From the archives

Student activists at Dhaka University mark one month since the fall of Sheikh Hasina. ‘India’s Near East: A New History’ takes us inside an Indian worldview that came to see Hasina as the only acceptable ruler in Bangladesh – just as her overthrow has made a mockery of its underlying assumptions.
By
Cyrus Naji
With the collapse of India-backed authoritarianism in Bangladesh – and Myanmar too – ‘India’s Near East: A New History’ reads like a testament to the failure of New Delhi’s policy on its eastern flank
Ranil Wickremesinghe’s chances of winning Sri Lanka’s 2024 presidential vote are slim. But the election is set to be the country’s most free, fair and non-violent one in living memory thanks in the main to constitutional and legal changes that Wickremesinghe effected.
After decades as a political flop, Wickremesinghe engineered a nascent economic recovery and quietly depleted the once-mighty Rajapaksas. Has his presidency, for all its flaws, given Sri Lanka a chan ...
Sheikh Hasina, as the prime minister of Bangladesh, visits her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi in June 2024. Modi’s government backed Hasina’s rule as she became increasingly authoritarian, and now faces massive public anger in Bangladesh after her fall.
By
Kamal Ahmed
The Modi government must reckon with Bangladeshi anger over its support for Hasina even as the United States, China and Russia all reassess their approaches to Dhaka
Protesters outside the headquarters of Bangladesh’s state broadcaster, which was set alight after police fired rubber bullets at them.
By
Kamal Ahmed
Bangladesh’s quota protests have spiralled into national unrest because of long-standing public disaffection with Hasina and her Awami League over the economy, corruption and autocratic behaviour
Jasprit Bumrah celebrates India’s victory in the final of the 2024 T20 World Cup. Bumrah is a paragon of the democratisation of Indian cricket, embodying a certain post-liberalisation social mobility and cricket’s changing caste demographics.
By
Vaibhav Vats
The best fast bowler India has ever produced, Bumrah also stands out for his sobriety and self-effacement in an Indian men’s team steeped in individualism and hyper-masculinity, as well as in a politi ...
A Pakistani soldier patrols the deep-sea port at Gwadar on the Balochistan coast. Baloch separatists have attacked the port and other projects that are part of the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor because they are seen as symbols of growing Chinese imperialism in the province with the connivance of the Pakistan state, depriving the local people of their resources. Photo: IMAGO/Newscom World
Not learning from the past, Islamabad is unleashing a new military operation against Baloch insurgency and Islamist extremism, continuing a vicious cycle of violence instead of addressing Baloch griev ...
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