Editor
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The NLD wins the Myanmar elections
November 17, 2015
Written by Marie Lall. On Sunday 8th November 2015 Myanmar went to the polls. More than 90 parties contested seats for the two houses of parliament as well as the 14 state and regional assemblies. Despite the large number of parties, all eyes were on the opposition NLD and the regime USDP. The official declaration …
Cow Protection, Hindu Revivalism, and Constitutional Politics in India and Nepal
November 16, 2015
Written by Mara Malagodi. India and Nepal are the only two countries in the world where the overwhelming majority of the population are followers of Hinduism. In India, according to the 2011 Census, 79.8 per cent of the total population is Hindu, while in Nepal the 2011 Census records 81.3 per cent. Both countries, however, present …
Hindu nationalism is rising under the BJP and Modi
November 13, 2015
Written by Sajeda Momin. When I returned to India at the beginning of October after my last visit to London, two very dear friends asked me why I had come back when I had the option to live abroad. “If I could live anywhere but here, like you, I would leave right away,” said one …
The Burden of Majoritarianism
November 12, 2015
Written by Gurpreet Mahajan. India has never been a completely neutral state. So what has changed in the last 18 months? The BJP led NDA government insists that nothing has changed. However, neither its supporters nor its detractors accept this. The opposition, and sections of the intelligentsia, maintain that a culture of intolerance is growing; others, …
Typhoon Yolanda: Two Years On
November 11, 2015
Written by Pauline Eadie and Caryl Thompson. A team of researchers from The University of Nottingham in Ningbo and the UK and the University of the Philippines are in Leyte looking at poverty alleviation following the devastating typhoon Yolanda that hit the Philippines two years ago. They will spend the next two years assessing the effectiveness of the …
Selling India, Imagining Bharat
Written by James Chiriyankandath. As Narendra Modi completes an year and a half as India’s prime minister with more globetrotting (this time to the UK and then on to Turkey, Malaysia and France for the G20, ASEAN and Global Climate Change summits), one wonders if behind the bravado and public relations glitz, doubts are beginning …
The Modi enigma
November 10, 2015
Written by Andrew Whitehead. In his eighteen months in office, Narendra Modi has spent a great deal of time travelling. He’s been to the United States twice, to France, Germany, China, Australia, Canada, Japan, Ireland – twenty-eight foreign visits in all. This week he’s making his first visit as prime minister to Britain, at a …
Who is at the helm of Japan, politicians or bureaucrats?
October 30, 2014
Japanese political culture and bureaucrats Yuichiro Shimizu, Visiting Professor at Harvard University, gave a talk to IAPS on the linkages between the bureaucracy and the political class in Japan, Japan adopted a parliamentary system not unlike the United Kingdom after being defeated in WWII. The majority of post-war prime ministers in Japan were formerly bureaucrats. …
