Of all the back-of-the-beyond places I’ve visited on the Subcontinent, the most unusual are the so-called “enclaves” along the India-Bangladesh border. They are little parcels of Indian or Bangladeshi territory that are wholly enclosed by the territory of the other country. A little bit of history on how they came into being:
The Raja
…
The anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare agreed to step out of jail late last night, after reaching an agreement to hold a 15-day protest fast instead of the 30-day strike he originally planned. That compromise may not be enough, though, to restore the damaged credibility of the Indian government, which has struggled to answer …
Sonia Gandhi, leader of the Congress Party and India’s most powerful politician, has been out of the country for more than 10 days, opening the door to political attacks and a fevered game of Rahul-watching. On Aug. 4, the Congress Party revealed — just barely — that its leader had gone abroad to have treatment for an undisclosed …
Indian businesses are worried, even if they’re not quite ready to admit it. That was the subtext of the statement issued yesterday by Nasscom, the industry’s main trade group, after the big American downgrade announced on Monday. “The economic crisis in the US, unfolding over the last few days, does not have any major bearing on the …
The new Pakistani foreign minister, Hina Rabbani Khar, landed in India yesterday for bilateral talks and, not surprisingly, the Indian media have heralded her arrival with intense interest. From a land-owning family with a long history in politics, Khar is decidedly younger and more glamorous than the usual diplomats making the …
In June 2009, I traveled to Islamabad to do some research for a story about Kashmir. It was a routine reporting trip, in which I did the rounds of various think-tank experts, officials, politicians and other sources well known to any journalist writing about the region.
While I was there, I got a request: Ghulam Nabi Fai, head of …
President Obama grabbed hearts and headlines with his state visit to India last fall, and there was a lot of talk about bringing the two countries closer together. It’s “a defining partnership of the 21st century” between “natural allies” who have committed themselves to a “strategic dialogue.” What does it all mean? …
Mumbai was hit by three serial blasts in heavily populated areas during rush hour on Wednesday night. Confirmed details are scarce, but local television channels are reporting as many as 21 people killed and dozens, perhaps over 100, injured. Police so far have not made any clear announcements, and India’s Home Ministry has …
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the assassination of Ahmed Wali Karzai, the younger brother of Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai, according to news reports today. My colleague Joe Klein has a post up already on Swampland about the assassination, which is already a major news story around the world. The younger Karzai was well …
On June 14, the British television network Channel 4 broadcast a stunning hour-long documentary presenting footage of horrific abuses allegedly committed by Sri Lankan troops during the last months of the country’s war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The images are graphic and profoundly disturbing. They include the …
At a dinner with reporters last night in New Delhi, Andy Halford, the chief financial officer of Vodafone, the British mobile phone giant, said that Vodafone “could potentially get an annual dividend of as much as $5.5 billion from its 45 percent stake in U.S. venture Verizon Wireless.” Here’s the Bloomberg story, which sent the …
On its surface, it reads like a replay of Mumbai 2008: a nighttime raid by a bevy of heavily-armed fighters who target a luxury hotel frequented by foreigners and the local elite. That’s what happened at the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul early Wednesday morning, leaving at least seven people dead, among them the six suicide …
June has been a deadly month in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, the heart of the Naxal movement, India’s raging Maoist insurgency. Six security forces were killed on Sunday, bringing the total number of police and paramilitary fatalities to 43 in the month of June alone. That represents almost half of the fatalities among …