On 26 September 2018, India’s Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Aadhaar, the country’s controversial biometric national-identification programme. The ruling has, however, placed limits on its use by private entities, making it illegal for them to mandate it for providing services. Over the years, the project has faced criticism for enabling surveillance and invasions of privacy.

In this episode of Himal Interviews, we talk to Reetika Khera – professor of economics at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad – who has been studying Aadhaar since its inception in 2009 and argues that the system impedes, rather than enhances, welfare delivery. Author of the forthcoming book Big Data Meets Big Brother, Khera speaks to our Deputy Associate Editor Shubhanga Pandey about the Supreme Court judgment, how Aadhaar is disguised as a welfare programme, and how it enables both state and corporate surveillance.

Go to www.himalmag.com for more on politics and culture in Southasia.

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Intro and outro music derived from 'Ways of Rahjan' by Ask Again from Free Music Archive.

With the Maldives’ third multiparty presidential election just days away, we caught up with former President Mohamed Nasheed on the sidelines of a press conference held in Colombo on 21 September. In the brief audio chat with our Editor Aunohita Mojumdar, Nasheed talked about the challenges facing the country’s democratic process and the difficult circumstances under which his party had had to organise. He also spoke about his uncomfortable but pragmatic alliance with former president and rival Abdul Gayoom, as well the Maldives’ increasingly complicated relations with India and China.

For more, go to: himalmag.com

Photo credit: presidencymaldives / Flickr

On 18 September 2018, the United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar released its full findings detailing evidence of Myanmar army’s crimes against humanity. Building on its report of 27 August, detailing the Tatmadaw, the Myanmar military’s involvement in crimes against humanity, the UN report has called for investigation into the crimes that could amount to genocide, and the removal of the military from political and civilian life, and said that democratic transition in Myanmar is at a standstill.

The report calls for the investigation and prosecution of Myanmar's army chief, adding that “the Tatmadaw is the greatest impediment to Myanmar’s development as a modern democratic nation.”

Ahead of the release of the 400-page report, our editor Aunohita Mojumdar spoke with Radhika Coomaraswamy, one of the three members of the fact-finding mission. Coomaraswamy spoke about the difficulty of investigating without access to the area, the challenges on the road to prosecution, and the disappointment over the spectacular failure of an inspiring movement for democracy.

More on the podcast page: himalmag.com/himal-interviews-a…ed-entry-to-india/

Go to www.himalmag.com for more on politics and culture in Southasia.

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Intro and outro music derived from 'Ways of Rahjan' by Ask Again from Free Music Archive.

Erasure

(A poem by Nabina Das, from 'Sanskarnama: Poetry for our times', read by the author)

Take an eraser. See the damage

in the name of corrections. A swipe

to unthinkingness.

Take a white page. Slowly blow

out the black letters – some

anyway hang by

their cursive tendrils – from

the whiteness.

A little green a little torn.

I’m talking of books and histories

our heads full of winter’s tales.

I’m talking of children’s faces

that have forgotten our justice songs.

Take the darkest ink and blot the days

Take a pinch of our existence and see

how erasure becomes a norm

***

For more on the collection and the poet, go to: himalmag.com

Once perceived as neutral, journalists are being increasingly targeted deliberately, often in violent attacks. In 2017, 65 journalists were killed, ten of them women. Women journalists face additional challenges, their very presence in public spaces often provoking hostility, and the new threats from cyber-violence impacting them disproportionately. When three well-established media professionals – with Najiba Ayubi of Killid Media from Kabul; Subina Shrestha, a journalist and filmmaker from Kathmandu; and Nupur Basu, an independent journalist and documentary maker from Bengaluru – came to Colombo last week, we in Himal thought it a good opportunity to engage them in the first of a series of new podcasts called The Southasian Conversation.

In a freewheeling conversation that crossed borders, we debated, discussed and disputed several topics including how we navigate public spaces, counter cyber-bullying and whether the #MeToo movement has had an impact in our backyards.

Go to the podcast page: http://himalmag.com/the-southasian-conversation-women-in-media/

Go to www.himalmag.com for more on politics and culture in Southasia.

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Photo credit: Kevin Harber

Sound credit: 'Ways of Rahjan' by Ask Again from Free Music Archive

Millions of Pakistanis have just voted in the country's general elections. Though the electoral process has been marred by allegations of fraud and undue interference by the military, it is also a significant step, marking the second consecutive democratic transition of power. We spoke to senior journalist and long time Himal contributor Beena Sarwar about what the elections mean for the country.

For more, go to : http://himalmag.com/himal-interviews-beena-sarwar-on-pakistan-elections/

In May 2018, the United Nation’s human-rights experts called on the Indian government “to act urgently to protect journalist Rana Ayyub,” who had received death threats after a hate campaign was directed against her on social media. An independent journalist, Ayyub has documented alleged crimes committed by public officials, including in her 2016 Gujarat Files, which investigated the complicity of politicians, bureaucrats and police in the 2002 Gujarat pogrom when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the state’s chief minister. Matters are worse for journalists outside the privileged media circuits of Delhi or Mumbai, especially those who work in the vernacular languages. In September 2017, the Kannada translator of Ayyub’s book – journalist and activist Gauri Lankesh – was murdered outside her house in Bengaluru.

In this interview, Ayyub talks to our Founding Editor Kanak Mani Dixit about the traumas of social-media violence, its chilling effect on the free press and how Southasian journalists have seen worse before.

“Women should be seen and not heard” was, and in some contexts continues to be, an oft-repeated talisman in schools, households and public spaces. These four poets dared to be heard and the timelessness of their expression and in their articulation of the joys and trials of womanhood, their voices transcend geographies and politics.

More here: http://himalmag.com/podcast-women-poets-daak-vaak/

Go to www.himalmag.com for more on politics and culture in Southasia.

In this interview, we bring you Onaiza Drabu and Prachi Jha, who talked to us of their literary project, Daak (daak.co.in), and the challenges and joys of exploring poetry from Southasia.

More here: http://himalmag.com/podcast-women-poets-daak-vaak/

Go to www.himalmag.com for more on politics and culture in Southasia.

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Intro and outro music derived from 'Ways of Rahjan' by Ask Again from Free Music Archive.

“Women should be seen and not heard” was, and in some contexts continues to be, an oft-repeated talisman in schools, households and public spaces. These four poets dared to be heard and the timelessness of their expression and in their articulation of the joys and trials of womanhood, their voices transcend geographies and politics.

More here: http://himalmag.com/podcast-women-poets-daak-vaak/

Go to www.himalmag.com for more on politics and culture in Southasia.