India

How India is turning into China — and not in a good way

by News Sources 12.27.2012

Pankaj Mishra writes: China is shakily authoritarian while India is a stable democracy—indeed, the world’s largest. So goes the cliché, and it is true, up to a point. But there is a growing resemblance between the two countries. A decade after we were told that China and India were “flattening” the world, expediting a historically [...]

Read the full article →

Kashmir is killing India’s military and democracy

by News Sources 05.07.2012

Pankaj Mishra writes: In July 1995, an Islamic fundamentalist group called Al Faran kidnapped six foreign tourists, including two Americans, in Kashmir. For a few weeks, the world’s attention was fixed on the Himalayan valley as the allegedly Pakistan-backed militants negotiated with Indian security officials and foreign diplomats. Eventually, one of the Americans escaped. Another [...]

Read the full article →

Video: India’s coal rush

by News Sources 03.25.2012
Read the full article →

A perfect terrorist

by News Sources 11.24.2011

Watch A Perfect Terrorist on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE. See also Sebastian Rotella’s companion article in ProPublica, The American behind India’s 9/11—and how U.S. botched chances to stop him.

Read the full article →

Nuclear powers plan weapons spending spree, report finds

by News Sources 10.31.2011

The Guardian reports: The world’s nuclear powers are planning to spend hundreds of billions of pounds modernising and upgrading weapons warheads and delivery systems over the next decade, according to an authoritative report [PDF] published on Monday. Despite government budget pressures and international rhetoric about disarmament, evidence points to a new and dangerous “era of [...]

Read the full article →

David Headley, witness in terror trial, ties Pakistani spy agency to militant group

by News Sources 05.24.2011

Sebastian Rotella reports: A confessed Pakistani American terrorist took the stand in a Chicago courtroom Monday and described a close alliance between Pakistan’s intelligence service and the Lashkar-i-Taiba terrorist group, alleging that Pakistani officers recruited him and played a central role in planning the 2008 Mumbai attacks. David Coleman Headley’s long-awaited testimony at the start [...]

Read the full article →

News roundup — May 10

by News Sources 05.10.2011

Bin Laden sons say U.S. violated international law The adult sons of Osama bin Laden have lashed out at President Obama over their father’s death, accusing the United States of violating its basic legal principles by killing an unarmed man, shooting his family members and disposing of his body in the sea. The statement said [...]

Read the full article →

India accused of systematic use of torture in Kashmir

by News Sources 12.17.2010

The Guardian reports: US officials had evidence of widespread torture by Indian police and security forces and were secretly briefed by Red Cross staff about the systematic abuse of detainees in Kashmir, according to leaked diplomatic cables released tonight. The dispatches, obtained by website WikiLeaks, reveal that US diplomats in Delhi were briefed in 2005 [...]

Read the full article →

The trickledown revolution

by News Sources 11.15.2010

Arundhati Roy writes: On the 64th anniversary of India’s Independence, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh climbed into his bullet-proof soapbox in the Red Fort to deliver a passionless, bone-chillingly banal speech to the nation. Listening to him, who would have guessed that he was addressing a country that, despite having the second-highest economic growth rate in [...]

Read the full article →

India’s sound advice on Iran

by News Sources 11.14.2010

Stephen Kinzer writes: This week in New Delhi, President Obama went further than any of his predecessors toward embracing India as an ally, and most Indians are thrilled by this warm treatment. This does not mean, however, that the two countries will align all of their foreign policies. In some areas, India would like the [...]

Read the full article →

America’s power has already been eclipsed in Asia

by News Sources 11.10.2010

As many a conservative American commentator remains obsessed with the question as to how the United States can retain its position as the world’s preeminent power, Pankaj Mishra indicates why that question is already moot: it is a position America has already lost. He points out: India has many more likely and rewarding partners in [...]

Read the full article →

Arundhati Roy on Obama’s wars, poverty and India’s Maoist rebels

by News Sources 11.08.2010
Read the full article →

Why silence over Kashmir speaks volumes

by News Sources 08.14.2010

Pankaj Mishra writes: Once known for its extraordinary beauty, the valley of Kashmir now hosts the biggest, bloodiest and also the most obscure military occupation in the world. With more than 80,000 people dead in an anti-India insurgency backed by Pakistan, the killings fields of Kashmir dwarf those of Palestine and Tibet. In addition to [...]

Read the full article →

The assault of Mumbai

by Paul Woodward 11.29.2008

Last gunmen killed in India, ending siege By Emily Wax and Rama Lakshmi, Washington Post, November 29, 2008 Security forces brought a three-day assault on India’s financial and cultural capital to an end Saturday morning, killing the last remaining gunmen holed up in one of the city’s luxury hotels after freeing hostages and recovering bodies [...]

Read the full article →

December 24 – news and opinion roundup

by Paul Woodward 12.24.2007

Notes on the post-Bush Mideast By Tony Karon, Rootless Cosmopolitan, December 24, 2007 A year from now, the Bush Administration will be emptying its desks into cardboard boxes and preparing to hand over to its successor. And, it’s a relatively safe bet that the menu of foreign policy crises and challenges it will leave in [...]

Read the full article →