Bangladesh
Mango diplomacy is more than low-hanging fruit in South Asian politics
Recently Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina sent a local variant of sweet mangoes known as Haribhanga to her counterparts in India and Pakistan. Why mangoes? The mango…
A rising Bangladesh starts to exert its regional power
The recent announcement that Bangladesh would provide US$200 million in aid to Sri Lanka is an important turning point as that country moves from being an impoverished supplicant…
Understanding Bangladesh’s most potent religious opposition
India holds a special place in the history of the creation of Bangladesh. In 1971, under then–Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, India played a pivotal role in offering diplomatic,…
Bangladesh: Sculptures, statues and hard-liners
The High Court of Bangladesh has directed that action be taken against those involved in causing damage in recent weeks to sculptures, statues and murals in the country. At the…
Bangladesh’s balancing act between great powers
Recently in a tweet, Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi complained that Prime Minister Narendra Modi “has destroyed the web of relationships that the Congress built and…
In Bangladesh, Covid adds to a list of maladies
The Covid-19 situation has had a devastating effect on the local economy, the brunt being borne by the country’s export-oriented garments industry. It has propelled owners of…
Bangladesh: Fight the power or shut up?
Hip-hop artists have long used rap music to launch cultural protests about social injustice, police brutality, inequality and discrimination.
Songs such as Tupac Shakur’s …
Tackling environmental security threats in the Indian Ocean
The explosion and fire on board a supertanker off Sri Lanka this month, following closely on last month’s disastrous oil spill in Mauritius, serve as a reminder that environmental…
Covid-19: The need to aid Asia to open up
Two things about the public health and economic impacts of Covid-19 are now clear.
First, with just a few exceptions, most affected countries have suffered egregiously, and in…
Why South Asia may come out of Covid-19 crisis better than many expect
Many people assume that South Asia is a sitting target for coronavirus, with potentially millions of deaths leading to an impoverished and destabilised region just around the…