• Vol 9 (2023)

    The South Asianist Journal is moving to a rolling publication model, namely articles, reviews, photo essays and other contributions will be published as they complete the editorial process. Each volume follows the calendar year, and authors will see their works published in the volume corresponding with the editorial completion of their respective submissions. We will continue to feature special issues, and actively encourage authors and reviewers to consider open peer review, where the identity of the author and the reviewers are known by all participants, while continuing to give the option of a more conventional double-blind peer review. 

  • Vol 8 (2021)

    The South Asianist Journal uses a rolling publication model and features articles, reviews, photo essays and other contributions as they complete the editorial process. We will continue to feature special issues, and actively encourage authors and reviewers to consider open peer review, where the identity of the author and the reviewers are known by all participants, while continuing to give the option of a more conventional double-blind peer review. 

  • Vol 7 (2020)

    The South Asianist Journal is moving to a rolling publication model, namely articles, reviews, photo essays and other contributions will be published as they complete the editorial process. Each volume follows the calendar year, and authors will see their works published in the volume corresponding with the editorial completion of their respective submissions. We will continue to feature special issues, and actively encourage authors and reviewers to consider open peer review, where the identity of the author and the reviewers are known by all participants, while continuing to give the option of a more conventional double-blind peer review. 

  • Hindus and Others: A Sri Lankan Perspective
    Vol 6 No 1 (2018)

    Edited by Mathieu Claveyrolas, Pierre-Yves Trouillet, `Delon Madavan and Anthony Goreau-Ponceaud

    Following a workshop held in Paris in 2015, the purpose of this special issue is to start from the Sri Lankan case to study how Hinduism and Hindus define others and interact with them, and what these interactions reveal about Hinduism in general and about Sri Lankan Hinduism in particular, especially regarding religious, social, political and territorial issues. By addressing such relations to the Other from the Hindu point of view, the volume proposes more broadly to develop a critical conception of Hinduism, which considers this religion as a point of contact between various social and religious groups. Indeed, we argue that questioning the importance of these multiple realities of contact, whether they are recognized or denied, also helps renewing the debate about the delicate definition of Hinduism, articulated by both Hindus and scholars.

    Cover image: Young Buddhist woman pierced with Murugan’s vel, Ampitiye Pattini Devalaya, Ampara District, Sri Lanka (photo by Sharni Jayawardena)

  • Spring 2017
    Vol 5 No 1 (2017)

    The editorial team is pleased to publish Volume 5, Issue 1, and overall tenth instalment. This issue features articles covering both colonial and contemporary formations of ethnic politics in Sri Lanka; the Madheshi uprising, Tharuhat movement, and ethnic politics in Nepal; and in India, a study of regional folk stories found in various vernacular expressions of the Mahābhārata; Cold War-era politics in Kerala; and the role of Sikh refugees in ethno-nationalism in the Indian Punjab. This issue also features the first ever international academic journal collection devoted to the study of contemporary Naga society, and we hope this may inspire future scholarship on the Naga indigenous communities in the Indo-Burmese borderlands. The South Asianist is proud to publish its articles as open-access, which, among many other advantages, has the pivotal benefit that articles are easily downloadable by respondents and interlocutors. 

    The classic South Asianist cover design is by Heid Jerstad (former co-editor) and artist Lauren Lee; and this issue's cover image is a photograph taken in 2014 by British anthropologist Edward Moon-Little, of an elder Naga woman from northern Nagaland state with a distinctive facial tattoo.

  • Contestation and Recognition in South Asia
    Vol 4 No 2 (2016)

    This regularly scheduled issue, and ninth instalment since the journal's launch in October 2011, features articles covering a variety of themes in contemporary and historical South Asia, from community responses to land-grabbing in Nepal, and theoretical explorations of the political in asceticism among sadhus in India, to governance patterns among the Yimchunger Nagas in the Indo-Burmese borderlands, and patterns of urban violence in crowded Karachi, Pakistan. Broadly speaking, the main themes traversing this issue, presented by junior and senior scholars, encompass minority communities contesting dominant forces, resisting political subjugation, and vying for recognition. 

    The cover image is of 700 year-old Khonoma village in Nagaland state, India; a village that successfully resisted British control in the southern Naga inhabited areas for nearly five decades, culminating in a truce in 1878. Image by Michael Heneise.

  • Protest, Dissent, and Political Change in Post War Sri Lanka
    Vol 4 No 1 (2015)
    Edited by Luke Heslop, this collection of essays brings into focus some of the social, political, and economic changes that have taken place since the end of the war, linking them to events that have unfolded throughout Sri Lanka’s tumultuous post colonial experience. The issue also contains some fantastic photography by Kalpa Rajapasha and Madhava Meegaskumbura.
  • Crossing boundaries
    Vol 3 No 1 (2014)

    This regularly scheduled issue covers a very broad range of contemporary and historical topics and themes primarily focused on India, with contemporary ethnographic contributions on the Birhor, Pardhan Gond, Naga, and Bhil communities; archival and textual analyses on partition; Gandhi and sexuality; examinations of the 1857 uprising; and contemporary analyses covering rural to urban migration, identity cards, and public policies regarding Dalit, Muslim, and Adivasi communities. Contributions are from established academics, and postgraduate students, all undergoing a rigorous double-blind peer-review process. Cover photo by Edward Moon-Little

  • Motion and Consumption in South Asia
    Vol 2 No 2 (2013)

    This issue offers up two broad themes that could very well describe ordinary, day-to-day activity in much of South Asia - motion and consumption. Yet this bird's-eye view belies the intensity of subjective intentionality, and the continuous negotiation that takes place as experience and risk are juggled in an effort to overcome social, economic and political obstacles, and to gain some advantage where possible. Articles, photo essays, and book reviews cover topics in Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and India. 

    Cover: Rongpharpi Rongbe monument (Rong is 'village,' be is 'to flee') in Karbi Anglong, Assam. An iconic heroine and symbol of courage, justice and freedom among the Karbi people, it is believed that Rongpharpi Rongbe lived several centuries ago when most of the Karbi people were ruled by either the Kachari or Khasi Kingdoms. A king kept tiger cubs as pets, feeding them human milk in an attempt to domesticate them. He would send his soldiers to the Karbi villages everyday to collect milk from the women. Unable to stand the tyranny of the king, Kareng Rongpharpi picked up a hatchet and killed the soldiers. She, along with the villagers fled their homes out of fear of reprisal. Description by Milton Terang. Photo by Michael Heneise, December 2005.

  • Social Movements and the Subaltern in Postcolonial South Asia
    Vol 2 No 1 (2013)

    This issue is guest edited by Kenta Funahashi (Kyoto University) and Shinya Ishizaka (Kyoto University/National Institutes for the Humanities, Japan) and draws on research presented at the Japan-Edinburgh Workshop “Social Movements and the Subaltern in Postcolonial South Asia” held jointly by the Centre for South Asian Studies, University of Edinburgh and the scheme of programs, “Young Researcher Overseas Visits Program for Vitalizing Brain Circulation” (JSPS, Japan) and “Contemporary India Area Studies (INDAS)” (NIHU, Japan) on the 17th, October 2012 at the University of Edinburgh.

    Cover: Young boys out and about celebrating their leader on Ambedkar's birthday. Photo by Hugo Gorringe, April 2012

  • Marginalities & Aspirations
    Vol 1 No 1 (2012)
    We are very proud to announce the launch of a new South Asian studies journal: The South Asianist! Our inaugural issue titled: Marginalities and Aspirations was previewed during a special event honouring public health practitioner and human rights defender Dr. Binayak Sen on the 14th of June at the University of Edinburgh's School of Social and Political Science. The full issue - including articles, a film review, and two video interviews - including one with Dr. Sen - are now available. We would particularly like to thank Edinburgh University's Digital Library and the wonderful team that worked tirelessly to build, support and host the online journal in coordination with the journal's editorial team and graphic designer. We hope this will be the beginning of a fruitful, widely accessible periodical covering critical issues related to the study of South Asia.
  • Persons, Bodies and the State in South Asia
    Vol 1 No 2 (2012)

    In coordination with the South Asian Anthropologist's Group, The South Asianist has created this special conference issue featuring titles and abstracts of the presentations in the order in which they were delivered. The aim of this project is to provide a space that captures some of the unique qualities and cumulative learning that occurs during the unique workshop/conference event. SAAG 2012 was hosted jointly by Social Anthropology and the Centre for South Asian Studies from the 4th to the 6th, September 2012 in the Old Library, Institute of Geography, University of Edinburgh, Drummond Street, Edinburgh. A relaxed and friendly event, SAAG aims to stimulate intellectual debate and dialogue on current research and emerging issues in the study of South Asia. Papers are pre-circulated to participants and the format for the panels is: paper presentation by discussant, author’s response and then open discussion.