https://www.scmp.com/rss/283884/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Due to the scorching heat and the long journey ahead, R. Lalitha considered leaving her bagful of possessions back with a friend in Mumbai, India’s commercial capital. The bag had a bedsheet, some jackets to wear underneath a sari, two balls of wool, two plates, some spoons and some old newspapers. Apart from the meagre physical possessions, Lalitha had just 7,500 rupees (US$100) in her bank account. Lalitha was returning to her native village in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh,... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3089212/1-bag-us100-meet-lalitha-1-260-million-indians-sliding-back?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3089212/1-bag-us100-meet-lalitha-1-260-million-indians-sliding-back?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 16 Jun 2020 05:00:21 +0000 Shilpa walked for 12 kilometres until she reached her maternal home on April 1, 2020. Unable to bear her brother-in-law’s beating, she left her marital home in Thane district of the western state of Maharashtra in India and walked towards Belapur where her parents live. Shilpa had been a victim of domestic violence before, but the coronavirus lockdown brought matters to a head. There are two unique factors about India’s lockdown. First, India’s lockdown is absolute. On March 25, India announced... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3079507/coronavirus-domestic-violence-comes-head-locked-down?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3079507/coronavirus-domestic-violence-comes-head-locked-down?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 12 Apr 2020 07:00:19 +0000 As the night grew darker in the Bhagirathi Vihar neighbourhood of Gokalpuri in northeast Delhi, about 30 men on motorbikes approached the house of a local Muslim man named Musharraf, whose family had decided to stay indoors after communal violence had flared in nearby areas on February 24. The men, all chanting “Jai Shri Ram”, began pounding on Musharraf’s door, according to his neighbours. When nobody from the family opened the door, the mob splashed kerosene on the house and threatened to set... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3077352/jai-shri-ram-three-words-can-get-you-lynched-india?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3077352/jai-shri-ram-three-words-can-get-you-lynched-india?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 29 Mar 2020 08:00:21 +0000 Vijayalakshmi Porte’s tribe has lived in the forests of central India’s Chhattisgarh state for generations. Hers is one of the numerous indigenous communities that live in the heavily forested Antagarh region, subsisting on the resources to be found among the trees. But despite their strong connection with the land, stretching back to time immemorial, Porte and her people are now faced with the prospect of eviction – unless they can produce documentation proving their claim by July. India is... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3003953/law-jungle-millions-indigenous-indians-face-eviction-ancestral?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3003953/law-jungle-millions-indigenous-indians-face-eviction-ancestral?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 30 Mar 2019 10:15:10 +0000 Two days before President Donald Trump announced that the United States would pull out of the Paris climate agreement, the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned him that “playing with the well-being of future generations would be an immoral and criminal act”. But as much as India has set ambitious targets to reduce carbon emissions and move towards renewable energy sources, Modi’s government hasn’t put its money where its mouth is. The Delhi-based non-profit Centre for Financial... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/business/article/2156742/why-modis-clean-energy-india-bankrolling-dirty-coal?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/business/article/2156742/why-modis-clean-energy-india-bankrolling-dirty-coal?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 27 Jul 2018 11:31:44 +0000 Driving up the motorway from the southern Indian city of Hyderabad, smooth all-weather roads become wider. In the crisp February morning, factory chimneys raise their heads above the green landscape and roadsides are lined with cotton crops, waiting to be harvested. Saraswati, a landowner of the Medipally village in Telangana province, of which Hyderabad is the capital, shudders to think that all this would soon be replaced by miles and miles of concrete factories manufacturing... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/business/article/2133347/planned-pharma-city-pump-out-cheap-indian-drugs-making-villagers?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/business/article/2133347/planned-pharma-city-pump-out-cheap-indian-drugs-making-villagers?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 17 Feb 2018 03:30:00 +0000 On the banks of the Jhelum River in downtown Srinagar, capital of Indian-administered Kashmir, stands a nondescript two-storey building. Most people are unaware of the glorious and colourful history behind this pale brown, brick structure. While some people claim the structure, Yarkand Sarai, was built by the Mughals in the 19th century, others believe it was a gift to the local community from the Dogra rulers in the 18th century. Either way, like most sarai (marketplaces that doubled as resting... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2094865/how-uygurs-and-tibetans-found-unity-kashmir?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2094865/how-uygurs-and-tibetans-found-unity-kashmir?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 20 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000 Seeing Shammas Oliyath work at 10pm, as he does almost every night, one is reminded of Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Terminator. Except Oliyath has a calm personality, a benign smile and works on a computer. He is targeting a barrage of forwarded messages on WhatsApp, trying to separate the true ones from the fake. And it is not child’s play. Oliyath, along with his business partner Balkrishna Birla, founded check4spam.com in 2015. Their main task is to bust fake messages floating around on... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2092361/truth-vigilantes-fighting-indias-fake-news?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2092361/truth-vigilantes-fighting-indias-fake-news?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 03 May 2017 04:15:00 +0000 With magnificent waterfalls, mysterious forest trails and an exotic tribal population, the forest-covered, mineral-rich region of Bastar, in central India’s Chhattisgarh state, is blessed with the kind of natural resources that might, under the right circumstances, make it a must-see destination for high-spending tourists. Yet this is no place for a holiday retreat. Bloodshed and fear are the hallmarks of this region 1,500km south of the national capital New Delhi. It is known chiefly for being... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2069925/maoist-rebels-rights-abuses-and-indias-greatest-internal-threat?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2069925/maoist-rebels-rights-abuses-and-indias-greatest-internal-threat?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 11 Feb 2017 04:32:24 +0000 Bangalore, an Indian city famed for soothing weather and affable people, faced an unfamiliar storm on New Year’s Eve, when a horde of drunken revellers descended on its business district and proceeded to molest dozens of young women. So perhaps it’s not surprising that this cosmopolitan city’s “night of shame”, as local media have dubbed it, has elicited such a wide variety of responses and explanations. At first, said officials, it was a case of “such things happen”. Cue public anger. Then,... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2064017/whos-blame-bangalores-mass-molestation-night-shame?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2064017/whos-blame-bangalores-mass-molestation-night-shame?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 21 Jan 2017 04:00:51 +0000 Just as National Highway No1 begins to wind its way out of New Delhi, hidden in a line of shops and shanties, lies a nondescript red gateway. Step through it and, as if by magic, you leave the rich local Punjabi chatter, the noisy auto-rickshaws and the broad roads of the great metropolis behind. This is the entrance to Samyeling, a Tibetan settlement in New Delhi's New Aruna Nagar neighbourhood. The lanes inside Samyeling, no more than a metre wide, are lined with Tibetan restaurants, art shops... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1086256/samyeling-home-delhis-tibetan-exile-community?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1086256/samyeling-home-delhis-tibetan-exile-community?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 19 Nov 2012 16:00:00 +0000