In collaboration with opposition parties the lower and middle classes of India have mounted a dramatic one day nationwide protest against a fuel price hike, with violence and unrest reported across the country.
India
Is it not true that the minerals are owned by the people of the State?
Australia’s not the only country fretting over how a country’s resources should be taxed, with questions being raised in India about how much mining companies should pay when mining in areas of immense poverty, writes Shakira Hussein.
India has more mobiles than toilets
565 million Indians have mobile phones; 366 million have access to proper toilets. It’s an “embarrassing imbalance” that will ultimately hold back the country’s development, says Saritha Rai.
I am not a crook: India’s tribe of innocent criminals
A fascinating look at India’s “criminal” Pardhi tribe: 60 million Indians considered to be crooks from birth, though many have never broken a single law.
Coalition lags on foreign affairs — and voters want to cosy with China
Despite recent events, many Australians actually want a closer relationship with China, the latest Essential Research polling shows. But they’re not so keen on India.
Inside India’s baby factories
India’s newest boom business is “rent-a-womb”: factories full of poor women paid to be surrogate “baby vessels” for rich Westerner mothers. Mother Jones goes inside the surrogacy sweatshops.
Want to end poverty in India? Stop giving jobs to the poor
India’s economy has been growing at a tremendous rate. But focusing on job creation and inclusive growth — ie. helping the poor — is holding India back, writes Rajeev Mantri.
How 50,000 Hindu pilgrims keep Lady Gaga looking hot
Ever wondered where hair extensions come from? Turns out it’s a Hindu temple in Andhra Pradesh, India, where pilgrims come to offer their hair in exchange for favour with the gods.
Slumming it not always a bad thing
The latest travel issue for people to growl about is slum tourism: tourists heading into slums in Mumbai, a la Slumdog Millionaire. But, says Intrepid CEO Darrell Wade, people need to be educated on world poverty. Just don’t be a jerk.
Can India learn to speak in a single tongue?
India has 1.7 billion people and 1600 languages and dialects, but many believe it’s time for a single lingua franca. But which language? Hindi? English? And is it even achievable?
Why more daughters than ever are being aborted
In China and northern India, where tradition dictates that males inherit the land, are needed for work or girls are married off for a dowry, 120 boys are born for every 100 baby girls. The Economist reports on the growing trend of gendercide.
Calming the Indian crisis
The violence against Indian students issue isn’t going anywhere, and while the Australian government fails to fix it, the Indian media will run inflammatory, blanket coverage. It’s time for an independent inquiry to help mend our relations.
Beggars: to give or not to give?
One of the most confronting things about travelling in a developing country like India is the poverty that gets up in your face asking for change. But should you support a begging culture? asks Scott Bridges.
Crikey Says: Our relationship with India: a nasty problem and it could get worse
Australia’s global reputation is taking a battering over attacks on Indians in Melbourne. Is this a beat-up by the over-zealous Indian media, or is it a genuine foreign policy dilemma?
Are Australians racist? The view from India
The local press has been full of “Are Australians racist?” op-eds over the past few weeks, and the issue is just as popular amongst pundits in India. A look at what the country’s commentators have been saying.
Bishop: Let’s send India a peace offering — uranium
Deputy Opposition leader Julie Bishop has a novel idea for how Australia can repair its relationship with India over that whole “beating up Indian students” thing: agree to start selling the nuclear state uranium again.
Space: the final frontier of industry
Forget the moon race of half a century ago: the new space race is to lead the space industry, designing, making and selling space ships and cleaning up space junk, says Ben Sandilands.
Yanks see a bad moon a’risin’
The US is cutting off the public funding of moon missions and passing the baton on to the private sector. But ceding the moon to nations like China and India is going to be very hard for proud and patriotic Americans to swallow.
India: Australia, a nation of repressed racists
A fascinating article from Indian magazine Outlook India on the recent spate of violence against Indian students in Melbourne, suggesting the attacks stem from Aussies’ “latent racism” that has been inflamed by the GFC.
When in Rome, don’t be a testa di cazzo
Why do some tourists go on holiday to foreign locations and then turn into total ars*holes when things are different than they are at home? Scott Bridges feels ashamed on behalf of The Rest Of The World.
India: the next global economic superpower?
Over the last 20 years, India has become growing force in the world economy, and its fortunes continue to boom. How long before the country is standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the world’s top economic forces?
Slide night: bathing in holy water
Sit back, relax and get ready to travel far away from your desk and your sore computer eyes as we share our favourite travel snaps and the quirky stories behind them in our new ‘Slide Night’ series.
How do you dispose of rubbish in a country with no rubbish disposal?
In Australia we’re conditioned our whole lives to “put it in the bin”. So what do you do when travelling in a country where people throw rubbish out of buses or just drop it where they’re standing? asks Scott Bridges from India.
Not racist, just complacent: how self reflection is un-Australian
With all the issues surrounding Indian student violence, we’ve been getting caught in all the hysteria over whether Australia is or isn’t racist, whether the violence is race related and what we should do about it. Tim Watts debunks the myths.
Why violence against Indians is about way more than racism
Locking the debate of violence against Indian students into either racist or not-racist means the issue becomes highly polarized and hysterical. Let’s have a rational debate about the cultural and economic issues, minus the rhetoric, pleads Tejaswini V. Patil.
