The Southasian Sensibility
A Himal Reader
- Kanak Mani Dixit - Writer, Civil Rights Activist and Founding Editor, Himal Southasian
Marking the quarter century of the magazine, the Himal Reader argues for a regional mindset when tackling issues that touch the people of the Subcontinent. The focus throughout is for a humanist and progressive viewpoint, with a strong emphasis on human rights, democracy and social justice. The selected articles, whether discussing nationalism, regionalism, insurgency or cultural transformation, all reflect one aspect that Himal has striven to promote throughout its existence: a perspective that views the entire Southasian region as a single, composite entity even while respecting the plurality and integrity of its component parts.
| Introduction | Kanak Mani Dixit |
| The Dragon Bites its Tail | Kanak Mani Dixit |
| Axing Chipko | Manisha Aryal |
| Far Eastern Himalaya-The Search for Distance and Dignity | Sanjoy Hazarika |
| A Bangladeshi Looks for his Country | Afsan Chowdhury |
| A Kashmiri Solution for Kashmir | Eqbal Ahmad |
| The Fractured Image of Muhammad Ali Jinnah | Khaled Ahmed |
| Generals as Governors: The Parallel Political Systems of Northeast India | Sanjib Baruah |
| Eating with our Fingers, Watching Hindi Cinema and Consuming Cricket | S Anand |
| The Dark White Shroud | Shruti Debi |
| Between Despair and Hope: Interrogating 'Terrorism' | Dilip Simeon |
| SAARC and the Sovereignty Bargain | Pratap Bhanu Mehta |
| Relevance of the Middle Path: Rediscovering Gandhi for all Southasia | C K Lal |
| Two Chairmen and a People | Kanak Mani Dixit |
| Gujarat as Another Country: The Making and Reality of a Fascist Realm | Prashant Jha |
| Reframing the 'Burma Question' | Thant Myint-U |
| The Beauty of Compromise | Ramachandra Guha |
| Understanding the Nepali Mandate | Prashant Jha |
| A People on the Run | Rajan Hoole |
| God and the Gospel of Globalisation | Meera Nanda |
| Why Pakistan is not a Nation | Pervez Hoodbhoy |
| A Tibet of the Mind | Tenzing Sonam |
| Subsumed by History and Nation | Afsan Chowdhury |
The best of Himal... a good reader to dip into...what strikes one the most while going through the book is the relevance of these essays to our times, the realities they present to the reader impact our politics, society and culture some 15-20 years later.