Articles

09.06.2017Opinion

Divorce by email

India's Supreme Court is currently considering the Muslim practice of instant divorce. The family law allows Muslim men to end their marriages by simply repeating the word "talaq" (Arabic for divorce...

23.05.2017Opinion

India: The Perils of Digital Transformation

For India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, 2017 began with a disappointment: Both the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank corrected their economic outlook for India – in one case from...

25.04.2017Opinion

India’s Noxious Cow Politics

In early April, a mob lynched 55-year-old dairy farmer Pehlu Khan in the western Indian state of Rajasthan. A video of the crime went viral and fanned an emotional political debate. The killing of Mr...

23.03.2017Opinion

Elections in India

For a foreigner, writing about Indian politics is challenging. In case the readers are foreigners like me, there’s very much explaining to do. If the audience is Indian, there’s a chance they tell...

Ronald Meinardus on elections in Uttar Pradesh

28.11.2016Opinion

How India Copes with Demonetization

The assessments could hardly be more divergent. One side says India’s currency reform is a stroke of genius. It is a surgical strike by Narendra Modi which dries out the morass of the black economy...

13.10.2016Opinion

Trouncing triple talaq

The message is clear: The Indian government is calling on the Supreme Court to declare the practice of "divorce by repudiation" – known as talaq – and polygamy unconstitutional. This landmark...

05.10.2016Opinion

Unable to bury the axe

The attackers came at dawn. Heavily armed, they forced their way into the Indian army camp near Uri – not far from the border separating the Pakistani from the Indian-administered regions of Kashmir...

15.09.2016Opinion

India’s Smart Cities Mission – Vision Without A Base

For reasons of protocol, John Kerry likes to be on time. During his recent visit to India, the US Secretary of State had to apologize for being late more than once. Heavy monsoon rains had flooded...

18.07.2016Opinion

Why India Needs More Freedom

The hot-button word of Indian politics these days is tolerance. For weeks, the controversy about the state of tolerance in the nation has dominated public debates. There is a clash between two...

18.07.2016Opinion

Everything under control?

India, the country with the largest Muslim minority, is forever issuing assurances that it remains unaffected by the deadly threat posed by IS. Only time will tell, however, whether the escalating...

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