Bangladesh - jihad, rising sea

Get a grip on Dhaka - With U.S. forces preoccupied in Pakistan, an Al Qaeda affiliate has been gaining power in Bangladesh , by Selig S. Harrison - LAT

Waterworld - With rising Islamic fundamentalism, weak government, and not enough dry land for its 150 million people, Bangladesh could use a break. Instead, it must face the catastrophic threat of climate change , by Robert D. Kaplan - The Atlantic

Bangladesh is set to disappear under the waves by the end of the century - Bangladesh, the most crowded nation on earth, is set to disappear under the waves by the end of this century – and we will be to blame. Johann Hari took a journey to see for himself how western profligacy and indifference have sealed the fate of 150 million peoplewent to see for himself the spreading misery and destruction as the ocean reclaims the land on which so many millions depend - Independent

Stopping the Sea: Can We Ever Find a Solution?
Afsan Chowdhury examines the complexities of climage change and what can be done - Daily Star Forum

Everybody Should Care if Bangladesh Drowns - A. Hannan Ismail asks what the global North's lack of commitment to tackling climate problems might mean from a human rights perspective - Daily Star Forum

Afghanistan, Pakistan

Interview: Hamid Karzai - TIME

Afghans doubt U.S. intentions - Reuters

The Afghan fire looks set to spread, but there is a way out - Far from being a noble cause, the occupation of Afghanistan is poisoning the region and will never bring peace or security - Guardian

The wrong force for the 'right war' - IHT

300,000 flee as jihadis attacked - A human tide of more than 300,000 civilians has fled the al-Qa'ida badlands, amid indications that the fighting there has reached unprecedented levels, with the Pakistani army using massive firepower to attack jihadi militant strongholds - The Australian

The General discontent - As Pakistan enters the 62nd year of its collective national existence we are about to achieve a new milestone , by Nasim Zehra - Khaleej Times

The US doesn't understand Pakistan - America is blind to the complex interplay of tribal and religious loyalties that determine events in Pakistan. It needs to wise up - Guardian

Kashmir

Indian papers

A hardwired dispute - Hindustan Times

Think the unthinkable - Hindustan Times

Independence Day for Kashmir - Times of India

Kashmir needs freedom from India: Arundhati Roy - Times of India


Foreign papers

Land and freedom - Kashmir is in crisis: the region's Muslims are mounting huge non-violent protests against the Indian government's rule. But, what would independence for the territory mean for its people? , by Arundhati Roy - Guardian

Kashmir Rumbles, Rattling Old Rivals - NYT

Bitter fruit - Hindus and Muslims up in arms - Economist

The Kashmir tinderbox - Recent unrest in Kashmir has undermined peace prospects between nuclear powers. Meenakshi Ganguly looks at the suffering of Kashmiris caught in a cycle of violence - New Statesman

Pacifying Kashmir , by Sumit Ganguly - WSJ

New Era for Pakistan--and Kashmir? , by Barbara Crossette - The Nation

A Ticking Time Bomb: U.S. Officials Should Not Forget Kashmir - World Politics Review

Kashmir violence reignites sectarian tensions - CSM

In Kashmir, Fears of Increasing Militancy - WP

Tens of thousands in Kashmir march to UN offices - AP

A Perilous Religious Game in Kashmir - TIME

Kashmir’s Hindus and Muslims in Shrine Dispute - NYT

India - agriculture, food

Dispatches: Notes from different corners of the world

On the Front Lines of the Global Food Crisis 1-5

by Mira Kamdar - Slate

Things That Go Bump in the Night

A Real Green Revolution

In the Test Fields of Academe

The Organic Farmer

The Seeds of Violence

Uighurs and Xinjiang

Distant thunder: Separatism stirs on China’s forgotten frontier - FT

Uighur challenge to Chinese hegemony - FT

China's forgotten people - New Statesman

Uprising from the ashes of history - CBC

China and the Enduring Uighurs - Stratfor

The 'Hanification' of Xinjiang - Asia Times Online

China's tough Xinjiang policy backfires - China's success in eliminating clusters of Muslim insurgencies in the western province of Xinjiang may have pushed an alleged separatist movement across the border into Pakistan and Afghanistan, exposing it to greater influences by jihadi groups in those countries. - Asia Times Online

Backlash Over Chinese Handling of Muslim Minority - Experts Wonder if China's Crackdown on Muslim Minority is Fueling Violent Sentiment - ABC

Analysts: China crackdown fueling attacks - AP

Deadly attacks give China experts pause - Analysts had seen official Chinese warnings of a terrorism threat as exaggerated and serving to justify authoritarian practices. Not now. - LAT

China faces life or death struggle say Communists - Times

Separatists trained abroad, says Beijing - FT

China's Uighurs Wary, Worried After Attack - WP

Useful Exotics - The Fate of China's Minorities - Spiegel

Last spring

Just like America, China is building a multi-ethnic empire in the west - Tibet and Xinjiang have the misfortune of having resources the Asian giant wants, and being on the path to resources it needs - by Parag Khanna , Guardian

The Conqueror of China’s Wild West - How the west was won on China’s Islamic frontier - Asia Sentinel

Is Xinjiang the Next Tibet? , by Nicholas D. Kristof - NYT

China's Ethnic Tension Isn't Limited to Tibet - Tension in Xinjiang Remains High Between Local Turkic Uighurs and Han Settlers - WSJ

Quiet death in Xinjiang - Tibet is not the only Chinese province to suffer barbaric treatment from its Beijing masters - Guardian

Tackling China - Curfews, headscarf bans and mass detentions. A Uighur activist discusses the protests against Beijing - Newsweek

Uighurs struggle in a world reshaped by Chinese influx - In China's far west, the Muslim ethnic group finds itself relegated to menial jobs. Chinese officials also restrict religious practice and use of their language in schools - CSM

China and its minorities - IHT

Ethnic Unrest Continues in China - NYT

China's multiple victims include its own public - IHT

Suspicious story

China Reports Suspected Terrorist Activity - NYT

China 'falsified' terror plots - Al Jazeera

Pakistan link to failed plotters - Reuters

This summer

Uighur Justice - WSJ

China is making a Frontal Attack on our Ethnic Identity , interview with Rebiya Kadeer - by Joshua Kucera, EurasiaNet

China's Still-Wild West - Beijing imposed heavy security on the Olympic torch’s passage through Xinjiang Province , by Robert D. Kaplan - The Atlantic

Burma

Lifting the Bamboo Curtain - As China and India vie for power and influence, Burma has become a strategic battleground
by Robert D. Kaplan - The Atlantic

Drowning - Can the Burmese people rescue themselves? Letter from Rangoon
by George Packer - New Yorker

In Broken Economy, Burmese Improvise or Flee - WP



Burma: waiting for the dawn - The democratic ideals of the "8-8-88" uprising remain the foundation of Burma's future - Open Democracy

Burma's rage - On the twentieth anniversary of the pro-democracy uprising inBurma in 1988, the myth of control on which the Than Shwe regime relied on isgone. The mood is of rage. And hope. - Open Democracy

The Myanmar Dilemma: Aid or Democracy? , by Thant Myint-U - NPQ

Beijing holds key to change in Burma - FT

Burma's Prisons a Caldron of Protest Fury - WP

Exiles Try to Rekindle Hopes for Change in Myanmar - NYT

An auspicious, bloodstained day - IHT

Burma's cyclone survivors are left to struggle with their fate - Telegraph

Agony of Burma’s dumped children - Times

When a disastrous regime continues - Burma's junta adds to cyclone's toll - Asia Sentinel

Myanmar's monks regroup after killer storm - AP

A Call to Arms? - The Irrawaddy

Who Lost the Most in the 2007 Uprising? - The Irrawaddy

Central Asia, Xinjiang, Islam

Turmoil in Central Asia - While the international community focuses on the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan, it is paying far too little attention to the storm brewing just beyond the country's northern borders, in Central Asia , by Martha Olcott and Johannes Linn - WSJ

Central Asia: Islamic Group on the Rise - Diplomatic Courier

Hizb ut-Tahrir and U.S. allies in Central Asia - Eurasia Daily Monitor

Radical Islam stirs in China's remote west - In a backstreet of the old Silk Road city of Kashgar, Chinese authorities have been spray-painting signs on dusty mud brick walls to warn against what it says is a new enemy -- the Islamic Liberation Party. - Reuters

The reality of China's jihadist threat - The Chinese government is blaming the attack in Kashgar on Islamic terrorists. But there is very little evidence that al-Qaida is backing them , by Jason Burke - Guardian

Asia and the world order

When Asia Was The World

When Asia Was the World by Stewart Gordon

The Dawn of Global Trade — Part I - excerpt

The Dawn of Global Trade — Part II - excerpt

World Order

Where Is the World Headed? - A multipolar world must prepare for a relative decline in US power and the turbulence that may follow , by Immanuel Wallerstein - Yale Global

Facing a Post-American World , interview with Fareed Zakaria - NPQ

Here Comes the Second World , by Parag Khanna - NPQ

Asian Triumph

China and the Rest Are Only Joining the American-Built Order , by G. John Ikenberry - NPQ

Be Wary of Asian Triumphalism , by Anne-Marie Slaughter - NPQ

When Western Interests Trump Values , by Kishore Mahbubani - NPQ

The west is strategically wrong on Georgia , by Kishore Mahbubani - FT

India - international issues

India’s Search for a Foreign Policy -
Lack of a coherent foreign policy from quarrelsome politicians could threaten India’s long-term stability - Yale Global

Indian Investors Enter the Caribbean - Hungry for natural resources, firms from India begin to shape the Caribbean economy - Yale Global

India - China

Why India Will Beat China - An entrenched and vibrant democracy will ultimately drive India to outperform China socially and economically. - Businessweek

China and India: heartlands of global protest -
The waves of social discontent and insurgency in Asia's rising powers place them at the centre of questions about the world's dominant economic orthodoxy. - Open Democracy

Climate, energy

India: Worst polluter?
"India is the laggard on climate change challenges." So said a senior European personality at a high-powered meeting I attended in Berlin a few weeks ago. - by Kishore Mahbubani,
Hindustan Times

New Energy Frontiers Expand Global Connections - Lacking fossil fuels, fast-growing India must innovate with alternative energy sources - Yale Global

Climate-Change Challenge for the Poor - All nations have a responsibility to strive for lifestyles that are sustainable - Yale Global

More on Asian intellectuals

Meet Fethullah Gülen, the World’s Top Public Intellectual - Foreign Policy

New Star Rising - profile of Reihan Salam, an up-and-coming Bangladeshi-American thinker and writer - Daily Star Forum

India - domestic issues

Politics

Indians' worst fear: the honest politician - For Indian voters, news of a corruption scandal is a sign of a political system in ruddy good health. It's honesty we distrust - Guardian

A Daughter of India’s Underclass Rises on Votes That Cross Caste Lines - Kumari Mayawati, a daughter of so-called untouchables and India’s most maverick politician, stunned the nation last year when she won majority control of India’s largest state with an inventive political coalition that fused votes from up and down the ancient Hindu caste pyramid. - NYT

Violence runs through this 'stable' India, built on poverty and injustice - The country the west loves to call a peaceful, capitalist success has a terrorism death toll second only to Iraq.
- by Pankaj Mishra, Guardian

In India, idealism falters in the face of power -
The United States has always loomed large in the Indian imagination. - IHT


Economics

India: What Economic Reform? - As Indian inflation rises, Prime Minister Singh has little time left to push privatizing state companies and other financial reforms - Businessweek

Cost-Cutting in New York, but a Boom in India - Gurgaon. On the top floor of a seven-story building in this dusty aspiring metropolis, Copal Partners churns out equity, fixed income and trading research for big name analysts and banks. - NYT

In Fertile India, Growth Outstrips Agriculture - With the right technology and policies, India could help feed the world. Instead, it can barely feed itself. - NYT

Indian weavers sidelined by market forces - As traditional handmade saris go out of fashion, their makers resort to unskilled labor to make ends meet. - CSM

Miscellaneous

Gathering storm in the tea gardens of Darjeeling - As a Gurkha separatist campaign is relaunched, the region’s most famous export is hit by a strike and the eviction of tourists - Times

Decades Later, Toxic Sludge Torments Bhopal - Hundreds of tons of waste still languish inside a tin-roofed warehouse in a corner of the old grounds of the Union Carbide pesticide factory here, nearly a quarter-century after a poison gas leak killed thousands and turned this ancient city into a notorious symbol of industrial disaster. - NYT

The cult of the dabbawala - Business-school gurus take lessons from an unexpected source - Economist

Yeti in Meghalaya

'Yeti hair' to get DNA analysis - Scientists in the UK who have examined hairs claimed to belong to a yeti in India say that an initial series of tests have proved inconclusive. - BBC

British scientist hopes for 'yeti hair' breakthrough -
A British scientist said Monday he was anxiously awaiting the results of DNA tests on hair claimed to be from a yeti after initial examinations showed it had human and ape-like characteristics. - AFP

Losing the yeti in forgotten nation of Bhutan - He remembers the darkness of the pine forest, and the footprints, and his terror when the creature began to howl. He remembers the stories of his childhood, of a beast that stalked the upper reaches of the mountains, and how fear spread through the village every time it was spotted. - AP

In the footsteps of the yeti: the hunt for Mande Burung - The discovery of two unidentifiable hairs in the far north-east of India has fuelled the belief that the yeti is more than a myth. Andrew Buncombe ventured to the Garo Hills to get to the bottom of the mystery - Independent

Creatures that inhabit our guilty conscience - As more and more real-life creatures face extinction, mankind is fascinated by the possibility of finding imaginary ones - Times

Culture, Religion

Hindus - heritage, tradition

The Arrow and the Poem - Sanskrit Comes Alive! On The Wonders Of Ancient Indian Literature
by David Shulman - TNR

Selling yoga to India - Swami Ramdev caused uproar when it was claimed he could cure Aids. Now, however, India's government has recruited him to help halt an obesity epidemic
by Andrew Buncombe - Independent

Serving the Goddess - The dangerous life of a sacred sex worker
by William Dalrymple - New Yorker

Rush hour of the gods - India's middle classes are becoming increasingly pious
by Meera Nanda - New Humanist

Christians

Vatican hopes Indian Bible will translate into surge of converts - A new version of the holy text depicts Virgin Mary in sari and Joseph in a loincloth and turban
by Jeremy Page - Times

Sisters and goddesses - Legend has it that it was the apostle, Thomas, the doubting one, who brought Christianity to Southern India - and now, aside from the odd jealous spat, the Virgin Mary and goddess Bhagavati are worshipped with equal fervour
by William Dalrymple - Guardian

Muslims

Preaching peace and tolerance in the face of persecution - The leader of a pacific but controversial branch of Islam explains why his sect continues to grow
by Carla Power - Times

India's Moderate Muslims See Peril In Growth of Stricter Form of Islam
by Rama Lakshmi - WP

G. M. Banatwala: Indian Muslim leader , obituary - Times

Successful protest gives Kashmiris in India a sense of freedom - Many youths in the Indian-held part of Kashmir remain disaffected. But a surprisingly strong uprising over a land transfer has revived hopes of self-rule
by Henry Chu - LAT

Media - issues, critiques, polemics

Musharraf’s Monster - In Pakistan, independent TV is young, powerful, and biting the hand that fed it
by Shahan Mufti - CJR

Uncomfortable Truth - P. Sainath reminds us that India is still a poor country
by Naresh Fernandes - CJR

The Land of a Thousand Bad Newspaper Articles - Isn't there anyone who can write about India with some complexity?
by Samanth Subramanian - TNR

'The Hindu' as a Chinese Communist Mouthpiece

Its founding fathers and the giants who served in it must be shedding tears in heavens over the way their child has been reduced to being the "People's Daily" of Chennai.
Raman's Strategic Analysis

Chennai rejects - Some opinions just can’t make it to the People’s Daily of Chennai
The Acorn

What's Wrong with The Hindu? The Hindu has found a Beijing-based news-agency to fetch stories - The Xinhua - world's biggest propaganda agency belonging to the Chinese Communist Party
'Save The Hindu' Campaign

Afghanistan, Pakistan

Behind the Indian Embassy Bombing , by Robert D. Kaplan - The Atlantic

Inside the Pakistan-Taliban Relationship , interview with Ahmed Rashid - Harper's

Militancy will not run out of steam , interview with Ahmed Rashid - BBC

Afghanistan's Missed Opportunity , review - WP

Central Asia - blogs, news

Ferghana.ru - information agency

Registan.net - Central Asia News — All Central Asia, All The Time

New Eurasia - blogging Central Asia

The Roberts Report on Central Asia and Kazakhstan - Analysis on the Political Economy of Greater Central Asia

Central Asia - Foreign Policy Association

Beyond the River - Culture and Politics of Central Asia

Central Asian Borders - young… mined… dangerous… unnatural… militarised… not fully demarcated… etc.

The Oil and the Glory - A Blog on Russia, Central Asia and the Caucasus

Joshua Kucera - a freelance writer and journalist

Window on Eurasia - Paul Goble

Turkestan to Uyghuristan

Xinjiang, Uyghurs - some background

Uighurs and China's Xinjiang Region - CFR
The East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) - CFR

Lambs to the Slaughter: What is the East Turkistan Islamic Movement and is it really a Terrorist Threat at the Olympics? - The Roberts Report

Turkic people at odds with Chinese rule - Times

Xinjiang, Uyghurs - some blogs

The Opposite End of China - Xinjiang & Northwest China Blog

The New Dominion - Your source for all things Xinjiang

Kashgar - some articles on the recent attack

Chinese separatists 'planning year-long terror campaign' - Times

China: how desperation destroyed ideas of harmony on the New Frontier - Times

Chinese Muslims cower under secret police crackdown - Telegraph

Militants planned 'year of mourning' in China, say authorities - Guardian

China Blames Attack on Muslim Separatists - NYT

Scholars question official line of 'plot' to disrupt Olympics - IHT