Agni-5: the national firework of India

Antony Ou 5 July 2012

India's successful launch of a long range inter-continental ballistic missile has led to hyper-nationalist posturing and antagonism with China, of a kind disappointingly reminiscent of Cold War hubris. The bombastic rhetoric must not undo the bilateral ties between the two states.

Maoist hostage crisis in India: government indifference makes Maoists give up on mediation

Basudev Mahapatra 28 June 2012

Mediation has been successful at bringing down levels of violence and bringing popular welfare and social justice demands onto the political agenda. These gains are  underthreat as the government fails to take the process seriously.

The changing politics of India-a revolution in the making?

Waled Aadnan 7 June 2012

A sea change is taking place in Indian politics, as the two main traditional political parties lose state elections to regional and upstart parties. What will this portend for India's next general election and how is it reshaping the Indian polity?

Communal violence and justice in India

Warisha Farasat 28 May 2012

Ten years on from the Gujurat riots, the survivors still do not have justice and the bureaucracies that made them possible remain unchanged. This is not a one-off but a trend, which it will take hard questions and an insistence on answers to reverse.

'The core problem is the elites, not the people': Sanka Abayawardena responds

Sanka Chandima Abayawardena 14 May 2012

Is Sanka Abayawardena a government stooge, Sinhala nationalist, or peace activist? He warns his critics against forgetting the class basis of this conflict.

See the debate: Is reconciliation possible in Sri Lanka?

Nation-building in Sri Lanka: the potential and the promise

Salma Yusuf 14 May 2012

This week is the third anniversary of the end the Sri Lankan civil war. Yet there is hope: it lies within Sri Lanka's reach to move from 'post-war' to 'post-conflict', as Sri Lankans work towards a new era of equitable governance.

See the debate: Is reconciliation possible in Sri Lanka?

Out of view: the unnameable poor in India and Bangladesh

Adam Klein 11 May 2012

My friends in teaching jobs in Afghanistan and Korea or aid organizations in Bangladesh, nearly all returned to the United States, to ask themselves hard questions about their educational pursuits or their student loans. Suffering offers infinite growth. But faith is like a blanket, only large enough to keep so many children warm. 

Welcome Magnus - incoming Editor-in-Chief

Tony Curzon Price 1 May 2012

Our outgoing Editor-in-Chief introduces us to his successor, Magnus Nome, and invites us to share the kind of ambitions he has had for openDemocracy over the last six years and onwards into the future.

Post-communist Bengal

Jayita Sarkar 29 April 2012

Bengal’s transition is from the mismanagement of a vanguard party to the misrule of the lumpenproletariat.

Bicycle bombs to Bollywood - immigration and identity

Kaushik Barua 28 April 2012

One breach of the law cancels out another.

India’s diplomatic stand on the resolution against Sri Lanka

Muthukrishnan Kumarasamy 19 April 2012

India has tried to strike a balance between support for the Sri Lankan government and calls for Tamil rehabilitation - ultimately backing the UN resolution urging Sri Lanka to investigate abuses of international law during the final phase of the civil war. Behind this lie a number of external, internal and strategic factors.

Bangladesh: journey of fear towards an uncertain future

Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury 17 April 2012

The two large parties in Bangladesh have already turned to the worst sort of dynastic politics. At the same time, Islamist influences and left wing groups are becoming ever more involved with the dominant political forces. Alongside this, parliament has become totally ineffective

Indian calendar art: the popular picture story

Habiba Insaf 10 April 2012

What was the impact of these paintings on patterns of worship in public and private spaces, in the creation and/or propagation of a collective nationalism, and in the arts itself?

Death penalty: the Indian authorities’ incredible myopia

N. Jayaram 10 April 2012

How much longer will the Indian state cling to the machinery of death, both of the judicial and extra-judicial variety?

Jalal Alamgir, 17 January 1971 – 3 December 2011

Rosemary Bechler 30 March 2012

The tragic early death of the scholar, consultant, researcher and teacher, has elicited a series of tributes and testimonies to the life of a remarkable man.

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