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/

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On 25 June this year, India marks 50 years since former prime minister Indira Gandhi imposed Emergency in India. This was the third time that the emergency had been declared in India, but unlike the first two times which were in case of external threats due to wars with India’s neighbours, the 1975 Emergency was due to internal threats and resulted in the suspension of many constitutional rights and a crackdown on freedom of the press.

In his comprehensive history and analysis of the Emergency, political scientist Christophe Jaffrelot calls the Emergency “India’s first experiment with authoritarianism”. In this episode of State of Southasia with Nayantara Narayanan, Jaffrelot delves into the complexity and contradictions of the Emergency, examines its legacy – how it changed the Congress party and India’s politics, and draws out the parallels and differences with India under Narendra Modi.

This episode is also available on:

🎧 YouTube: https://youtu.be/a5JpKO_yfls

🎧 Apple podcasts: https://bit.ly/3T38jMs

🎧 Himal website: https://www.himalmag.com/podcast/christophe-jaffrelot-india-emergency-modi

Episode notes:

Christophe Jaffrelot’s recommendations:

The Judgement: Inside story of the Emergency in India - Kuldip Nayar (non-fiction)

Shah Commission of Inquiry report

A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry (fiction)

Unsettling Memories: Narratives of the Emergency in Delhi - Emma Tarlo (non-fiction)

Further reading from Himal’s archives:

Prabir Purkayastha’s fight against two Emergencies in India – under Modi and Indira Gandhi
Why the legendary cartoonist Abu Abraham still matters
Politics and the Hindi press
The enduring personality cult of Narendra Modi

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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Development economist Amirullah Khan explains the social indicators that show the stark deprivation of the majority of India’s Muslims, especially in education and employment.  

He explains the different points in India’s history at which changes occurred. For example, he says, after the 1990s, jobs where being created mostly in India’s service and financial sectors that required higher education. By them, there was a huge drop in the education levels of Muslims compared to the rest of the population. This resulted in as Muslims dropping out of employment as well and much of the Muslim workforce becoming “self-employed”. “In India, self-employed is poor,” Khan says. 

Khan explains access to healthcare and discrimination in civic and municipal services for Muslims, and where he sees hope for India’s Muslim community.  

You can find the full video of this conversation on YouTube.

Glossary:- SC, ST, OBC: Scheduled Castes (SC) , Scheduled Tribes (ST), Other Backward Classes (OBC) are demographic categories in India of groups that have been historically discriminated against and marginalised, and therefore identified for affirmative action.

- Delhi violence: In early 2020, riots broke out in largely Muslim neighbourhoods in Northeast Delhi while protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act were taking place across the India. More than 50 people, most of them Muslims, were killed and incidents of police brutality and complicity were reported

- Sachar committee: A high-level committee headed by Justice Rajendra Sachar and constituted in 2005 by Manmohan Singh, India’s prime minister at the time, to examine the social, economic and educational status of Muslims in the country

- PLFS: Periodic Labour Force Survey conducted by the National Statistics office to estimate employment and unemployment indicatorsHimal 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/Himalistanhttps://www.facebook.com/himal.southasianhttps://www.instagram.com/himalistan/

A conversation with the renowned writer and poet Jerry Pinto on Bollywood and the nation-state, the art of translation, and lessons of a life in literature and teaching: https://www.himalmag.com/podcast/jerry-pinto-history-bollywood-translation

Welcome to the Southasia Review of Books Podcast, where we speak to celebrated authors and emerging literary voices from across Southasia. In this episode, Shwetha Srikanthan speaks to the renowned poet, writer, editor and translator Jerry Pinto about his new collection of essays, Thinking Aloud (Seagull Books, March 2025). 

In Thinking Aloud, Jerry Pinto makes a strong case for why inclusive storytelling matters – especially when it comes to understanding the world around us. He critically unpacks Bollywood and the nation-state, arguing that Hindi cinemas’ reductive moral binaries have left a deep mark on how people understand India’s past.

With insights into his landmark translations, including Sachin Kundalkar’s Cobalt Blue and Daya Pawaar’s Baluta, Jerry shows how biographies can deepen our engagement with history and challenge dominant narratives. He also makes a compelling case for the role of translation in bridging divides, helping stories that might otherwise remain unheard to travel further. 

And finally, Jerry reflects on his journey as an educator – from a reluctant start to amplifying marginalised voices in the classroom and beyond. At its core, Thinking Aloud offers a meditation on what it means to teach, to tell stories, and to keep listening.

This episode is now available on Youtube: https://youtu.be/seuqj6L0VSc

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/4l87nCzApple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3SStReF

Let’s keep the conversation going – please share your thoughts on the episode or on Pinto’s book. If something resonated with you – or even challenged you – leave us a comment here on Youtube or send me an email (shwethas[at]himalmag[dot]com).

We’re on a mission to give Southasian literature the spotlight it deserves. Become a paying Himal Patron to support the Southasia Review of Books: https://www.himalmag.com/support-himal

Sign up to receive the Southasia Review of Books newsletter for Himal’s spotlight on Southasian literature, our latest conversations, and more: https://bit.ly/southasia-review-of-books

Photo credits:

History for Peace (https://www.historyforpeace.pw/

Sreejithkoiloth / Wikimedia Commons

In this episode, the academic and writer Hilal Ahmed speaks to Harsh Mander about his positionality as a practising Muslim and as a scholar looking at Muslim lives and the Muslim experience.

Ahmed recalls growing up in the 1990s when the idealism of a secular India had all but faded in the wake of the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya. He remembers that when I was in the school in 80s and 90s, he and other Muslim students faced the same sort of abuse one hears today – being called Pakistani. “The hate was already there but it was hidden,” he says. Comparing that to the present day, he makes the case that the BJP has legitimised anti-Muslim hate and given a particular language.

Ahmed talks about crises within Muslim communities in India – of the breaking down of families, the lack of social support, the drop-offs in education and more. Yet, the real problem Muslims face is that India’s entire political class has co-opted, or is on its way to co-opting, Hindutva as the dominant narrative in politics.

You can find the full Video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/QnPABZ-LUUw

Glossary:

NITI Aayog: The top policy think tank of the government of India

Sachar committee: A high-level committee headed by Justice Rajendra Sachar and constituted in 2005 by Manmohan Singh, India’s prime minister at the time, to examine the social, economic and educational status of Muslims in the country

Kaka Kalelkar commission: India’s first backward classes commission established in 1953 to determine criteria for socially and educationally backward groups.

SC, ST, OBC: Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes are demographic categories in India of groups that have been historically discriminated against and marginalised, and therefore identified for affirmative action.

Hela caste: The Hela Mehtar are Muslim converts of the Hindu Hela caste and have been categorised as an Other Backward Class (OBC) 

Bhangi or Valmiki: A Dalit community categorised as a Scheduled Caste group in India

Triple-talaq: In 2019, India’s government criminalised triple-talaq – the practice which allowed a Muslim man to divorce his wife by saying “talaq” three times – making it a non-bailable offence with three years imprisonment. A major criticism of the move was that criminalising the civil law was a way of targeting the Muslim community

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:

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In mid-April, young people took to the streets of Male, the capital of the Maldives to protest the country’s culture of political impunity and nepotism. The trigger for these protests was a case in which a young woman was discovered unmoving on the tin roof of a warehouse in Malé, having fallen from a nine-storey apartment building next door where there had been a party. That building was co-owned by the minister for transport, and the minister’s nephews and members of the president’s office team were part of the group at the party with the young woman that night.

In the following days, the police were tight-lipped about the investigation but said that the case had no connection to the ruling party. People who had come out on the streets continued to protest. In a piece for Himal on this case, the journalist JJ Robinson wrote that that they were calling out police incompetence and a culture of victim-blaming, but overwhelmingly the impunity allowed to those with connections to power, calling it the biggest explosion of discontent since the Maldives’ president Mohamed Muizzu came to power in October 2023.

In this episode of State of Southasia with Nayantara Narayanan, Robinson describes the Maldives’ system of almost corporatised corruption, culture of political intimidation and of control through gangs.

This episode is also available on:

🎧 YouTube: https://youtu.be/vAAif2Z-faw

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

🎧 Website: https://www.himalmag.com/podcasts/maldives-muizzu-corruption-politics-nepotism

Episode notes

JJ Robinson’s recommendations:

- The Maldive Islanders: A Study Of The Popular Culture Of An Ancient Ocean Kingdom – Xavier Romero-Frias (non-fiction)

- Maldives: Islamic Republic, Tropical Autocracy – JJ Robinson (non-fiction)

- Descent into Paradise – Daniel Bosley (non-fiction)

- The Island President – Jon Shenk (documentary)

(Bonus recommendation – Rogue One: A Star Wars story The fictional planet Scarif was filmed on the Laamu atoll and the stormtroopers were played by members of the Maldives military.)

Further reading from Himal’s archives:

- Youth protests take on the Maldives’s political culture after a woman’s fall
- Interview: The Maldives makes a turn with new president Mohamed Muizzu
- Strains between Malé and the atolls in the Maldives
- The Maldives’ ruling party is fighting itself and the opposition in the race for president
- Unpacking the Maldives’ Transitional Justice Act

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, the researcher and activist Afreen Fatima speaks to Harsh Mander about what it means to be Muslim in India today. Afreen experienced first-hand punitive demolitions by the state. In June 2022, authorities in Prayagraj, formerly called Allahabad, bulldozed her house, on the pretext that her father had orchestrated protests against anti-Islamic comments made by members of the India’s ruling right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party.

Afreen speaks about the loss of her home, the anguish when her father was arrested for 22 months and the risks that Muslims take everyday when they leave their houses facing attacks, lynchings and more. Afreen talks about the lack of true solidarity with Muslims even in liberal circles borne of an inability to listen to Muslim voices and the expectation of those voices: “It should always be very docile. It should not be furious. It should not be angry,” she says. While Muslims bear the burden of always having to prove their nationalism and secularism, there is no respect from others for their faith, she says. 

Catch the full episode on YouTube, Spotify and Apple podcasts. 

Episode notes

Glossary of terms:

BJP: Bharatiya Janata Party, the ruling party in India headed by Narendra Modi known for its right-wing bent and anti-Muslim policies and rhetoric

RSS: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the BJP’s ideological and organisational parent that has espoused remoulding India as a Hindu nation. 

Mulakat: meeting 

CAA: Citizenship Amendment Act

Enacted in 2019, the law removed barriers to citizenship for non-Muslim minorities from countries neighboring India but excluded several persecuted groups like Rohingyas and Sri Lankan Tamils. When combined with the National Register of Citizens and Foreigners Tribunals, it poses a significant threats to many of India’s Muslims who can be rendered stateless. In 2019 and early 2020, there were massive countrywide protests against the act and episodes of violence against the protesters. The anti-CAA movement died down after Covid lockdowns and restrictions were enforced. 

JNU deprivation points:

The Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi has a system of adding marks to the entrance test score of a student from a disadvantaged background based on certain criteria.

La ilaha illallah: 

The first kalima and a basic tenet of Islam that means “there is no god but Allah.” Anti-CAA protestors used it as a slogan of defiance against a law that was discriminating against Muslims in particular. 

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/

This is the first season of Partitions of the Heart: Conversations with Harsh Mander, a Himal Southasian podcast series produced in association with Karwan-e-Mohabbat.

Since 2017, the peace activist Harsh Mander and his organisation, Karwan-e-Mohabbat, have done the extraordinary and difficult work of documenting a rising wave of crimes against Muslims in India, and of lending support and solidarity to victims of communal atrocities. In Mander’s words, “We live in deeply troubled times of visceral, everyday hate, violence, fear and division. The first step towards healing our growing fractures is to talk and listen to each other.” 

The inaugural season of Partitions of the Heart, a podcast series from Himal and Karwan-e-Mohabbat, 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 – including Irfan Habib, Syeda Hameed, Afreen Fatima, Zeyad Masroor Khan, Seema Chishti, Manoj Jha and others. 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. 

Season One of Partitions of the Heart runs from 4 June to 20 August 2025, with a new episode released every Wednesday. This page will be updated with new episodes as they appear.

Himal’s podcast are available on:

🎧 YouTube

🎧 Spotify

🎧 Apple Podcasts

Sign up for Himal’s newsletters to get updates on our latest podcasts: https://www.himalmag.com/newsletters

A conversation with the Assamese writer Aruni Kashyap on crafting stories on love, resistance and belonging set against the long shadow of violence in India’s Northeast.

Welcome to the Southasia Review of Books Podcast, where we speak to celebrated authors and emerging literary voices from across Southasia. In this episode, Shwetha Srikanthan speaks to the Assamese writer, translator and poet, Aruni Kashyap about his new collection of short stories, 'The Way You Want to Be Loved ' (Gaudy Boy, October 2024).

In The Way You Want to Be Loved, we are introduced to characters who are outsiders – immigrants, queer individuals in conservative societies or minorities marginalised in Western and academic spaces – struggling to hold onto their identity while still seeking connection and belonging. They wrestle with repression and the search for personhood in societies where identity is shaped, and often compromised, by forces larger than themselves.

Kashyap’s collection is also a powerful critique of the broken promises of democracy in both India and the United States. With unflinching honesty and moments of darkness, these stories navigate absurdity, grief and resilience against a backdrop of violence and state repression in Assam and beyond.

This episode is available on Youtube: https://youtu.be/btapvkwrTxUSpotify: https://spoti.fi/4557fiy

Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/44Z2YNr

Let’s keep the conversation going – please share your thoughts on the episode or on Aruni’s book. If something resonated with you – or even challenged you – leave us a comment on Youtube or send me an email (shwethas[at]himalmag[dot]com) to share your thoughts. We promise to read and reply to all of them!

We’re on a mission to give Southasian literature the spotlight it deserves. Become a paying Himal Patron to support the Southasia Review of Books: https://www.himalmag.com/support-himal

Sign up to receive the Southasia Review of Books newsletter for Himal’s spotlight on Southasian literature, our latest conversations, and more: https://bit.ly/southasia-review-of-books

In early May, when the world’s attention was on the escalating conflict between India and Pakistan and the threat of war, India’s government released data that showed it in poor light. The new data from the civil registration system – the country's official record of births and deaths – showed that there had been about 3.7 million excess deaths during the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021. This suggested that India had massively undercounted deaths. The official toll till then had been recorded at a little more than half a million.

The data did not come as a surprise to public health experts and health reporters in India who had been documenting undercounting of deaths since the early days of the pandemic. Vidya Krishnan was one of those reporters. While the number confirms the widespread mismanagement of the pandemic in India, Krishnan says there is no point getting fixated on numbers because the “more dangerous thing is this government’s ability to completely dismiss millions of deaths as business as usual.”

In this episode of State of Southasia with Nayantara Narayanan, Krishnan recalls the horrors of the Covid-19 in India, especially during the second wave in the summer of 2021 when the Narendra Modi government’s apathy and politics resulted in a collapsed health system, millions of deaths that were made only too obvious by mass cremations and burials across the country. Krishnan says that the government abdicated its responsibility during the pandemic and that while India’s scientific community did not fail it, the political community did.

This episode is also available on:

🎧 YouTube: https://youtu.be/vdm6mWsFH0M

🎧 Apple podcasts: https://apple.co/43uTqaF

🎧 Website: https://www.himalmag.com/podcast/vidyakrishnan-covid19-pandemic-modi-india

Episode notes:

Vidya Krishnan’s recommendations:

- Fire in the Blood – Dylan Mohan Gray (documentary)

- Phantom Plague: How Tuberculosis Shaped History – Vidya Krishnan (non-fiction)

- Covid-19: A View from the Margins – edited by Yogesh Jain and Sarah Nabia (non-fiction)

- Ologies – Alie Ward (podcast)

Further reading from Himal’s archives:

Sri Lankan Muslims’ lasting pain over Covid-era forced cremations
Translating a pandemic: The impact of COVID-19 terminology on Southasian languages
Pandemics have always revealed the weakness of the Indian state
Unmasking Southasia: The pandemic issue
What behavioural science tells us about the COVID-19 response
Pandemic or poison?: How epidemics shaped Southasia's legal history
Prisoners in a pandemic
The season of discontent
In sickness and in health

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/