South Asia Center

Countless examples of gender-based violence (GBV) in South Asia from last year raise significant concerns about so-called “progress” made in improving women’s standing and fighting rape culture in the region. Political discourse in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh is deeply misguided regarding such issues, often leading to systematic victim-blaming which—knowingly or unknowingly—helps the perpetrators.

On December 4, 2020, Dhaka followed through on its promise to move refugees from Cox’s Bazar to Bhasan Char, starting a new, unpredictable chapter in the Rohingya crisis. However, Bhasan Char does not solve these problems as much as it relocates them. Separating some refugees from others does not address the underlying drivers of crime within the refugee camps. If anything, relocation splinters aid response, and further attenuates humanitarian space.

The Afghan negotiations in Doha represent a pivotal moment for war-weary Afghanistan, the region that surrounds it, and the US-led international military alliance that has been engaged in the country for the past two decades. However, without regional and international support and guarantee, any peace agreement between the Afghan government and the Taliban will be in danger of falling apart as soon as it reaches the implementation phase.

Afghanistan may actually now have a chance to achieve some form of political settlement and significantly reduced violence.

With negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban under way, many in the West and Afghanistan are banking on the fact that the Taliban movement has changed and that, having failed to defeat them militarily, it is time to embrace them. Although the latter is indeed true – that we have failed to defeat the Taliban militarily – the former deserves more scrutiny.

As South Asia observes the seventy-third anniversary of the Partition of India, Bangladesh finds itself in conflict with the statistics cited by many to celebrate what they perceive to be rising prosperity. Simultaneously, the rise in communal tensions in West Bengal possibly signal long lasting consequences for India’s secular polity which might adversely affect Hindu-Muslim relations in South Asia […]

Between the United States and India, challenges on trade, specifically agricultural trade, persist. This analysis concludes that both countries should pursue a multi-pronged approach to expanding bilateral agricultural trade.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision to usher in another half a billion Indians online is a fitting goal for an ambitious, young digital nation. Yet closing India’s digital divides and developing a robust digital economy will require a moonshot effort that leaves little room for error.

Agriculture has formed the backbone of India’s economy for many decades and remains crucial to providing food security for the country’s growing population. It constitutes a major pillar of India’s economic growth and a significant contributor to its growing exports sector.