https://www.scmp.com/rss/502089/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Bilal Ahmad Dar was just 14 when he was featured in a 2014 documentary by a local filmmaker titled Saving the Saviour on the conservation of Wular Lake at the foothills of the Himalayas in India’s restive region of Kashmir. The short film, released in 2017, went on to win international accolades and was broadcast on the National Geographic channel. Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioned Bilal in his weekly radio address to the nation and implored India’s youth to follow in his footsteps and... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3161700/indian-youth-once-hailed-conservation-hero-now-spends-days?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3161700/indian-youth-once-hailed-conservation-hero-now-spends-days?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 31 Dec 2021 07:19:49 +0000 A Congolese man had died in police custody in the southern Indian city of Bengaluru, and his fellow students could not rest until they found out what had happened. So they gathered, two dozen of them, on August 2 at a police station in the JC Nagar neighbourhood, for a peaceful protest that saw them block traffic and chant Black Lives Matter slogans. And that’s when the scuffle broke out. Police officers clashed with the students, five of whom were arrested while at least six others were... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3148091/india-wants-african-students-they-are-learning-rampant-prejudice?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3148091/india-wants-african-students-they-are-learning-rampant-prejudice?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 09 Sep 2021 05:00:18 +0000 Zabi Astanikzai has tried several times in the past month to register himself and his family of five to receive Covid-19 vaccine jabs, but every hospital in New Delhi he visited turned him away. “Our Afghan passports have expired,” the 44-year-old said. “We have UNHRC [United Nations Human Rights Council] asylum seeker cards, but they are not accepted at the hospital for vaccination. “You either need an Adhar card or a driving licence or any other Indian government-issued identity card. We don’t... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3143404/indias-asylum-seekers-vulnerable-covid-19-infection-no?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3143404/indias-asylum-seekers-vulnerable-covid-19-infection-no?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 01 Aug 2021 12:22:00 +0000 The number of people fleeing wars, violence, persecution and human rights violations rose for the ninth year in 2020 despite the pandemic, according to the United Nations’ refugee agency. About 20.7 million people are considered refugees under the UNHCR’s mandate. On World Refugee Day, This Week in Asia looks at the plight of Rohingya communities seeking temporary refuge in Indonesia and India. Armed with nothing more than a piece of cardboard to ward off the ferocious heat of a New Delhi... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3137992/new-delhi-shanty-town-blaze-exposes-plight-indias-rohingya?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3137992/new-delhi-shanty-town-blaze-exposes-plight-indias-rohingya?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 20 Jun 2021 13:00:00 +0000 Suited up in blue protective gear and wearing a face shield under his bright yellow turban, Jitender Singh Shunty sprays disinfectant on bodies at the Seemapuri cremation ground in northeast Delhi. He has to be quick as corpses are arriving faster than they can be burned. Families and friends of the deceased, who had tried to find hospital beds and oxygen to save their relatives, are thin on patience. “We are doing everything we can to help these grieving families at least have a decent funeral... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3132111/indias-coronavirus-cases-surge-volunteers-step-where?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3132111/indias-coronavirus-cases-surge-volunteers-step-where?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 04 May 2021 02:00:04 +0000 Multimedia journalist Shahid Tantray does not tell people his name any more, unless he really has to. He stopped after being attacked by an angry mob in New Delhi last year for the “crime” of being Muslim. The Indian capital’s northeast had just been rocked by six days of brutal communal riots that claimed at least 52 lives – most of them Muslims – and Tantray was reporting on the aftermath of the violence for The Caravan magazine when he was approached by a group of men who demanded to see his... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3128161/your-existence-reason-enough-modis-india-muslim-journalists-face?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3128161/your-existence-reason-enough-modis-india-muslim-journalists-face?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 03 Apr 2021 07:00:04 +0000 When Dr Aqsa Shaikh announced on Twitter last week that she had been appointed to head a Covid-19 vaccination centre in New Delhi, her timeline was inundated with hundreds of congratulatory messages. Most notably, the 38-year-old was lauded for being the first and only transgender woman in India to have been given such a position. As a senior faculty member at the Hamdard Institute of Medical Science and Research, she was already heavily involved in the battle against the pandemic and a natural... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3124976/how-indias-first-transgender-doctor-head-covid-19-vaccination?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3124976/how-indias-first-transgender-doctor-head-covid-19-vaccination?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 11 Mar 2021 07:00:17 +0000 New Delhi’s decision to allow thousands of Hindu devotees to congregate in the mountainous Himalayan region of the Kashmir valley for an annual pilgrimage amid the coronavirus pandemic has sparked concern from public health experts. India currently has the world’s third-highest number of infections, with more than 820,000 cases and 22,000 deaths, leading experts to say the extent of transmission in the country of 1.4 billion people is unknown. Several Indian states have banned interstate travel... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3092812/india-allows-kashmir-pilgrimage-go-ahead-despite-covid?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3092812/india-allows-kashmir-pilgrimage-go-ahead-despite-covid?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 12 Jul 2020 06:00:13 +0000 The killing of George Floyd, a 44-year-old black man, by police in the US city of Minneapolis has sparked massive protests against systemic racism in the US and Europe. In India too, there has been an outpouring of online support for the Black Lives Matter movement. The graphic video showing a handcuffed Floyd unable to breathe while pinned to the ground by three police officers immediately went viral on Indian social media. Everyone from Bollywood stars to politicians began tweeting against... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3087859/george-floyd-death-what-india-can-learn-black-lives-matter?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3087859/george-floyd-death-what-india-can-learn-black-lives-matter?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 07 Jun 2020 07:00:15 +0000 As coronavirus infections sweep through its prisons India has in the past month released tens of thousands of inmates. But Safoora Zargar, four months pregnant with her first child, is not one of them. Instead she languishes in the Tihar jail complex of New Delhi. The 27-year-old PhD student is one of five Muslim students and activists arrested since India’s lockdown began on March 25 for their role in protests against a law that would make it easier for non-Muslims from neighbouring countries... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3084447/muslim-pregnant-and-jail-coronavirus-sweeps-through-india-says?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3084447/muslim-pregnant-and-jail-coronavirus-sweeps-through-india-says?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 14 May 2020 12:47:35 +0000 Five minutes after the end of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s one-day “Janata Curfew”, or “people’s curfew”, New Delhi autorickshaw driver Pappu Yadav stepped out in search of a few passengers and a few rupees. He only had the night – on Monday morning, India’s capital city went into complete lockdown as the country scrambled to halt the spread of the deadly coronavirus among its 1.33 billion people. Yadav usually earns around US$10 a day, but he had already seen a sudden dip in income over the... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3076714/coronavirus-indias-lockdowns-are-matter-life-and-death?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3076714/coronavirus-indias-lockdowns-are-matter-life-and-death?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 24 Mar 2020 09:30:06 +0000 As India restricts most visitors for a month to stem the outbreak of the new coronavirus within its borders, it faces another battle that can be difficult to contain: the spread of fake news and xenophobia on social media. So far, these have ranged from bogus remedies and Covid-19 cures to racially tinged attacks directed at people because of their appearance, including those from Indian states that share a border with China, where the virus emerged in November. Last week, Hmingtei Chhangte, a... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3075268/amid-coronavirus-pandemic-india-faces-another-danger?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3075268/amid-coronavirus-pandemic-india-faces-another-danger?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 15 Mar 2020 08:25:18 +0000 On February 24, when a mob of Hindu men armed with sticks and swords began rampaging through Shiv Vihar, a neighbourhood northeast of the Indian capital, Naziya frantically called all the Delhi police helpline numbers she could find on the internet. “For the next 48 hours, there was no police officer in sight. They allowed the rioters to wreak mayhem upon us,” said Naziya, 45, who only wanted to be identified by her first name. “Even the mobs were shouting and taunting us by saying, ‘the police... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3064823/modis-india-families-muslims-killed-hindu-mobs-lose-hope-justice?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3064823/modis-india-families-muslims-killed-hindu-mobs-lose-hope-justice?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 04 Mar 2020 01:00:20 +0000 The road outside Cotton University in Guwahati, the capital of India’s north-eastern Assam state, was filled with thick smoke from burning tyres on Monday and Tuesday as hundreds of students protested against India’s new citizenship amendment bill. The bill aims to grant citizenship to persecuted Hindus and other religious minorities from Muslim-majority neighbouring countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who entered India illegally, but not to Muslims. It was passed by a... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3041508/india-new-citizenship-bill-type-list-seen-nazi-germany?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3041508/india-new-citizenship-bill-type-list-seen-nazi-germany?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 10 Dec 2019 13:00:20 +0000 It is 9.30AM and the winter sun is shining on Ghulam Mohammad Ganai’s house in Samboora village, Kashmir. Outside, the empty road and closed shops give the scene a glum look, but things are very different inside. Children, sitting in rooms turned into makeshift classes, are humming nursery rhymes and doing maths equations. In August, Ganai was approached by a group of local teachers and volunteers after schools and colleges were shut following India’s unilateral decision to revoke Kashmir’s... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3035990/home-schools-teaching-kashmirs-unwritten-history-amid-indian?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3035990/home-schools-teaching-kashmirs-unwritten-history-amid-indian?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 03 Nov 2019 04:00:09 +0000 The day before India unilaterally scrapped Jammu & Kashmir’s autonomy through a controversial presidential order, Babloo was preparing for a busy month of marriages at her home in the Dalgate area of Srinagar, the state’s summer capital. The 45-year-old, who identifies as a transwoman, has made a living as a matchmaker for the past 25 years. But she has spent most of the past 45 days locked inside her home, unable to contact her clients – many of whom have either cancelled or postponed their... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/3030655/india-kashmirs-transgender-community-struggles-survive-under-shadow?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/3030655/india-kashmirs-transgender-community-struggles-survive-under-shadow?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 28 Sep 2019 07:15:11 +0000 On August 23, as the residents of Anchar in Srinagar, in Indian-administered Kashmir, were preparing for Friday prayers at the local mosque, multiple police surveillance drones hovered above them. After the prayers concluded, children unsuccessfully attempted to bring down the drones by hurling stones high into the air. Young boys hid their faces and avoided looking up, fearing pictures taken by the drones could be later used against them by local police. Later, men and women of all ages holding... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3026236/kashmir-indian-government-always-watching?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3026236/kashmir-indian-government-always-watching?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 08 Sep 2019 09:00:11 +0000