in a Muslim ghetto in Aligarh, a place he says is still “caught in time” and one he describes as still a slice of “India as it was envisioned by Nehru and Gandhi” with people from different religious communities living close by, running their businesses together and having family connections. But, in this same ghetto, he also witnessed several communal riots as he came of age.

In this podcast episode, Khan speaks to Harsh Mander about what he witnessed and the lessons from that childhood. They also speak about why Muslims live in ghettos, the new dangers they face from economic boycotts and the unabashed hate and division that is even causing their expulsions from parts of the country. 

This episode is part of the podcast series Partitions of the Heart: Conversations with Harsh Mander, produced in association with Karwan-e-Mohabbat. The inaugural season called Muslim Life – and Death – in Modi's India, focuses on the deepening crisis of Muslims in India under the rule of Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Mander hosts conversations with a powerful array of Indian Muslim figures both eminent and emerging, young and old. Together, they talk about the lived experiences of Indian Muslims amid the rise of the Hindu Right and escalating Islamophobia, as well as the politics and the history that have brought India to this shocking new reality.

You can watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/AxaEEUPkc-k

Himal Southasian is Southasia’s first and only regional news and analysis magazine. Stretching from Afghanistan to Burma, from Tibet to the Maldives, this region of more than 1.4 billion people shares great swathes of interlocking geography, culture and history. Yet today neighbouring countries can barely talk to one another, much less speak in a common voice. For three decades, Himal Southasian has strived to define, nurture, and amplify that voice.

Read more: https://www.himalmag.com/

Support our independent journalism and become a Patron of Himal: https://www.himalmag.com/support-himal

Find us on:

https://twitter.com/Himalistan

https://www.facebook.com/himal.southasian

https://www.instagram.com/himalistan/

On 15 August 2025, the Taliban marked four years since retaking control of Afghanistan – a period defined by deepening authoritarianism, economic collapse, and international isolation. As the regime tightens its grip, the country faces yet another compounding crisis: mass deportations of Afghan migrants from neighboring Iran and Pakistan.

Since January 2025, more than one million Afghans have been expelled from Iran alone, while Pakistan – once a long-time host of Afghans – began its own deportations in November 2023, contributing to a total of 2.5 million returnees over the past two years. Many of those forced back had lived abroad for decades, built families, and held legal documentation, only to find themselves suddenly unwelcome and pushed into an Afghanistan ill-equipped to receive them.

In this episode of State of Southasia episode, journalist Zahra Nader, editor-in-chief of Zan Times, speaks to Himal’s associate editor Nayantara Narayanan about the rapidly escalating humanitarian emergency. Drawing from months of Zan Times’ field reporting along the Iran-Afghanistan border, Nader recounts harrowing stories of Afghan refugees beaten in detention, robbed of wages and housing deposits, and returned across the border. Camps in Herat and Nimruz provinces, already overcrowded and under-resourced, now shelter hundreds of thousands – many without access to food, water, or medical care. Women and children, who make up over 60 percent of returnees, face further repression under Taliban rule, including travel restrictions, bans on education and total economic exclusion.

This episode is also available on

🎧 YouTube: https://youtu.be/O617eehXE2c

🎧 Apple podcasts: https://apple.co/45mdzSp

Himal Southasian is Southasia’s first and only regional news and analysis magazine. Stretching from Afghanistan to Burma, from Tibet to the Maldives, this region of more than 1.4 billion people shares great swathes of interlocking geography, culture and history. Yet today neighbouring countries can barely talk to one another, much less speak in a common voice. For three decades, Himal Southasian has strived to define, nurture, and amplify that voice.

Read more: https://www.himalmag.com/

Support our independent journalism and become a Patron of Himal: https://www.himalmag.com/support-himal

Find us on:

https://twitter.com/Himalistan

https://www.facebook.com/himal.southasian

https://www.instagram.com/himalistan/

Manoj Jha, a politician and member of India’s upper house – the Rajya Sabha – is the rare politician who has spoken up about the persecution of Muslims in India and their being pushed into being second-class citizens of the country. Jha believes and has written that Muslims are not mere footnotes but co-authors in the story of India. In this conversation with Harsh Mander, Jha says that the the craving for peace that was once the default template of India has been warped into a politics of hate.

Jha attributed many factors to this change. For instance, “the prosperity or the non-prosperity of the middle class, the shift from a public sector to a liberalised economy. The market can sell anything. If it finds that love has few takers, hate has more takers, it will package hate,” he says.

This episode is part of the podcast series Partitions of the Heart: Conversations with Harsh Mander, produced in association with Karwan-e-Mohabbat. The inaugural season called Muslim Life – and Death – in Modi's India, focuses on the deepening crisis of Muslims in India. Mander hosts conversations with a powerful array of Indian Muslim figures both eminent and emerging, young and old. Together, they talk about the lived experiences of Indian Muslims amid the rise of the Hindu Right and escalating Islamophobia, as well as the politics and the history that have brought India to this shocking new reality.

You can watch the whole conversation on YouTube: https://youtu.be/8MOhZggVcb4GlossaryRahi Masoom Raza: An Indian writer and poet in Urdu and Hindi who wrote screenplays and dialogies for major Hindi films and among whose important literary works are Aadha Gaon and Topi Shukla.Jawaharlal Nehru on India as a palimpsest: “She was like some ancient palimpsest on which layer upon layer of thought and reverie had been inscribed, and yet no succeeding layer had completely hidden or erased what had been written previously.”

Himal Southasian is Southasia’s first and only regional news and analysis magazine. Stretching from Afghanistan to Burma, from Tibet to the Maldives, this region of more than 1.4 billion people shares great swathes of interlocking geography, culture and history. Yet today neighbouring countries can barely talk to one another, much less speak in a common voice. For three decades, Himal Southasian has strived to define, nurture, and amplify that voice.

Read more: https://www.himalmag.com/

Support our independent journalism and become a Patron of Himal: https://www.himalmag.com/support-himal

Find us on:

https://twitter.com/Himalistan

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The educationist, writer and women's rights activist Syeda Hameed had a ringside view on much of what was unfolding in the new India in the years after it became independent. This was a country that had become free, but after Partition when a million Hindus and Muslims had been slaughtered by the other. Yet, Hameed remembers the first decade of free India as one of immense hope.

"My family comes from Panipat," Hameed says. "And Panipat was a symbol of Ganga Jamuni tehzeeb – the mingling of the Hindu-Muslim, the composite culture... There was a beautiful commingling and that is really the India, that was my DNA, you know." Speaking to Harsh Mander, Hameed says she does not feel any of that hope now.

This episode is part of the podcast series Partitions of the Heart: Conversations with Harsh Mander, produced in association with Karwan-e-Mohabbat. The inaugural season called Muslim Life – and Death – in Modi's India, focuses on the deepening crisis of Muslims in India. Mander hosts conversations with a powerful array of Indian Muslim figures both eminent and emerging, young and old. Together, they talk about the lived experiences of Indian Muslims amid the rise of the Hindu Right and escalating Islamophobia, as well as the politics and the history that have brought India to this shocking new reality.

You can find audio versions of this conversation on:

🎧 Spotify:

🎧 Apple podcasts:

Himal Southasian is Southasia’s first and only regional news and analysis magazine. Stretching from Afghanistan to Burma, from Tibet to the Maldives, this region of more than 1.4 billion people shares great swathes of interlocking geography, culture and history. Yet today neighbouring countries can barely talk to one another, much less speak in a common voice. For three decades, Himal Southasian has strived to define, nurture, and amplify that voice.

Read more: https://www.himalmag.com/

Support our independent journalism and become a Patron of Himal: https://www.himalmag.com/support-himal

Find us on:

https://twitter.com/Himalistan

https://www.facebook.com/himal.southasian

https://www.instagram.com/himalistan/

The filmmaker Saeed Akhtar Mirza talks to Harsh Mander about a civilisational slide in india over the past three decades. “The idea of India as in our constitution being slowly eroded in front of our eyes and nothing was done about it,” he says. In this episode Mirza talks about how the Hindu right is rewriting history and scripting one-sided narratives through cinema, about the takeover over film schools by political agenda and more.

Mirza recalls his immense despair in the wake of the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992, followed by communal riots and bomb blasts in his home city of Mumbai. At the time he made a film called Naseem in which he wrote the epitaph of India. But Mirza believes that India’s current troubles will pass as everything before it has. After making Naseem, he travelled across the country meeting ordinary people who restored his faith in its pluralism.

This episode is part of the podcast series Partitions of the Heart: Conversations with Harsh Mander, produced in association with Karwan-e-Mohabbat. The inaugural season called Muslim Life – and Death – in Modi's India, focuses on the deepening crisis of Muslims in India.

Mander hosts conversations with a powerful array of Indian Muslim figures both eminent and emerging, young and old. Together, they talk about the lived experiences of Indian Muslims amid the rise of the Hindu Right and escalating Islamophobia, as well as the politics and the history that have brought India to this shocking new reality.

You can watch the full episode on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/5WO0WRYFbls

♦️ Glossary

Scoundrel Times: A term coined by the American playwright Lillian Hellman referring to the McCarthy era which was defined by selfishness, cruelty, corruption, and fear in the US government and society.

Taimur: A 14th century ruler of Turco-Mongol origin and founder of the Timurid Empire situated in an around modern-day Afghanistan, Iran and Central Asia

Khiljis: A Turco-Afghan dynasty who ruled large parts of the Subcontinent fron Delhi between 1290 and 1320

Aurangzeb: The sixth Mughal emperor who ruled from 1658 and 1708

Seljuks, Mamluks, Ottomans: Powerful Turkic dynasties with Islamic rulers

♦️Himal Southasian is Southasia’s first and only regional news and analysis magazine. Stretching from Afghanistan to Burma, from Tibet to the Maldives, this region of more than 1.4 billion people shares great swathes of interlocking geography, culture and history. Yet today neighbouring countries can barely talk to one another, much less speak in a common voice. For three decades, Himal Southasian has strived to define, nurture, and amplify that voice. ♦️ Read more: https://www.himalmag.com/♦️ Support our independent journalism and become a Patron of Himal: https://www.himalmag.com/support-himalFind us on: ♦️ https://twitter.com/Himalistan♦️ https://www.facebook.com/himal.southasian♦️ https://www.instagram.com/himalistan/

In this conversation with Harsh Mander, the legal academic Mohsin Alam says that the crisis of Indian Muslims, which is about safety, integration, and citizenship, is tied to the crisis of Indian democracy. How the Indian state and society treats with its weaker populations, including religious minorities, will determine whether India remains a democracy or not.

Alam points to evidence that anti-democratisation of the economy has had a terrible impact on minorities and Muslims in particular. He says that greater neoliberalism has led to a loss of solidarity among majorities and minorities, among different communities.

This episode is part of the podcast series Partitions of the Heart: Conversations with Harsh Mander, produced in association with Karwan-e-Mohabbat. The inaugural season called Muslim Life – and Death – in Modi's India, focuses on the deepening crisis of Muslims in India. Mander hosts conversations with a powerful array of Indian Muslim figures both eminent and emerging, young and old. Together, they talk about the lived experiences of Indian Muslims amid the rise of the Hindu Right and escalating Islamophobia, as well as the politics and the history that have brought India to this shocking new reality.You can watch the entire episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/gMol26m0aYw

Himal Southasian is Southasia’s first and only regional news and analysis magazine. Stretching from Afghanistan to Burma, from Tibet to the Maldives, this region of more than 1.4 billion people shares great swathes of interlocking geography, culture and history. Yet today neighbouring countries can barely talk to one another, much less speak in a common voice. For three decades, Himal Southasian has strived to define, nurture, and amplify that voice.

Read more: https://www.himalmag.com/

Support our independent journalism and become a Patron of Himal: https://www.himalmag.com/support-himal

Find us on:

https://twitter.com/Himalistan

https://www.facebook.com/himal.southasian

https://www.instagram.com/himalistan/

Irfan Habib, who is regarded as one of India's best historians, tells Harsh Mander that encouraged by the Narendra Modi and BJP leadership, The Hindu right is attempting not just to rewrite India's history to erase Muslim presence and contribution but to manufacture it entirely. Now 94, Habib looks back to when India got independence – when he was a young man – and at the inclusiveness and spirit of service of national leaders at the time. He also looks critically at the divisive politics of the present but believes that "ultimately I think India is a large country with varied languages and I think a pure Hindu religious philosophy can't unite the country."

This episode is part of the podcast series Partitions of the Heart: Conversations with Harsh Mander, produced in association with Karwan-e-Mohabbat. The inaugural season called Muslim Life – and Death – in Modi's India, focuses on the deepening crisis of Muslims in India. Mander hosts conversations with a powerful array of Indian Muslim figures both eminent and emerging, young and old. Together, they talk about the lived experiences of Indian Muslims amid the rise of the Hindu Right and escalating Islamophobia, as well as the politics and the history that have brought India to this shocking new reality.

You can watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/uyoDoPELQdU

Himal Southasian is Southasia’s first and only regional news and analysis magazine. Stretching from Afghanistan to Burma, from Tibet to the Maldives, this region of more than 1.4 billion people shares great swathes of interlocking geography, culture and history. Yet today neighbouring countries can barely talk to one another, much less speak in a common voice. For three decades, Himal Southasian has strived to define, nurture, and amplify that voice.

Read more: https://www.himalmag.com

Support our independent journalism and become a Patron of Himal: https://www.himalmag.com/support-himalFind us on:

https://twitter.com/Himalistan

https://www.facebook.com/himal.southasian

https://www.instagram.com/himalistan/

Shahrukh Alam, a lawyer practicing in India's Supreme Court, dissects how the country's law and order machinery has been turned against its Muslim citizens in recent years. Alam talks about the criminalising of protest by Muslims and anti-constitutional arguments being made in the courts, how cultural narratives have shifted to allow these things to happen.

You can find watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/hc9I7ssBPuQ

Glossary

- Naroda Patiya: A village where nearly 100 Muslims were killed on 28 February 2002 during larger communal riots in the Indian state of Gujarat

- Agamben: Giorgio Agamben is a leading political philosopher and political theorist

- Sudarshan: Sudarshan news is a television channel in India known for its openly right-wing and anti-Muslim rhetoric

Himal Southasian is Southasia’s first and only regional news and analysis magazine. Stretching from Afghanistan to Burma, from Tibet to the Maldives, this region of more than 1.4 billion people shares great swathes of interlocking geography, culture and history. Yet today neighbouring countries can barely talk to one another, much less speak in a common voice. For three decades, Himal Southasian has strived to define, nurture, and amplify that voice.

Read more: https://www.himalmag.com/

Support our independent journalism and become a Patron of Himal: https://www.himalmag.com/support-himalFind us on:

https://twitter.com/Himalistan

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Journalist Seema Chishti was covering events in Ayodhya when a right-wing Hindutva mob demolished the Babri Masjid, a 16th century mosque, in December 1992. In this episode, Chishti recounts the events of that day, the media's role in bearing witness to it and how the media in India has changed since then.

From the pockets of resistance in the media during the Emergency in 1975, to its commercialisation from the 1990s onwards, to the overtly communal tones in large sections since 2014, Chishti traces the decline in standards of journalism in India. She explains how this has contributed to the othering of Muslims and the crisis they find themselves in today. 

Chisthi and Mander also discuss the mythology and misogyny of love jihad conspiracy theory and how it has been constructed to target Muslim men. 

You can also watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/TGYrO-Driuo

Glossary

Babri Masjid: A 16th-century mosque in Ayodhya in India. A section of H​​indus claim that the mosque was built at the site of the the birthplace of the HInu god Ram and that the Mughal emperor Babur destroyed a temple to build the mosque. On 6 December 1992, a mob of Hindutva activists demolished the mosque. It remained a disputed site for decades. In February 2024 when India’s prime minister Narendra Modi consecrated a new Ram temple at the same site. 

Kalyan Singh: A politician from the Bharatiya Janata Party and the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh where Ayodhya is situated when the Babri Masjid was brought down 

Tata: One of the oldest business houses and largest multinational conglomerates in India

Nano: The Tatas planned to build the Nano – billed as the world’s cheapest car - in West Bengal. However,  after violent protests over its acquisition of land for the project it had to shift to Gujarat where the project was facilitated by the chief minister at the time, Narendra Modi 

Ambani: The business family that runs Reliance Industries. Mukesh Ambani, the chairman of Reliance Industries, is India’s richest man and is seen to have a close relationship with Narendra Modi

Adani: An industrial group led by Gautam Adani, one of the richest men in the world whose fortunes have soared since the BJP and Modi came to power in 2014. Adani has also been a vocal champion of Modi and his government 

Hanna Arendt: A German-Jewish political philosopher who was forced to leave Germany in 1933 and settled down in the United States. She is best known for her study of totalitarianism especially with regards to the Nazi and Stalinist regimes 

Ghuspetiya: The Hindi word for “intruder”. Modi and the home minister Amit Shah have used the word in thinly veiled references to Muslims

Godse: Nathuram Godse assassinated Mohandas Gandhi in 1948. Some right-wing groups celebrate Godse as a Hindutva icon

RSS sarsangchalak: The supreme leader of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which is the organisational and ideological parent of the BJP

Himal Southasian is Southasia’s first and only regional news and analysis magazine. Stretching from Afghanistan to Burma, from Tibet to the Maldives, this region of more than 1.4 billion people shares great swathes of interlocking geography, culture and history. Yet today neighbouring countries can barely talk to one another, much less speak in a common voice. For three decades, Himal Southasian has strived to define, nurture, and amplify that voice.

Read more: https://www.himalmag.com/

Support our independent journalism and become a Patron of Himal: https://www.himalmag.com/support-himal

Find us on:

https://twitter.com/Himalistan

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