India represents the world’s largest democracy, with an approximate population of 1.3 billion people residing in the country. Since the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its leader, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, came into power in 2014, there has been a fundamental reshaping of Indian politics with an increasing trend towards undemocratic governance.
Read MoreProtests led by Punjabi farmers in Delhi, India have been escalating in recent days. According to BBC News, thousands of farmers marched to Delhi, where barricades at the border led to clashes with police.
Read MoreIn early October, China completed the construction of Pangda, a village of 100 people near the Torsa River in the Himalayas. Pangda is situated in Bhutan, a small Buddhist kingdom of 800,000 that borders southwest China. The construction of Pangda, as well as other Chinese territorial claims to Bhutan, adds further strain on already sensitive Sino-Bhutanese and Sino-Indian relations.
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International human rights group Amnesty International recently announced that they are halting operations in India and laying off all staff due to the Government of India freezing the organization’s bank accounts and forcing all ongoing campaigns and research work to be paused. In their statement, the organization condemned this action, calling it the latest action in a continued “witch-hunt” of human rights organizations by the Government of India.
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As schools have shut down, India is facing an increase in child sex trafficking, child labor, and forced child marriages. To cope with the pressures of the pandemic, families have no option but to send their children to work. Children across India are working in a broad spectrum of fields such as “carpet-weaving, garment-making, domestic service, agriculture, fisheries, and mining,” Reuters says. This issue was already prominent in India and is only worsened by the pandemic.
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The Galwan River Valley of Ladakh, a region claimed by both India and China, has been facing increased tensions over the past year. After more than four decades without any bloodshed, the region was the scene for a bloody skirmish that began on June 15, 2020, according to World Politics Review. At least 20 Indian soldiers were killed by “fists, stones and nail studded bamboo,” CNN reports. The Chinese have not confirmed nor denied any casualties they undertook because of the June battle. Although talks took place over the following months to de-escalate the region, conflict broke out again. Lacking mutual trust and transparency, the talks accomplished little.
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On December 11, 2019, the Parliament of India reviewed and passed the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB), which is also known as the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
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Last week, the Indian-Pakistan Kartarpur corridor finally opened for Sikh pilgrimage. The opening of the corridor, a 2.5-mile visa-free border crossing, symbolizes a rare show of bilateral cooperation between the two feuding nations.
Read MoreThe Kashmir Valley woke up to complete pandemonium. Indian military troops circled the streets and there was no internet nor phone line connection.
Read MoreIndian’s lunar lander module, Chandrayaan-2, was intended to land on the surface of the Moon a little after midnight on September 7th, a month after it was shot into space. However, once the craft was 2 kilometers, or 1.2 miles, from the lunar surface it began to malfunction and lost contact with the Indian Space Research Organization (IRSO).
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