If Washington persists down this path, the response from the Global South will not be submission. It will be coordination. China, Russia, Brazil, India, and others have every incentive to deepen trade, energy, and financial cooperation—not out of ideological unity, but out of defensive necessity. Ironically, Trump’s economic nationalism may succeed in what decades of rhetoric could not - forging a more cohesive Global South.
So long as Indians do not find a true watchdog for the government, people will have to keep choosing the lesser evil. Youth are well aware of the situation of Arab countries post-revolution. In South Asia, although Sri Lanka and Nepal have been able to consolidate power to some extent, Bangladesh remains in a frenzy with rampant human rights violations, religious persecution and no legitimate government in sight. Hence, Indian youth prefer to seek reform from within rather than a full-blown revolution without any vision for the future
For Bangladesh’s Hindus, each funeral deepens the message that their lives are negotiable and their suffering invisible. If this trajectory continues unchecked, the country risks normalizing a culture of impunity that will ultimately consume more than one community. Violence ignored does not fade; it spreads. And the price of silence, as history repeatedly shows, is always paid in lives.
Keen observers of international and regional politics will not have missed the tacit presence of the invisible hand of the US in determining the democratic transition in Bangladesh. Obviously, TarIque had been tutored by the Americans about the best way forward for the transition towards democratic rule and delivering on the promises of cooperation on regional security. The intelligentsia inside the country could have hoped for Tarique referring to ‘’historical’’ figures from the Indian subcontinent, the Muslim world, and Bangladesh’s past.
The army is upset with the NLD government for agreeing to take back from Bangladesh the Rohingya Muslim refugees in phases after a Chinese-mediated dialogue. Nearly 40,000 Rohingyas are expected to return in the first phase, writes Subir Bhaumik for South Asia Monitor
Biden needs to go through all the wrong decisions made by Trump and come out with valuable and healthy steps to maintain democracy in Afghanistan and to respect the blood its soldiers had shed, and end the war, writes Majidullah Rasooli for South Asia Monitor
Gandhiji had a presence. That is a mark of a great soul and a very much evolved spiritual being. To Gandhiji spirituality came first; other things like politics, public life, etc. were by-products of his spirituality, writes Anil K Rajvanshi for South Asia Monitor
The contributions made by the Indian community in the development of Saudi Arabia have always been appreciated by the Saudi government. Keeping in view the contribution of expat Indians, the Saudi government, irrespective of their religion, treats every expat Indian equally like its own citizen, writes Asif Rameez Daudi for South Asia Monitor
The massive and growing concentration of incomes is not good news for India's fragile social fabric as it can trigger a political backlash, writes N. Chandra Mohan for South Asia Monitor
In South Asia, while digitalisation is of a high priority intervention, the other more basic issues such as enabling access to livelihood, health and education would need to be addressed and given a much higher priority so that inequalities in per capita consumption expenditure that prevail among households are addressed immediately, writes Partha Pratim Mitra for South Asia Monitor
India has a longer track record of supplying medicines and vaccines to the rest of the world, than any other country, including China, writes Rajendra Shende for South Asia Monitor
The US under Biden is all set to revive military ties with Islamabad hoping that Pakistan will help bring peace in Afghanistan. America has obviously not learned any lessons over the decades, writes Lt Gen Prakash Katoch (retd) for South Asia Monitor
Pakistan so far has given limited autonomy to the local population after having wrested G-B after the accession. But it now wants to declare it as a provisional province of the country, writes Pushp Saraf for South Asia Monitor
By 2025, Bangladesh is forecast to be the 34th largest economy in the world and will continue at second place in South Asia after India, writes Mohammad Rubel for South Asia Monitor
If India were to write out a defence industrial policy it may read as follows: 'to establish and foster a strong indigenous helicopter industry with the design and production capacity to cater to all in-country military requirements and bid for export military and civil markets'. writes Rear Admiral Sudhir Pillai (retd) for South Asia Monitor
With SAARC stalled, India must prioritize regional and sub-regional alternatives to recalibrate its neighborhood strategy and its overall foreign policy, writes Don McLain Gill for South Asia Monitor
The rapid growth of the BJP in West Bengal since the 2014 parliamentary elections can unquestionably be seen as a turning point in the state's turbulent politics, writes Asif Rameez Daudi for South Asia Monitor
The most crucial justification for acquiring home-grown and home-built hardware is the military’s expectation that overhaul and replacement of parts, as well as repair of battle damage will be undertaken by the domestic industry in a most expeditious manner, writes Admiral Arun Prakash (retd) for South Asia Monitor
The upshot of an inward-looking regime is a diminishing extent of trade openness - a sharp contrast with the East Asian miracle economies that prospered with export-orientation, writes N Chandra Mohan for South Asia Monitor
