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.
The difficulty level the current Indian pacers had to overcome to achieve consistency and success in top-flight international cricket is substantially higher than what their counterparts from Pakistan had to surmount decades back, writes Sirshendu Panth for South Asia Monitor
So, what the future looks like for Afghanistan? In one word: hopeless, writes Anondeeta Chakraborty for South Asia Monitor
If India seeks greater market access, it must also allow the UK to sell more of its goods and services, writes N. Chandra Mohan for South Asia Monitor
The existing Afghan population in Europe is already facing a compassion deficit in Europe due to the rise in anti-immigrant parties threatening to fracture the bloc further, write Dr. Manasi Sinha, Pratyush Bibhakar and Vishal Rajput for South Asia Monitor
To design sustainable food systems for healthy diets within the South Asian region, one needs to take local realities and contexts into account and develop a strong collaboration among all stakeholders at the grassroots, national, regional and global level, write George Cheriyan and Simi T.B. for South Asian Monitor
Knowledgeable observers, including diplomats who have served there, feet that no Afghan government could ignore India in the long run, because Islamabad could never give what Kabul received from India, something built on the foundation of strong historical, cultural, and people-to-people bonds, writes Tarun Basu for South Asia Monitor
India, Nepal and Bangladesh should have a holistic diplomatic approach to bolster their connectivity project, writes MD. Pathik Hasan for South Asia Monitor
Given the Taliban's growing need to be recognized, and to receive international aid, this time around the US and the international community, backed by the World Bamk, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the United Nations are in a much better position to together pin down the Taliban on its assurances and also hold it accountable, writes Nisha Sahai Achuthan for South Asia Monitor
Neither SLPP nor SJB has a major reform agenda to breakout from Sri Lanka’s endemic economic problems, which are deeply rooted in the country’s inability to earn enough foreign inflow to sustain itself and to bring in sound fiscal policies, writes Indika Hettiarachchi for South Asia Monitor
The question will be what kind of “consequences” the US can impose on those it considers veering off from the democratic path Biden and his supporters set, writes Arul Louis for South Asia Monitor
India’s approach towards Afghanistan should be dictated by its economic and strategic interests and it needs to judge the Taliban by its actions while being flexible enough to leave room for numerous divergences, writes Tridivesh Singh Maini for South Asia Monitor
For India and Indians, one of the most enduring Afghan connections that developed, rather accidentally, was in the form of “Afghan Snow”, the first beauty crème, writes Mahendra Ved for South Asia Monitor
After all, how can a major political and military force like India stay on the sidelines when the US, the Chinese, of course, the Pakistanis, and even the Russians begin talks, open business and prepare for collaborations with the Taliban? writes Jagdish Rattanani for South Asia Monitor
Amid the thorny political and diplomatic issues, sports can act as the much-needed balm to remove distrust and promote understanding between India and Pakistan, writes Sirshendu Panth for South Asia Monitor
A Taliban-run Afghanistan that eschews support for international terrorism and global Islam and follows a Sharia regime like that of US ally Riyadh – in effect an oil-less Saudi Arabia – and, as it happened this week, both cooperating to fight common enemies may be Biden's dream scenario, writes Arul Louis for South Asia Monitor
