Year in review: Ten great articles on Southasian politics of 2024

From the protests and violence that have swept Bangladesh, to uncovering the truth of the relationship between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the Palestinian struggle, an extensive investigation into Reliance’s wildlife ambitions under the youngest son of the Indian tycoon Mukesh Ambani, and unflinching perspectives on what ten years of Narendra Modi’s rule has meant for countries, regions and communities across Southasia – we take a look back at some of our top stories on politics through 2024..In no particular order, here are a few of Himal’s most-read political stories of the year:.India needs a caste census – and Southasia does too.Demands for a caste census are shaking up politics and prompting a fresh reckoning with historical injustices in India. Everywhere that caste is endemic, overdue caste counts have the power to do the same. If India is to set aside centuries of discrimination against a majority of its people and make the progress that Tamil Nadu has made in establishing more representative and just rule, proportional caste representation is imperative. And to achieve this, only a caste census can pave the way. Anil Varghese and Nawal Kishore Kumar argue that in India, and across Southasia more broadly, a comprehensive reckoning with caste and caste exclusion is long overdue. .The Ram Mandir is the tombstone for India as Southasia’s great secular exception.In January this year, India’s prime minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Ram Mandir at Ayodhya in a glitzy ceremony attended by Bollywood stars and business moguls, making it the centrepiece of his campaign to win a third consecutive term in a looming national election. Many in Southasia earlier saw Indian secularism as an example for their own countries – but Narendra Modi’s mixing of Hinduism and politics has crushed India’s singular standing. Watching the consecration of the temple and the destruction wreaked by the bulldozers, Vaibhav Vats writes that, “as Modi draws close to a decade in power, there is a gnawing, inescapable feeling that India stands on the cusp of an explosion, and an unknowable catastrophe lies ahead.” .Modi government’s reactive Myanmar policy keeps it from being a constructive force for democracy.As Myanmar slipped into one crisis after another, culminating in a military coup in 2021, India found itself in uncharted territory. A supposedly clear-headed bilateral strategy eventually devolved into a disparate, if not desperate, foreign policy coloured by confusion and a glaring disregard for human rights.Angshuman Choudhury takes a look at how over the past decade, India has been slow to realise that Myanmar’s anti-democratic military cannot protect its interests in a country where the majority seeks a federal democratic union. This story was part of ‘Modi’s India from the Edges’, a special Himal series presenting Southasian regional perspectives on Narendra Modi’s decade in power and his return as prime minister in the 2024 Indian election. .The costs of Reliance’s wildlife ambitions.How did an Indian rescue elephant end up at a party with Ivanka Trump? How did a zoo’s worth of exotic and endangered wildlife end up at the world’s largest petrochemical refinery? How have India’s laws to protect wildlife been weakened in the last few years? Led by the youngest son of the tycoon Mukesh Ambani and supported by the Indian government, Reliance’s effort to shelter abused elephants, which has transmuted into an enormous wildlife centre, raises concerns over the sourcing of some animals as well as over India’s wildlife management. In his in-depth investigation into Reliance’s sudden foray into wildlife conservation, M Rajshekhar lays out some disturbing questions surrounding the Vantara project and uncovers how Anant Ambani has assembled a huge number of exotic animals, many of them endangered species. .Become a paying Himal Patron and support our mission of giving all of Southasia the unique independent coverage of politics from the region that only Himal can offer..The saga of C K Raut and the Madhesh’s struggle for justice in Nepal.The parliamentarian C K Raut’s story runs alongside the larger saga of how Nepal, earlier a Hindu kingdom, has recomposed itself as a federal democratic republic. The frustrations and demands of the Madhesh have played a key role in this reconfiguration. Where things go from here will weigh heavily on Raut’s political legacy, and will also reveal much of the character of the new Nepal. If either or both Raut and the revamped Nepali state fail the hopes of the Madhesh, the danger is that accumulated grievances may once again take more fiery forms, and Nepal’s latest new dawn may prove as false as its earlier ones. But can Raut deliver justice for marginalised Madheshis and preserve their faith in Nepal’s young federal republic? In this immersive narrative piece, Abha Lal delves into the painful history and struggles of Nepal’s much-overlooked Madhesh region. .As Bangladesh boils over, Sheikh Hasina’s peril is of her own making.The turmoil that Sheikh Hasina’s regime faced in 2024 is not entirely surprising. Hasina’s fourth consecutive term in power was bound to be fraught with challenges. The controversial election earlier this year in Bangladesh, in which the Awami League stood almost unopposed due to the government’s crackdown on the opposition, had raised questions over the legitimacy of her mandate. The quota protests and Hasina’s unfeeling dismissal of protesters was the last straw for a citizenry battling high unemployment and inflation, and faced with reports of shocking corruption by government leaders. Kamal Ahmed unpacks how the quota protests spiralled into national unrest because of long-standing public disaffection with Hasina and her Awami League over the economy, corruption and autocratic behaviour. .The truth about the LTTE and the Palestinian struggle.For Sri Lankan Tamils – both in Sri Lanka and in the diaspora – it is natural to draw comparisons between the devastation in Gaza and the brutal end of the civil war in Sri Lanka in 2009. While the parallels with Israel’s conduct and the present situation in Gaza are striking, Ragavan argues it is false and politically opportunistic to claim that the LTTE supported the Palestinian struggle and was trained by the PLO, and that we must be careful in comparing the oppression of Palestine and Palestinian resistance to the state’s repression of Tamils and the rise of Tamil militancy in Sri Lanka. Hasty analogies and claims made without critical examination can be dangerously misleading. .How Ranil Wickremesinghe became Sri Lanka’s unlikely repairman.By the end of 2022, Ranil Wickremesinghe was Sri Lanka’s least unpopular leader – an acknowledgement of the deftness and speed with which he had restored some societal normalcy. But this relative popularity turned out to be fleeting. After decades as a political flop, Wickremesinghe engineered a nascent economic recovery and quietly depleted the once-mighty Rajapaksas. The veteran journalist and commentator Tisaranee Gunasekara asks, did his presidency, for all its flaws, give the country a chance at something better? Gunasekara takes a deep look at Wickremesinghe’s political trajectory before and during his presidency, providing insight into the twists, turns and machinations of Sri Lankan politics over almost five decades, culminating in the crisis that saw Wickremesinghe become president. .India’s massive failure to control pesticide overuse in cardamom and its spice trade.India is one of the top global producers of green cardamom, second only to the Central American country of Guatemala, where the spice was introduced from India. Kerala accounts for the vast majority of Indian production, and Idukki – particularly the Cardamom Hill Reserve – grows almost all of the state’s green cardamom, accounting for well over 80 percent of Indian production in total. Jeff Joseph’s ground reporting from Kerala uncovered massive failings in regulatory and safety systems around pesticide use. This fits a wider pattern of regulatory problems in the spice trade beyond cardamom as well. .In Balochistan, Pakistan again tries to find a military solution to a political problem.The Pakistan state’s undue use of the military in Balochistan – as evident in the enforced disappearances of thousands of Baloch people – has had a direct impact on the development of Baloch nationalism, turning it from a movement for provincial autonomy into a movement seeking separation from Pakistan. In June 2024, with clamour growing over the recent attacks, they announced Azm-e-Istehkam – Resolve for Stability – a new anti-insurgency operation meant to bring the situation under control. Not having learnt lessons from the past military operations and frequent political interventions that have failed to quell the separatist insurgency in Balochistan, the Pakistan government is once again trying to find a military solution to a political problem.Salman Rafi Sheikh argues that the Azm-e-Istehkam’s chances of success, like with previous such operations in Balochistan, remain weak. Instead, it is more likely to exacerbate the extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances of Baloch activists. If the past is any guide to the future, further militarisation will only drive more activists towards armed struggle.