Leaders in New Delhi agree on the plan to partition India: From left, Jawaharlal Nehru, Hastings Ismay, Louis Mountbatten and Ali Jinnah.
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The fate of the so-called princely states was a particularly contentious issue during India’s Partition, which killed about 1 million people and left millions more displaced.
The writing was on the wall in Sri Lanka.
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An expert on Sri Lanka’s economy identifies and explains three key challenges that Ranil Wickremesinghe will have to overcome if he hopes to steer the country out of its crisis.
The sun sets on Sri Lanka’s protest movement (for now).
Arun Sankar/AFP via Getty Images)
Protests over shortages forced the ouster of Sri Lanka’s president, but the crisis has deep-set roots in ethnonationalism, which has encouraged corruption, argues an expert on the country’s politics.
A Colombo resident searches for fuel amid the economic crisis.
Chamila Karunarathne/EPA
A new book by Manjula Datta O’Connor argues that family violence raises some culturally specific issues, but the problem is not limited any particular group.
Sri Lankan students march during a protest over the economic crisis outside the residence of prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa in Colombo, April 24, 2022.
AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena
Several US universities now recognize caste as part of nondiscrimination policies. Two scholars of South Asian studies explain how caste-based violence isn’t limited to Hinduism, or to India.
Supporters of Imran Khan take to the streets.
Farooq Naeem/AFP via Getty Images)
The former prime minister was forced from office by a vote of no confidence. But that doesn’t mean the political drama is over, an expert on Pakistani politics explains.
Still Pakistan’s poster boy?
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Politically and socially, Australia is fast expanding its engagement with India and her neighbours. Universities, in contrast, have wound back their commitment to South Asian studies.
A nurse treats a patient inside a COVID-19 ward of a government run hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal on May 12, 2021.
(AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)
The COVID-19 cases are surging in Nepal, potentially surpassing India’s reproduction rate, but the country is out of vaccines. Global aid could help with one of the worst health crises in South Asia.
Members of the Sikh community in Indianapolis gather after a mass shooting in which eight people, including four Sikhs, died, in Indianapolis, Indiana.
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A scholar explains the religious beliefs of Sikhs as well as the prejudices and barriers that many Sikhs in America face.
After an Indian politician recently tried to shame a woman for wearing ripped jeans, women’s responses were swift and sharp.
(Twitter/@prag65043538, @sherryshroff, @ruchikokcha)
After an Indian politician disparaged a woman for her lack of morals because she was wearing ripped jeans, an online protest erupted, reviving the original protest-culture of the ripped jean.
Will South Asia be able to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030?
Sanjeev Gupta/EPA
After the pandemic, South Asian governments must spend money on making public services work, rather than relying on GDP growth to pull people out of poverty.
Much of India experiences both extreme heat and extreme air pollution, as seen in this photo of the Akshardham Hindu temple. Days with both are going to increase.
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In South Asia, days with both extreme heat and extreme pollution are expected to increase 175% by 2050. Separately, the health effects are bad; together they will likely be worse.
Waiting for free rations in Sindh province.
Nadeem Khawer/EPA
Pakistan is using technology to distribute emergency support as part of its coronavirus stimulus. But its criteria for eligibility must be more nuanced.
1.3 billion people in India are in lockdown.
Jagadeesh NV/EPA
The South African government is hamstrung by the country’s fiscal and economic situation. And short of ideas about how to get out of it.
Protests have engulfed Assam since the National Register of Citizens was published in August 2019. They have intensified since the Citizenship Amendment Act was passed by the parliament. Central security forces, pictured here, have been sent in to repress the spontaneous protests by different citizens groups.
(Arunabh Saikia)
India has been working to expel or repress Muslim minorities. Nearly two million residents of India’s eastern state of Assam are at risk of losing citizenship.