https://www.scmp.com/rss/330857/feed Soumya Shankar teaches journalism at Stony Brook University, New York, and writes about the politics and social movements of South Asia en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com They make up just 1 per cent of the US electorate, but Indian-Americans could be an important swing bloc at the November 3 presidential election. With more than 1.9 million eligible voters, some analysts say the community could tip the balance in key swing states with close calls: Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Texas, which has 160,000 Indian-American voters. According to an October 29 survey conducted by the UMass Lowell Center for Public Opinion, President Donald Trump had the... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3107915/us-election-why-are-more-indian-americans-turning-donald-trump?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3107915/us-election-why-are-more-indian-americans-turning-donald-trump?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 01 Nov 2020 14:30:15 +0000 Faiz Khan, a year 12 student from Wadala, Mumbai, joined the popular video-sharing app TikTok a year ago – and thinks his namesake Faisal Shaikh, a TikTok star who had more than 15 million followers before his suspension from the app after a political video went viral, is still its undefeated star. Chastened by his hero’s experience, Khan does not dare make political content. The one time he tried, his account was frozen for a week, so he sticks to making 15-second clips that he calls “sad... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3035814/tiktok-iphone-all-you-need-escape-mumbais-slums-15-seconds?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3035814/tiktok-iphone-all-you-need-escape-mumbais-slums-15-seconds?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 01 Nov 2019 00:00:20 +0000 Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s red-carpet welcome in Texas was unprecedented – not just in its scale for a foreign leader, but also for the way a sitting Indian leader seemingly endorsed a United States president for re-election. Last Sunday’s “Howdy Modi” rally saw 50,000 Indian-Americans – some crossing state borders – gather at a stadium in Houston to see the premier praise Donald Trump. “In the words of candidate Trump: abki baar Trump sarkar [this time, a Trump government],” Modi said with... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3030361/us-did-howdy-modi-rally-turn-indian-americans-trump-voters?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3030361/us-did-howdy-modi-rally-turn-indian-americans-trump-voters?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 25 Sep 2019 12:47:44 +0000 Since New Delhi’s announcement that Kashmir’s autonomy would be revoked, critics have suggested the region’s original Muslim-majority residents could be reduced to a minority, invoking comparisons to the West Bank or the Chinese model in Xinjiang that pushed Han Chinese into the region. By scrapping Articles 370 and 35A of the constitution, the complex state will become two centrally administered Union Territories in India’s northernmost region – Jammu & Kashmir, and Ladakh. Among other changes,... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3022046/indias-kashmir-move-attempt-shift-its-muslim-demographic?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3022046/indias-kashmir-move-attempt-shift-its-muslim-demographic?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 09 Aug 2019 00:00:17 +0000 Arvind Patel, a US citizen who owns a popular sweetshop in New Jersey, has spent US$1,000 travelling to the Indian states of Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Assam this election season to campaign for incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The 53-year-old, who hails from Modi’s home state of Gujarat, knows that he cannot vote in the country’s marathon elections, which end on Sunday. No foreign citizen of Indian origin has that right. But that has not deterred him, or the hundreds of others like him,... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3010350/how-indians-living-overseas-are-working-get-narendra-modi-re?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3010350/how-indians-living-overseas-are-working-get-narendra-modi-re?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 15 May 2019 10:15:09 +0000 It’s election season in India and the winds of hip-hop are blowing through the country’s political system as parties battle it out to entice some of the nation’s 85 million first-time voters. With more than half of India’s population under the age of 25, rap has emerged as a universal language that politicians hope to use in their attempts to converse with the younger generation. That’s doubly true given the recent increases in campaign spending. Incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/3007535/india-elections-modis-bjp-and-opposition-put-beat-down-hopes-hip?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/3007535/india-elections-modis-bjp-and-opposition-put-beat-down-hopes-hip?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 24 Apr 2019 13:00:06 +0000 When a gunman stormed Al Noor Mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, on March 15, Ansi Alibava ran for her life. In vain. Minutes later her bullet-riddled body was found on the street by the man she had recently married and moved to the country with, Abdul Nazer. Alibava, from Kerala in India, was one of dozens slain that day, when a lone man armed with a semi-automatic weapon rampaged through Al Noor and the nearby Linwood mosque, massacring 50 worshippers in an attack he live-streamed on the... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3002931/christchurch-shootings-why-would-some-indian-hindus-celebrate?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3002931/christchurch-shootings-why-would-some-indian-hindus-celebrate?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 23 Mar 2019 08:15:05 +0000 When Lord Rama, hero of the ancient Hindu epic Ramayana, returned to the city of Ayodhya after 14 years in exile, he found a crowd of transgender people waiting for him on the banks of the river Tamsa. They had ignored Lord Rama’s order to his male and female followers not to wait, as they considered themselves neither. Taken by their devotion, he blessed them, elevating them to demigods. Today, after centuries of ostracism, India’s transgender community is challenging the Hindu religious... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/2186002/meet-laxmi-narayan-tripathi-transgender-indian-demigod-bringing?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/2186002/meet-laxmi-narayan-tripathi-transgender-indian-demigod-bringing?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 17 Feb 2019 09:02:30 +0000