Bangladesh can neither ignore the US and India nor China in the light of the changing global geopolitical situation, writes Emilia Fernandez for South Asia Monitor
Yet ordinary Afghans refuse to stay silent. In Balkh province, people are turning public walls into canvases of defiance, spray-painting graffiti demanding education, rights, and freedom. These acts of artistic resistance, risking arrest and worse, echo the courage of exiled artists like Shamsia Hassani and Fatima Wojohat, whose work continues to amplify the cry for justice. Such quiet rebellion signals a population no longer cowed.
If one location matters most to India in Sri Lanka, it is Trincomalee. With one of the finest natural harbours in the world, Trincomalee has immense commercial, naval, and energy value. For decades, strategists in New Delhi have viewed it as critical to the security architecture of the Bay of Bengal.
South Asia cannot remain an archipelago of isolated economies connected only by shared history and mutual suspicion. Changing acronyms does not change reality. Summit declarations will not achieve true economic integration. True integration requires the political courage to dismantle physical and bureaucratic walls. Only then will the region stop holding its immense potential captive.
The resultant reduced trust signals a declining democratic discourse that should be the biggest worry for the nation at this stage. The bill that failed thus tells the deeper story of all that is going wrong in the Indian democracy, bit by bit, in areas that are clearly visible and sometimes in many invisible ways.
Bangladesh can neither ignore the US and India nor China in the light of the changing global geopolitical situation, writes Emilia Fernandez for South Asia Monitor
For India, an aggressive Russia does not cause concern; many here believe it to be a more reliable and effective check on China than the United States, writes Amb Dilip Sinha (retd) for South Asia Monitor
Bangladesh is being depicted unfairly - and without evidence - as a country that discriminates against its minorities, particularly Hindus, writes Anup Sinha for South Asia Monitor
Bangladesh settled for a humanistic approach, focusing on people and their wellbeing, taking steps to minimize infection and death rates, besides ensuring the availability of food, writes Dr. Mohammad Rezaul Karim for the South Asia Monitor
With the ban on kite flying in force, Basant, a celebration of nature and culture, may soon become a matter of the past in Pakistan, writes Mahendra Ved for South Asia Monitor
With the help of pliant media, saffron powers have discredited Muslims as an obstacle to the country's development and an enemy of equality, secularism and women's rights, writes Sohail Ahmad for South Asia Monitor
There was also a proposal for a plebiscite in Goa; Nehru stood the ground that Goa’s merger with India is non-negotiable, writes Ram Puniyani for South Asia Monitor
The upcoming meeting of Indian and Pakistani Rotary Club members and others at Kartarpur this week highlights Rotarian efforts to develop an Indus Peace Park near the Kartarpur entrance writes Beena Sarwar for South Asia Monitor
International communities should criminalize the intentional propagation of hatred towards a particular faith, write Monira Nazmi Jahan and Nusrat Jahan Nishat for South Asia Monitor
The CEPA’s larger significance is that it serves as a template for an FTA with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) whose members include Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain, writes N. Chandra Mohan for South Asia Monitor
The junta will likely leverage the hearings to gain substantial de jure recognition as the legitimate government of Myanmar within other UN bodies and beyond, writes Parvej Siddique Bhuiyan for South Asia Monitor
As of now, Pakistan’s much-sought ‘strategic depth’ with a friendly government in Afghanistan has proved elusive, writes Mahendra Ved for South Asia Monitor
Millions of Indian cricket fans across the globe are the real foundation of the Indian cricket board's financial power, writes Qaiser Mohammad Ali for South Asia Monitor
The Hindu rightwing gets its due provocation from Muslim communalism and extremism. Is there any role of Muslim communalists in fueling the hijab row?, writes Ram Puniyani for South Asia Monitor
Nepal will be permitted to export power to Bangladesh via India at a later time in order to fulfill the expanding energy demands of that country, writes Benedict B. George for South Asia Monitor