Indian Navy warships in Indian Ocean

Cocos (Keeling), Sabang and Car Nicobar: India’s Quiet Maritime Rewiring

India and Australia are not building a grand alliance; they are building useful capacity. Indonesia, through its archipelagic geography, fits into that larger maritime dynamic. Taken together, these developments show how strategy is increasingly made through nodes, not narratives.

China’s Water Threats, India’s Malacca Leverage and Growing Indo-Pacific Contestation

While China's leverage over India runs through an upstream river Beijing controls, India's leverage over China runs through a chokepoint India will now sit astride. The Strait of Malacca is a 930-km passage between the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra through which an approximate of  40–50 percent of global trade and 80 percent of China's crude oil imports transit.

Is Hamas Expanding Footprint into South Asian Nations, Including Pakistan and Bangladesh?

The presence of Hamas in Bangladesh should not be ignored by security agencies across the region, including those in Bangladesh, India, and Myanmar, as such a presence may ultimately have serious consequences.

India’s Indo‑Pacific Assertion: Act East Policy in Action in Modi Visit

The significance of PM Modi's visits marks a shift from episodic diplomacy to structured engagement. The convergence of defence, economics, and technology across these four partnerships signals a pragmatic foreign policy. 

More on Geopolitics and Strategic Affairs

Why Indian money rules world cricket

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

In India's hijab row, Muslim girls' education trapped between extremists of both religions

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 power: Caught between Chinese capital and Indian market

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 

After Beijing, its destination Moscow for Pakistan PM Imran Khan: Can Russia take Islamabad at its word?

Russia is well aware of how Pakistan has been facilitating the movement of ISIS cadres from Iraq-Syria into northern Afghanistan at the behest of the US, writes Lt Gen P.C. Katoch (retd) for South Asia Monitor 

An adrift Congress in India is a serious problem for democracy

It takes no great political intelligence to point out that a tumultuous democracy like India desperately needs a credible national counter to Modi’s BJP, writes Mayank Chhaya for South Asia Monitor

Growing presence of women in India’s armed forces: An issue that should not be politicized

One major reason the Indian Army has not allowed women officers in fighting arms and would not like to do so is that it does not want them captured by the enemy, writes Col Anil Bhat (retd) for South Asia Monitor

The interplay of caste and politics in India's most populous state

The recent trends in elections have shown undeniable evidence that women no longer remain passive voters, writes Shraddha Nand Bhatnagar for South Asia Monitor

Bangladesh has stake in peace and stability in India's Northeast

Connectivity and infrastructural development with Bangladesh will also open up new routes to India's Northeast, Bhutan and Nepal, writes Benedict B. George for South Asia Monitor

India’s intangible heritage: Its composite, living culture carries a multidimensional message in trying times

Such recognition by UNESCO, whether of Durga Puja or Srinagar as a Creative City, helps to underline that India’s culture is a living culture, writes Amb Bhaswati Mukherjee (retd) for South Asia Monitor

The Nightingale has fallen silent: Lata Mangeshkar's music had universal appeal

Numbers have defied easy recording, whether Lata sang 25,000 songs or 30,000, for an estimated 1,000 films, writes Mahendra Ved for South Asia Monitor

India must not politically or economically appease China

The fact remains that as long as India, Nepal and Bhutan do not protest Chinese aggressive moves because of political compulsions China will keep having its way, writes Lt Gen P. C. Katoch (retd.) for South Asia Monitor

Sri Lanka will come out of its present crisis stronger

With heightened external geopolitical fissures in the region, balancing infrastructure diplomacy between China, India and the US is indeed a daunting challenge for Sri Lanka, writes Sugeeswara Senadhira for South Asia Monitor

Why does Pakistan lag far behind Bangladesh?

Although Bangladesh was a part of Pakistan, it has already surpassed Pakistan in almost all socio-cultural and economic indicators, writes Jebeda Chowdhury for South Asia Monitor

Appropriating Subhas Chandra Bose: He was equally critical of both Muslim and Hindu communal streams

Bose was very clear that in independent India equal opportunities should be thrown open to all, irrespective of caste, creed or religion, writes Ram Puniyani for South Asia Monitor 

Can Air India become world class again? Can Tatas live up to expectations?

What is the future of civil aviation and Air India? The immediate outlook is that it will take beyond 2022-23 to return to any semblance of pre-pandemic normalcy, writes N. Chandra Mohan for South Asia Monitor