Editor @HimalSouthasian // RT ≠ endorsement
Southasia
Joined June 2009
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Hot off the @HimalSouthasian assembly line, an essential piece on the recent events in #India. The #Modi government continues to grapple with political unrest, with students and middle-class youngsters at the forefront of the recent #CJPProtest. This terrific review essay by Mihir Dalal delves into the deeper undercurrents of this discontent.
Mihir points to how a growing crisis over jobs, debt and AI has put India’s middle class off Modi and his economic promises – and shaken its faith in the ideal of merit. Could the “Mandal, Mandir, Market” formula that has dominated Indian politics since the 1990s be on the way out? And might it take "merit" and Modi with it?
himalmag.com/india-middle-cl…
Roman Gautam retweeted
“Why is it that most of the Left and the democratic progressive movement seem to lose sight of the fact that the basic minimum of rights and democratic standards we consider universal is under attack?”
In the latest episode of the Southasia Review of Books podcast, Kavita Krishnan (@kavita_krishnan) discusses her new book, ‘De-democratisation, A Global Story’.
🎧 Watch the full conversation on YouTube: youtu.be/vAPd4675GQs
or listen wherever you get your podcasts.
Roman Gautam retweeted
Mary Slusser was revealed to have gatekept our cultural heritage, deciding what Nepal could have and what it must leave behind. Her archives must serve as legal evidence to reclaim stolen deities and assert cultural sovereignty, writes Alisha Sijapati.
nepalitimes.com/the-mary-slu…
Roman Gautam retweeted
Mary Slusser was a remarkable scholar with deep affection for Nepal, but she took the country, its people, and its legal frameworks for granted. The very person who painstakingly documented our deities was complicit in their theft, writes Alisha Sijapati.
nepalitimes.com/the-mary-slu…
Roman Gautam retweeted
A US scholar's secret loot of Nepal’s sacred art and heritage: Mary Slusser made her name as an expert on #Nepal’s cultural heritage – while illicitly buying sacred artefacts and smuggling them out to the United States himalmag.com/mary-slusser-ne…
Roman Gautam retweeted
Compelling read!
himalmag.com/mary-slusser-ne…
Roman Gautam retweeted
Mary Slusser’s secret loot of Nepal’s sacred art and heritage: A US scholar made her name as an expert on Nepal’s cultural heritage – while illicitly buying sacred artefacts and smuggling them out to the United States himalmag.com/mary-slusser-ne… via @HimalSouthasian
Roman Gautam retweeted
The first Nepali film to win at Cannes, Abinash Bikram Shah’s ‘Elephants in the Fog’ is a reminder of the gap between legal change and lived reality for the country’s transgender community Diwash Gahatraj (@DiwashGahatraj) writes: himalmag.com/nepal-transgend…
Roman Gautam retweeted
Out now: a new Himal Southasian investigation by Erin L Thompson on how Mary Slusser, a renowned American scholar celebrated as an expert on Nepal's cultural heritage spent years illicitly buying sacred Nepali artefacts and smuggling them out to the United States.
Across the Kathmandu Valley, empty pedestals and niches still mark the spots where stolen gods once stood. This investigation traces the paper trail behind one of the largest undocumented removals of sacred art from Nepal and adds crucial evidence to the ongoing global movement to recover the region's stolen heritage.
Read the full investigation here: himalmag.com/mary-slusser-ne…
Roman Gautam retweeted
Southasian sex workers defied Gloria Steinem's view of “prostitution” as “commercial rape” – and built a movement for their own empowerment.
Meena Saraswathi Seshu (@meenaseshu) and Laxmi Murthy (@lax_always) write on how Gloria Steinem’s crusade against sex work taints her legacy in Southasia: himalmag.com/gloria-steinem-…
Roman Gautam retweeted
Our heritage is a living heritage, it is not pieces to be displayed in the museum or locked in warehouses, let alone bought and sold. This piece is a jaw-dropping revelation of a wolf in sheep skin.
Something we hold so dear to our heart, to our identity has been played with, bargained for, and sold. Our scholars have been downplayed and denied grants due to this person. I am still in shock few days after reading this investigative piece.
The only silver lining is to know we have heritage warriors fighting to educate us and bring back what was stolen from us. We must start the digitization and archiving, so that we arm our next generation with the knowledge of what our ancestors believed in, their evolution of thought, what they built for us and what is rightfully ours to interact with, continue and build upon.
Roman Gautam retweeted
Erin L Thompson's piece conclusively shows that Mary Slusser stole Nepali artefacts.
If the late Kamal Prakash Malla (1936 - 2018) was still alive today, how would he revise his review of Slusser's 1982 two-volume work, Nepal Mandala: A Cultural Study of the Kathmandu Valley?
Out now: a new Himal Southasian investigation by Erin L Thompson on how Mary Slusser, a renowned American scholar celebrated as an expert on Nepal's cultural heritage spent years illicitly buying sacred Nepali artefacts and smuggling them out to the United States.
Across the Kathmandu Valley, empty pedestals and niches still mark the spots where stolen gods once stood. This investigation traces the paper trail behind one of the largest undocumented removals of sacred art from Nepal and adds crucial evidence to the ongoing global movement to recover the region's stolen heritage.
Read the full investigation here: himalmag.com/mary-slusser-ne…
Since Gloria Steinem passed away earlier this month, "the US feminist’s global legacy has been lauded and extolled, as well as critiqued seemingly threadbare," @meenaseshu and @lax_always write in @HimalSouthasian. "Yet her deep and damaging impact on the movement for sex workers’ rights has been less analysed – and this, arguably, is one of her most lasting legacies in Southasia."
This is an essential perspective on Steinem from Southasia, describing how Southasian sex workers defied the iconic US feminist’s view of “prostitution” as “commercial rape” – and built a movement for their own empowerment. A great read, and a great education for anyone not familiar with this debate: himalmag.com/gloria-steinem-…
Southasian sex workers defied Gloria Steinem's view of “prostitution” as “commercial rape” – and built a movement for their own empowerment.
Meena Saraswathi Seshu (@meenaseshu) and Laxmi Murthy (@lax_always) write on how Gloria Steinem’s crusade against sex work taints her legacy in Southasia: himalmag.com/gloria-steinem-…
Roman Gautam retweeted
This is such a good story that I'm savouring it bit by bit. Don't want to reach the end. Well done @HimalSouthasian
himalmag.com/mary-slusser-ne…
Roman Gautam retweeted
The US scholar Mary Slusser never bought a historic artefact from anyone authorised to sell it. She told herself and others that she was “rescuing” these stolen goods from neglect. But her “care” sometimes physically damaged these artefacts – and always did inestimable harm to Nepal’s heritage and cultural traditions. Discover what went into this investigation by Erin L Thompson in this episode of Himal Footnotes: youtu.be/jrbelpBtD08
You can read the full investigation here: himalmag.com/mary-slusser-ne…
Roman Gautam retweeted
How did one scholar steal hundreds of literal gods?
Mary Slusser's secret loot of Nepal's sacred art and heritage.
A US scholar made her name as an expert on Nepal's cultural heritage - while illicitly buying sacred artefacts and smuggling them out to the United States
Roman Gautam retweeted
Meet Mary Slusser.
This American Archeologist not only stole ancient Hindu idols from communities in Nepal, but single handedly wiped out Hindu worshipping communities in decades.
Today, she has many books written by her that are studied in various colleges and are considered the Bible of archeology.
Take a few minutes to see this video.
Roman Gautam retweeted
this is a remarkably researched piece! i was lucky to see the primary sources Erin has patiently combed over years & i'm in awe of how much interesting detail she made sure to include in her telling of this story, never losing sight of the injustice at its core. do read!
Erin L Thompson's investigation into how the renowned US scholar Mary Slusser smuggled hundreds of Nepali artefacts out of the country in the 1960s and 70s has had a response unlike anything we've seen at @HimalSouthasian in a while.
Erin put in years of chasing to expose Slusser's theft and crime, and to document the damage done to many of the objects as well as to the traditions they belonged to. This story should put an end to the argument that Western museums and collectors are better custodians of others' heritage than the original communities themselves.
himalmag.com/mary-slusser-ne…
Erin L Thompson's investigation into how the renowned US scholar Mary Slusser smuggled hundreds of Nepali artefacts out of the country in the 1960s and 70s has had a response unlike anything we've seen at @HimalSouthasian in a while.
Erin put in years of chasing to expose Slusser's theft and crime, and to document the damage done to many of the objects as well as to the traditions they belonged to. This story should put an end to the argument that Western museums and collectors are better custodians of others' heritage than the original communities themselves.
himalmag.com/mary-slusser-ne…
To everyone who has read the investigation, shared it, written in — thank you! And to the many new readers who have found @HimalSouthasian through this piece, welcome, we're glad to have you with us!
If you want to support more independent, uncompromising journalism like this for all of Southasia, become a Himal Patron today:
himalmag.com/#/portal/accoun…