Image Day - Manmohan Singh

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh speaks during a press conference in Srinagar. After some years of relative calm in the Kashmir Valley, recent months have seen some of the most intense anti-India feeling for about 20 years.

> AP Photo by Mukhtar Khan

The tensions were sparked by a plan to grant land to a board that oversees the running of a Hindu shrine. The proposal led to serious friction between the Muslims of the valley and their neighbours in the Hindu-dominated Jammu region. More than 30 people have been killed by the police since the protests began.

> Kashmir on Talk-Desi

BBC News Says: Curfew in Kashmir comes to an end

The Broken People - Part one

Seen on: YouTube

Reporter Ramita-Navai travels through India exposing the horrific plight of the country's millions of Dalits: literally "the broken people".

Image Day - Freedom for Kashmir?

Mother of Ruhullah-Bhat, a militant commander, clings to her son's body as it is carried during the funeral procession at Frisal, 60 km south of Srinagar.

> AP Images

Brown in India

Britain and India should step up cooperation in the fight against terrorism and work together to isolate militants, prime-minister Gordon-Brown said on Sunday.

Brown, on his first visit to India as prime minister, said he would like to see India join an international body that fights money laundering and terrorist financing, the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force.

"What I would like to see is greater contact between our two countries in winning the battle of hearts and minds, isolating extremist ideologies who try to poison young people," Brown told a news conference.

Aid-Pledge
Brown arrived bearing promises of hundreds of millions of dollars of development aid to combat poverty in India, where 400 million people live on less than $1 a day despite the country's rapid economic-growth.

Britain said that over the next three years it will give India £825 million in development aid, with more than half spent on health and education.

Via Box-UK

The Politics of Ethnicity in India - Part one

India's linguistic, religious, ethnic, and cultural diversities are proverbial. So are the political mobilizations and the violent conflicts and antagonisms which have arisen from time to time among and between persons from its distinctive cultural groups.

However, it is important to note that neither political mobilization nor ethnic and cultural antagonisms flow naturally out of India's diversities.

The 1971 census of India enumerated 33 languages with speakers of more than one million, but only 15 of them have achieved any form of significant political recognition.

Source > The Politics of India since Independence

Via Talk-Desi

India to boost China-relations

Seen on: YouTube

The leaders of India and China are meeting in Beijing in an effort to boost friendlier relations. It's Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's first visit to China, which will discuss strengthening economic-ties, as well border disputes.

India on Pakistan Crisis

In the six decades since an independent India and Pakistan rose from the flames of the bloody partition of the subcontinent, the South Asian rivals have stared at each other across heavily armed frontiers with implacable hostility, fought three wars.

India put its troops on a higher state of alert after the emergency was declared and again after the Bhutto-killing. India's stock market dipped slightly the morning after the killing with investors concerned about instability in the region. By the afternoon, it had resumed its climb. News reports focused equally on the Cricket team's performance against Australia.

It's not that India is no longer worried about Pakistan — it is, deeply. But a decade of sustained economic growth — pegged at about 9 percent this year — has transformed India into a global economic player, giving it self-assurance.

"The general confidence level in India is much higher," said C. Uday Bhaskar, a prominent New Delhi-based defense analyst.

A continuing peace process between India and Pakistan since 2004 also done much to reduce India's anxiety over the possibility of a Pakistani attack.

"Our greatest fear is the large scale movement of terrorist activities through Pakistan," said retired Gen. Ashok Mehta, a strategic analyst in New Delhi.

In an attempt to strengthen democracy and stability in Afghanistan, India has donated some $750 million to reconstruction efforts since the Taleban fell, according to the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, making it the third-largest donor.

Perhaps India's greatest problem is that while its relations with Pakistan have improved, it may not know whom to deal with there in the future.

Via Talk-Desi