Stories about South Asia from February, 2020
Literature as a gateway for exploring Indian-Nepali hybridity: Interview with author Prajwal Parajuly
"The book being read by the very people it was about, in the very language the characters speak in? Heart-warming. The book has reached the most remote corners of Nepal."
‘Delhi is burning': 17 dead and hundreds injured in clashes over anti-citizenship law protests
In North East Delhi, violent clashes between pro and anti-citizenship law protesters have resulted in the death of at least 17 civilians. Over 150 people have been injured.
Despite calls to move, a women-led protest in India challenges the Citizenship Amendment Act
"If we can sacrifice so much for this protest, can’t people tolerate a slight inconvenience?"
For Rohingya refugees, ID systems have brought coercion, violence and denial of ethnic identity
"They told us they would withhold rations and that we couldn’t stay in the camps. So we had no choice."
Pakistan's draconian rules on social media take activists by surprise
The new rules require social media companies to hand over user information and remove content deemed unlawful when requested by the authorities.
#MarginalizedAadhaar: Is India's Aadhaar enabling more exclusion in social welfare for marginalized communities?
India's biometric-based digital ID Aadhaar seems to bring more exclusion to marginalized communities rather than solving it.
India's forgotten persecution of Chinese migrants
"If this episode destroyed so many lives, what kind of chaos, let alone wholesale injustice, can we expect with citizenship laws and tests applied much more widely than in 1962?"
Floating classrooms bring education to flooded communities in Bangladesh
Floating schools are providing much-needed primary education to Bangladeshi children who are cut off from schools during monsoon season.
Rising prices, heavy taxation threaten sustainability of age-old art in Punjab, India
The famous decorative inlay wood carving art of Hoshiarpur in Punjab, India is in decline because of an increase in the price of Shisham wood.
What do we know about the ‘Great Firewall of India’?
After a six-month-long internet shutdown, access to only 301 white-listed websites has been granted in Jammu and Kashmir, whereas social media, VPNs and many other sites remain banned.
No justice in Nepal as politician accused of murder gets elected speaker of parliament
A man accused of murder, Agni Sapkota, replaces a rape-accused as house speaker in Nepal, exacerbating the already dire prospects for justice by fostering a culture of impunity.
Bengali, Pakistani, and Amazon indigenous women perform ‘The rapist is you’ song
The flashmob by Chilean collective Las Tesis is still making waves around the world.
Pakistani human rights activist who challenged military is arrested
Manzoor Ahmad Pashteen, a young a human rights activist from South Waziristan, Pakistan, has been arrested for alleged conspiracy and sedition.
Pakistani students under lockdown in Wuhan are appealing for assistance
Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, nearly 500 Pakistani students studying in China's Hubei province are under lockdown; their government has not yet decided to bring them back home.
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