By C. Raja Mohan

C. Raja Mohan is Professor of South Asian Studies at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and a Contributing Editor of ‘The Indian Express’, New Delhi. He recently made South Asia policy recommendations for the incoming administration through The Asia Foundation’s 2008 America’s Role in Asia project.

Raja Mohan

After the awful terror attacks against Mumbai last month, the conventional wisdom in the Subcontinent and beyond is that the weak governments in New Delhi and Islamabad may be unable to manage the gathering crisis in Indo-Pak relations and will inevitably drift towards a military conflict.

Yet, with the help of some purposeful diplomacy from Washington, the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari have managed to postpone if not avoid the more terrible consequences of the terrorist aggression against Mumbai.
Read more »

By Balasubramanian Iyer

Balu Iyer is The Asia Foundation’s Director of Field Operations, South Asia, for The Asia Foundation. He can be reached at bgiyer@asiafound.org.

Many in India expected India’s ruling Congress Party to be defeated in recent state elections because of its inept handling of the Mumbai attacks and the souring economy. It didn’t, proving yet again that politics is local. In the forthcoming general elections, however, these global factors of terrorism and the economy will matter.

In Mumbai and throughout India, there is public outrage not only against the perpetrators of the attacks and their supporters, but against an utterly ineffective intelligence and security infrastructure. The Indian electorate is waiting to see the Congress Party’s response to the terrorist attacks; this will determine the Party’s fate in the Parliamentary elections, to be held in mid-2009.
Read more »

By June Ghimire

June Ghimire is a Program Officer for The Asia Foundation in Nepal. She can be reached at jghimire@asiafound.org.

Recently, a Nepalese radio production team from Antenna Foundation Nepal, a radio production and training house based in Kathmandu, traveled to eight American states to gather stories from over 300 members of the Nepali diaspora in the United States. The team, including Madhu Acharya and Rajan Parajuli, conducted countless interviews, over 60 of which are featured in a 12-episode series called Postcards from America.  The stories range from student experiences to business opportunities, state services to civic responsibility, discrimination to rule of law, and reflections from once famous Nepali celebrities on their dreams and sacrifices.
Read more »

By Kathryn Bodle and Matthew Pendergast

Kathryn Bodle and Matthew Pendergast are Producers in The Asia Foundation’s Digital Media Department. You can reach them at kbodle@asiafound.org and mpendergast@asiafound.org.

As Americans catch their breath from a marathon-long election season, the people of Bangladesh are just weeks from casting their ballots in their own historic, long-awaited election.  And just as Americans were glued to newspapers, computers, and televisions in the days preceding our polling day, Bangladeshis are similarly engrossed in local media coverage of national politics, poring over every breaking report on their candidates, issues, and events in anticipation of the December 29th election. 
Read more »

By M. Zia Ul Hassan

M. Zia Ul Hassan is The Asia Foundation’s Manager for Security, Institutional Relations, and Special Projects in Pakistan. He can be reached at zhassan@asiafound.org.

In the early morning hours of October 29, 2008, an earthquake hit Pakistan’s Balochistan province. Striking multiple times, its most intense jolt measured  6.4 on the Richter Scale. Over two hundred people lost their lives, thousands of homes and buildings were destroyed, and tens of thousands of people were left homeless as a result. An emergency was declared in Balochistan, and Pakistan Army and Frontier Corps troops were called in to conduct rescue and relief operations. Many international and national NGOs joined in much-needed relief efforts as well. With winter setting in and temperatures dropping, support was badly needed for the families affected by this natural disaster.
Read more »