Rukshana Kapali campaigning in Patan, Lalitpur. Photo: Supplied

Nepal’s Gen Z Seeks Alternative Politics, But Fragmentation a Concern

Politicians, who were silent, complicit, or even instigative during last September’s tragedy, are trying to rebrand themselves on social media to be palatable to “Gen Z” - Nepal’s youth population that was instrumental in overthrowing the last government, leading to comparisons with Bangladesh’s ‘Monsoon Revolution’ of 2024 and Sri Lanka’s Aragayala of 2022. 

'Honour’ Still Tries to Silence Women With Community-Sanctioned Enforcement

What links these cases — Pakistan, Britain, India, the Netherlands — is not geography or faith, but backlash. ‘Honour’ is used as a pretext to kill not because women are obedient, but because they are not. It is activated when women seek education, choose partners, leave abusive homes, testify in public, or simply insist on being treated as full human beings.

 

Challenges Facing an AI-Geared World: A Robot Called Out the Failings in India’s Higher Education System

How do our regulators allow a university to function with almost every leadership position, academic and administrative, occupied by a member of the promoter family? How does patent filing become a game, as alleged in this case, or how does a paper authored under the university on banging vessels to kill the coronavirus get written? The incident brought to sharp light how India has slipped into an education system run on high fees by private institutions with questionable credentials.

BNP Rule in Bangladesh May Not Augur Well For India

Under the BNP, particularly during Khaleda Zia’s rule, four major anti-India terrorist camps were being run in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Notably, these terrorist training camps had Al Qaeda and Pakistan ISI/military instructors. As a young officer, Pervez Musharraf (later president of Pakistan) also served as an instructor in these terrorist training camps. To assume that the radical elements of the BNP will not be in league with the JeI will be the height of naviete.

More on Perspective

Will Pakistan’s terror exports ever stop?

Senior Indian Army sources asserted that the Pakistani youth's plea for surrender, as soon as his mate was killed, was a definite indication that he was not so convinced about the 'jihad' narrative but had taken on the cross-border 'task' out of financial compulsion

Women step up for peace in South Asia

The SAU aims to bring together peacebuilders and particularly women from the region to work towards a political and economic South Asian Union, along the lines of the European Union, by 2030

Which has a 'better behaved' media - US or India?

Trump also gave the Indian media backhanded compliments when he met with Modi in 2019

Taliban’s IPL ban shows media and entertainment industry won’t be able to survive for long in Afghanistan

The Taliban, the new rulers of Afghanistan, earlier this week announced a ban on the broadcast of the Indian Premium League (IPL), the hugely popular and monetarily lucrative Indian cricket league, which is widely watched in Afghanistan as their star player, Rashid Khan, is part of it

'Infiltrators' who get royal treatment on both sides of India-Pakistan LoC

They “violate” the otherwise volatile Line of Control (LoC) at their own sweet will, but far from being challenged for their “infiltration”, they are treated as guests of honor on both sides of a disputed frontier – India and Pakistan

Rights of the incarcerated: Plight of pre- and under-trial detainees overcrowding prisons in South Asian nations

Prisons in South Asian countries are overcrowded-- with some countries like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka having almost double their official capacities-- as most people spend years there as pre-trial detainees in the absence of speedy justice, according to data presented at a conference titled "The Rights of The Incarcerated in South Asia", organized by the South Asia Peace Action Network (SAPAN)

Academic Freedom in South Asia: SAI Heidelberg seminar attracts renowned scholars

Concerned by reliable reports of harassment of academics in India, the South Asia Institute (SAI), Heidelberg University, Germany hosted the webinar "Academic Freedom in South Asia" on 2 August, 2021 in which the following, internationally renowned scholars took part

The little-known Chinese Kali temple in Kolkata - a testament to cross-cultural bonding in challenging times

Kolkata is home to more than 2,000 Chinese, a close-knit community that has made the city its home for decades and arduously hung on to their culture and heritage through generations while making their mark in the tannery, beauty salons, shoe and restaurant businesses in the teeming eastern metropolis

South Asian countries scramble to vaccinate outbound workers to safeguard remittances

The pandemic has been a blow to countries like Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan as all of them receive billions of dollars annually through remittances of migrant workers abroad

From cleaning plates to featuring on Forbes – the fairy tale rise of a Bangladeshi American

Beginning as a teenager clearing tables and plates at an eatery, 30-year-old Bangladeshi American  Nabeel Alamgir has featured on a Forbes list running an online delivery service that saw revenues grow seven times higher in 2020 despite the killer Covid-19 pandemic

The tale of the obscure takin, Bhutan’s national animal

Have you ever seen a takin? Chances are an overwhelming majority of people will meet the poser with a baffled look

An American petroleum engineer in love with his adopted home Bangladesh

If you chance to visit Meherpur – a remote village in Bangladesh – you may come across a lanky American national in local attire who has made the country his home for the past 12 years

Modi, Afghan envoy and the 'fragrance' of 'brotherly' India-Afghanistan ties

It is common for doctors and surgeons working in India’s National Capital Region to get Afghan patients

Maldives beckons India’s glamour and affluent set once more

Ending a two-month ban on travelers from South Asian nations following the surge in coronavirus infection in the region, Maldives is to open its borders to these countries from July 15

Law must be tempered by justice: CJI Ramana’s observations will restore Indians’ faith in higher judiciary

The Chief Justice of India (CJI), N.V. Ramana, struck a resounding note about the interpretation of the understanding of law per se, when he observed that “It can be used not only to render justice, it can also be used to justify oppression.”