Hassan Vally, La Trobe University 1 May 2020 To understand the spread of COVID-19, the pandemic is more usefully viewed as a series of distinct local epidemics. The way the virus has spread in different countries, and even in particular states or regions within them, has been quite varied. A New Zealand study has mapped
READ MOREKathryn McKinley, University of Maryland, Baltimore County 26 April 2020 The coronavirus can infect anyone, but recent reporting has shown your socioeconomic status can play a big role, with a combination of job security, access to health care and mobility widening the gap in infection and mortality rates between rich and poor. The wealthy work
READ MOREIndia’s poor ask: ‘If we can’t go to work, how will we get money? And if we don’t have money, how will we eat? by Craig Jeffrey, Febe De Geest and Jane Dyson April 2, 2020 Last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 21-day lockdown for India’s 1.3 billion people. With only four hours’
READ MORENitya Rao, University of East Anglia 27 March 2020 In Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu, I woke up to an eerie silence yesterday. The night before, India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, announced a 21-day national lockdown would start at midnight. The next morning there was no one on the street and the local tea
READ MORERose S. Aslan, California Lutheran University As outbreaks of the coronavirus spread throughout the world, people are reminded over and again to limit physical contact, wash hands and avoid touching their face. The recent Netflix docuseries “Pandemic: How to Prevent an Outbreak” illustrates how the Islamic ritual washing, known as “wudu,” may help spread a
READ MOREMadhav Joshi, University of Notre Dame After 18 months of negotiations, the U.S. and the Taliban signed a peace deal on Feb. 29. It is expected that the deal will provide a plan for a comprehensive Afghan peace process. The deal addresses the security of foreign troops; the Taliban’s commitments to sever ties with terrorist
READ MORERahul Sambaraju, Trinity College Dublin and Suryapratim Roy, Trinity College Dublin 4 March 2020 The fallout from two controversial changes to citizenship laws continues to rock India. At least 35 people have died in sectarian violence in New Delhi which began on February 23. Muslims homes and businesses have been attacked and mosques vandalised by
READ MOREAlka Kurian, University of Washington, Bothell Women are among the strongest opponents of two new laws in India that threaten the citizenship rights of vulnerable groups like Muslims, poor women, oppressed castes and LGBTQ people. The Citizenship Amendment Act, passed in December 2019, fast-tracks Indian citizenship for undocumented refugees from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan –
READ MORESumit Ganguly, Indiana University 27 February 2020 President Donald Trump kicked off his first official visit to India by addressing a rally of more than 100,000 people on Feb. 24 in Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat. Trump promised the thousands of cheering Indians who greeted him “an incredible trade deal” and
READ MORESaloni Kapur, Lancaster University 18 February 2020 Before a recent meeting in Davos with Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan, Donald Trump reiterated his offer to help mediate over the issue of Kashmir. It’s been six months since India revoked the special constitutional status for the disputed territory of Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir and put the
READ MOREAnders C. Hardig, American University 18 February 2020 Bangladesh has seen an increase in terrorist activity in recent years, including attacks on foreigners, activists and religious minorities. Perpetrators of these attacks have included people from privileged backgrounds. News reports indicate they were all motivated by the idea that Islam is under attack by secularists and
READ MOREby Anuradha Sen Mookerjee December 16, 2019 Disclosure statement Anuradha Sen Mookerjee currently does not receive funding from any organisation. Her PhD field-work 2016-2017 was supported by the Flash Research Programme for India of Cooperation and Development Centre, CODEV, EPFL, Lausanne. The state of Assam in India is currently burning with violent protests against a
READ MORESonja Ayeb-Karlsson, United Nations University 16 December 2019 From Sudan to Syria to Bangladesh, climate change is often presented as a powerful and simple root cause of violent conflict and mass migration. These narratives can be dangerous. Directly linking climate change with aggression and mass migration risks dehumanising those vulnerable to environmental stresses, and casts
READ MOREHaimanti Roy, University of Dayton The Indian government will soon ask its 870 million voting-age citizens for documentation that they are legal citizens with ancestral ties to India. On Nov. 20, Indian Home Minister Amit Shah announced a plan to expand the National Registry of Citizens, a four-year documentation effort that recently concluded in India’s
READ MORE