A woman’s movement challenging a centuries-old practice of denying women entry into the most sacred areas of worship in Hindu temples and Muslim shrines is generating a heated debate across India.
country: India
Stay updated with comprehensive news on India from Worldcrunch. Discover insights on Indian politics, economic developments, societal issues, and cultural landmarks with translations from top international sources. Highlights include New Delhi, Mumbai, and events like Diwali.
Anti-colonialism’s echo: India balks at Mark Zuckerberg’s plans of offering free but limited Internet access, which is ultimately aimed at boosting Facebooks’ numbers. Will the rest of the world follow?
In October, India issued a ban on foreign couples seeking surrogacy there. Now, a proposed law wants to make the entire industry illegal, even for Indian couples. Surrogates and their advocates say it would be a dangerous mistake.
BANGALORE — Here in the Indian capital of global call centers, the Dalai Lama was the feature guest at the Arab-Asian Chamber of Commerce” Peace for Economy conference. In an interview with La Stampa on the sidelines of the conference, the highest authority of Tibetan Buddhism extended an olive branch to the West’s current Enemy […]
NEW DELHI — Five months ago, Devanish Meena, a young Indian man from New Delhi, eloped with his longtime girlfriend. Now he is a widower. Adding to Devanish’s anquish is his belief that the young bride, Pratibha Gujar, was murdered — by her own family. In India, approximtely 1,000 young people are murdered each year in name of saving a family’s honor. The “honor killings,” as they’re known, are often committed when a forced or arranged marriage is rejected. Pratibha’s death seems to fit the profile. The young woman’s relationship with Devanish was very much opposed by her family. And […]
Hosting 30 million people in the world’s largest pilgrimage, Nashik is a temporary example of “extreme urbanism,” and researchers are studying what happens in the process.
An agreement reached last month between India and Bangladesh has given citizenship to 50,000 previously stateless people who lived in disputed territory.
Animals rights group in India are boycotting the state of Kerala over the government’s new policy that they say encourages individual citizens to kill stray dogs for cash.
India’s entertainment industry casts people with dark skin as cursed and low class, an idea the culture has strongly, if sadly, embraced. The only winner is the cosmetics industry.
India accounts for 20% of the world’s infant mortalities, and parents in this male-dominated society often reject newborn daughters. A milk bank in Udaipur helps to prevent the deaths of premature babies and to feed those abandoned at birth.
This week, we shine the spotlight on India: P FOR PICHAI Google’s surprise announcement that it was restructuring its businesses under a new parent company called Alphabet was a significant boost to India’s national pride, with much of the media coverage focused on Google’s new CEO, Indian-born Sundar Pichai. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was quick […]
It’s been two decades since the flight of many Kashmiri Hindus after an insurgency targeted them. Now even Kashmir Muslims want them to return.
JAIPUR — Saveera Khan’s three daughters are helping her to make bangles, which requires working in front of a hot furnace that melts the powder used for making natural lac bangles. The children handle many poisonous chemicals such as crystalline silica dust, and inhale noxious fumes of toxic dust. At just 7 years old, Mantasha is the youngest and she goes to school only when there isn’t too much work to be done at home. “Our only brother always goes to school, but mostly we girls in the family work at home,” she says. “The furnace is very very hot […]
BEIJING — Since being sworn in as India’s prime minister last year, Narendra Modi’s ambitious reform agenda has made him one of Asia’s most-talked about leaders. The economic program that Modi has put forward is changing the world’s impression of India, confirmed by his just-completed three-day visit to China. At last month’s Hanover Fair, Modi […]
MUMBAI — Thirty-five-year old Praveen Kumar worked as a deliveryman at a slaughter house, carrying meat to retail markets around Mumbai. But last month, he lost his job when the slaughterhouse was shut down following the state government’s new ban on beef. “Here I was earning about $7 a day, and life had become much easier. I was able to keep my wife and three children happy,” he said. “But with this ban now I can’t even afford two proper meals for my family and my children may also have to leave school because I can’t pay the fees.” Selling […]
Bad urban planning, pollution, corruption, the Indian megapolis offers lessons on exactly how not to run your city.
A child goes missing in India every eight minutes. After India’s Supreme Court censured police for failing to act, authorities launched an operation to bring children home. But it’s still too little, too late.
A satirical comedy about an alien who comes to earth and questions religious dogma has found an enemy among many of India’s Hindus. A new view after the Charlie Hebdo killings.
VAPI — Teenager Prerna Agarwal is autistic and blind. She also happens to be one of India’s latest singing sensations, thanks to a 2013 appearance on Indian Idol Junior, a popular television show that gained her international attention. When reporter Jasvinder Sehgal visits the young singer at her home, he finds her listening to a classic Hindi hit from the 1970s while cuddling her favorite soft toy. “My Teddy loves singing songs,” she says. “He loves eating pasta and drinking orange juice. He wakes up earlier than me and also wakes me up every morning.” Prerna then excitedly introduces her […]
SINGAPORE — Jashodaben Modi arrives at the police station sitting on the luggage rack of her brother’s motor bike. A simple woman, she wears a white cotton sari with an orange top underneath, wire frame glasses, and her grey hair in a braid. She wants to lodge a complaint with the police of the Mehsana […]
Activists fighting the social plague of acid attacks against women in India have opened a new cafe in Agra staffed exclusively by survivors who have been disfigured in this way.
NEW DELHI — Archana, who is just 15, is desperately trying to put her 3-month-old brother to sleep. He’s crying out for his mother, who died last week after going to a government-run sterilization camp. At least 15 others suffered the same fate, and scores of others are seriously ill after undergoing tubectomies at two Indian sterilization “camps.” Ongoing investigations point to contaminated drugs given to the women as a possible cause of death. But a dirty operating room and surgeries performed in a matter of minutes with unsanitized instruments have raised serious questions about India’s approach to population control […]
Considered history’s worst industrial accident, having killed thousands in a Dec. 3, 1984 gas leak at a Union Carbide plant in India, the health effects in Bhopal can still be felt today.
A New Delhi cab company is only for females, a response to India’s ongoing problems with violence toward women. The benefits are enjoyed by both drivers and passengers.
JAIPUR — Having a full-bodied moustache has long been a symbol of masculinity for Indian men and once was also an indicator of caste status. So-called untouchables, excluded from India’s caste system altogether, were not allowed to have a moustache at all, while lower castes had to grow theirs with the ends drooped down. Even now in modern India, there are annual competitions to judge who sports the best facial hair. For the last hour, 61-year-old Ram Singh Chauhan has been massaging his moustache, which is how he spends at least two hours each day. “I use mustard oil, coconut […]
Known as one of the worst cultures in the world for women, India is nevertheless undergoing a sexual revolution in its increasingly wealthy modern cities.
Some 70% of prisoners in India’s jails are still awaiting trials, or verdicts of trials long passed. In some cases the wait goes on for decades. For around 100,000 prisoners, the wait may end.
After monks went on a hunger strike to push for a citywide ban on animal slaughter, the local government declared Palitana a meat-free zone. But the city’s Muslims are not happy.
SURAT — It’s no longer a question of time. The city of Surat, on the western coast of India, will soon face flooding that could trigger outbreaks of malaria and dengue fever, and rising temperatures that could force companies to relocate their factories. Its 4.5 million residents are already preparing for the disasters triggered by […]
PUNE — Every morning Rebecca Kedari pulls a cart through an upmarket neighborhood in this city of 3.3 million to collect household waste. Ten years ago Rebecca would not even been able to enter this area of Pune, in western India. “Before I had to go outside the city to look for dry waste and bring it back. The work conditions were bad and collecting the waste took me at least 6 hours,” she says. She now wears a local government identity card, has a health insurance plan, and is part of the KKPKP — a waste pickers’ union set […]
KOHAND — At an age when his friends are just learning basic reading and writing, 6-year-old Kautilya Pandit can answer complicated questions about world geography, per capita income, gross domestic product and global politics. His analytical powers and incredible ability to remember facts have left everyone so spellbound that the local media has nicknamed this child prodigy living in northern India’s Kohand village “Google boy.” At SD Harit Modern School’s morning assembly, Kautliya’s presentation stands out above the rest. To the delight of the young audience, he recites with ease a difficult passage from ancient Sanskrit literature. Then Kautilya takes […]
NEW DELHI — Pramod, 21, contracted polio when he was a child, but that isn’t stopping him from learning how to dance. He goes to the New Delhi dance and music academy called Artist Mahavidyalaya, where fees are waived for students with disabilities and those who don’t have the means to pay, says academy co-founder Krishna Basumatary. “People think that I’m a handicapped person who can’t do anything with my life,” says Pramod. “They’re full of negative opinions while I’m a proud physically impaired person. I’m turning my weakness into a strength. To dance well, one should first have a […]
Long revered amongst the founders of modern India, the Gandhi family is now facing the most delicate political moment in memory as its INC party risks losing national elections.
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Zen And The Temple Of Motorcyle Mania
An Indian shrine built in memory of a dead traveler and his motorbike has attracted prayerful followers who credit the unusual temple for all manner of good tidings.
As the world’s largest democracy goes to the polls for national elections, a closer look at India’s struggle to improve its schools through privatization. Even for the poor.
Protecting the ‘green lung’ of the sprawling, wheezing metropolis is becoming increasingly harder in the face of surging population and hungry real estate developers.
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The Myth Of India’s Middle Class
NEW DELHI — As India’s national elections approach, the country’s middle class is the center of attention. Analysts cite it as the decisive demographic in the vote slated next month. It is true that the electoral weight of the middle class hasn’t stopped growing: according to the Asian Development Bank, the Indian middle class rose […]
MALAJPUR — Every February, people gather in the village of Malajpur, in the state of Madhya Pradesh, for a unique ghost fair. It’s one of India’s most celebrated festivals — an ancient event where exorcists rid the body of evil spirits. Amardas believes that a ghost has taken control of her sister-in-law, Dharmati Bai, who has been shouting strange words for more than a month now. “My sister-in-law must have been possessed by a ghost,” she says. “We’ve come to the Malajpur ghost fair to pay our respects to the temple. They’re treating her now, and I hope she’ll be […]
AJMER — In India, 70% of the population lives in rural areas, mostly in poverty. But as a voluntary program has proven, impoverished people can become experts in solar power. Thanks to Barefoot College, an NGO based here in Ajmer, in the western part of India’s Rajasthan state, some 600 women have been fully educated about solar power, a small step towards eradicating poverty. Sunaina Das, 20, is reviewing all the components needed to make a solar lamp. Though she doesn’t know how to read or write, she’s learning to become a solar engineer. “I’ve come here for training,” she […]
DELHI — The weather is cold and damp in Delhi, but the city’s chief minister has spent the night sleeping on the streets. Arvind Kejriwal’s head is wrapped in a grey scarf when he steps up to the microphone in the square behind the parliament building. He is surrounded by ministers and leading members of […]