The internal politics and external relations of south Asia's giants are tracked by writers from the region and beyond.

Genocide of the Pakistani Hazara: where does the responsibility lie?

Malekeh Naqvi and Noor Alnagar 30 January 2013

The targeted killing of Pakistan's Shia Hazara minority continues. The Pakistani government remains inactive. Impunity makes the government partially responsible.

Yes to ending violence against women, but no to the ‘zero tolerance’ route

Vijay Nagaraj 11 January 2013

The problem with the use of 'zero tolerance' in public discourse is that it makes for good populist politics and rhetoric which generally translates into regressive and ill-informed public policy, especially in the area of criminal justice, says Vijay Nagaraj.

Grief and rage in India: making violence against women history?

Naila Kabeer 5 January 2013

There is uproar in India at the brutal gang rape of a 23 year old student on her way home from the cinema. Can we harness the international attention to this case to demand that the world's leaders commit themselves to a policy of zero tolerance of violence against women in the post-Millennium Development Goals agenda?

India: breaking the supply chain of human beings

Ruchira Gupta 2 December 2012

There are more than one million prostituted girls in India. "Only when the buyers of sex are arrested will the brothels close down; and only when the brothels are closed will we be safe,” Uma Das, speaking to Hillary Clinton in India

Taliban: agent or victim?

Afiya Shehrbano Zia 30 November 2012

In their attempt to assassinate girl-activist, Malala Yousufzai, has the Taliban inadvertently rescued the narrative of violence against women?

The decline in 'missing women' in Bangladesh

Naila Kabeer 7 November 2012

Alarm about the declining ratio of girls to boys in the Indian population, evidence of a particularly lethal form of gender discrimination, has overshadowed the more positive trend that is emerging in neighbouring Bangladesh where the ‘aversion to daughters’ seems to be weakening

Shaking the 'foreign hand': a view from India

Antara Dev Sen 6 November 2012

India has had a complicated relationship with the United States for most of its independent history. Things are better now - but Indians still do watch the election closely, fearing a return to old tensions.

United colours of the American elections - in three continents

Tani Bhargava and Rajeev Bhargava 5 November 2012

"Many temples in South India held prayers for Obama’s victory in the 2008 elections. Haven’t heard of any this time round. Here is one from me, after four encounters on three continents."

Independence in Dependence

Anshul Kumar Pandey 21 August 2012

As India celebrates its 66th year of independence, the country's leaders are still largely ignoring what needs to be addressed, and the government has come to be referred to as a 'consortium of the corrupt', with two parallel power centres

Reopening of the NATO supply routes won't stop cross-national terrorism from Pakistan

Ehsan Azari Stanizai 12 July 2012

The Pakistani military and intelligence service will not easily break the ties with Islamist terrorist groups in Afghanistan like the Haqqani network. Islamabad wants to keep a foothold in Afghanistan when western troops leave and use Islamic extremism as a counterforce to ethnic conflict and incompatibility strewn across the border. 

Democracy and Indian foreign policy

Yogesh Joshi 22 March 2012

To what extent is India’s foreign policy driven by the democracy factor? Yogesh Joshi reviews S.D. Muni’s latest book India’s Foreign Policy: The Democracy Dimension

Syem Saleem Shahzad: death of a journalist

Nick Fielding 10 February 2012
The Pakistani journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad made both friends and enemies in the course of his detailed reporting of Islamist groups and insurgencies in the country. An official report on his abduction and murder in May 2011 may leave key questions unanswered, says Nick Fielding, but read carefully and in context it brings the truth of his end closer.

Uncertainty looms amid progress in talks with the Taliban

Arif Rafiq 19 January 2012
The Afghan Taliban and the United States have begun talks, advancing prospects that coalition forces can withdraw from Afghanistan. But there are many potential pitfalls on the road to peace: a real risk of a political and military stalemate in Afghanistan, forcing the United States to leave the region under uncertain and possibly dangerous terms.

Has India reached the limits to economic reforms?

Wajahat Qazi 12 December 2011
The government of India’s decision to roll back legislation that would allow FDI in multi-brand retail is ill-advised. However, in the grand scheme of things it is but a hiatus that at worst merely derails the momentum of reforms.

Kashmir: from national to human security

Wajahat Qazi 18 November 2011
It is about time that saner heads in the Indian national security establishment mull over the implications of the continuation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in Kashmir, says Wajahat Qazi

This week's editor

Heather McRobie


Niki Seth-Smith is a freelance journalist and co-editor of OurKingdom.

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