Much has been written about Kerala's achievements, but the Indian state is also a victim of its own success, facing economic challenges ranging from the lack of jobs to declining cooperatives.
From Nov. 26 to 29, 2008, 10 gunmen wielded guns, grenades and terror in the Indian city of Mumbai. Acting in five teams of two, they killed 163 people and wounded 300 others in attacks on sites including a train station, two elite hotels, a Jewish center, a hospital and the city's streets. All of the gunmen were young Pakistani Muslims; all but one were killed by authorities. The lone survivor, who has pleaded guilty, attends his trial, which continues a year after the attacks.
In Kerala, it's the Communists who came to power through democratic elections and laid the groundwork for the celebrated Kerala Model—an outstanding example of multicultural success.
In Indian state of Kerala, the art of seduction is rumored to be Islam’s new secret weapon of proselytization. But can it? And will it threaten the communal peace in this tolerant multicultural state?
Attempts by linguistic nationalists to favor Marathi over Hindi in Mumbai raise doubts about India’s sobriety, while the country’s near-unanimous denunciation of such divisive act dispel them.
Jason Motlagh, Special to the Pulitzer Center
Virginia Quarterly Review
While people across the globe are becoming more aware that the glaciers in the western Himalaya are receding, few know how information about the glaciers, weather systems, and river levels in remote regions of the world like Kashmir are gathered. Cut off from the world the better part of the past two decades, due to a bloody conflict, the region's glaciers could only be monitored through remote sensing (satellite images). But as relative peace returns, scientists are for the first time able to conduct field research on the glaciers.
Jason Motlagh, Special to the Pulitzer Center
Virginia Quarterly Review
Experts hail Kerala, India’s diverse southern state, as an outstanding example of democratic social progress. But beneath the first-world quality of life lie inequality and the lack of jobs.
Jason Motlagh, Special to the Pulitzer Center
Virginia Quarterly Review
Jason Motlagh, Special to the Pulitzer Center
Virginia Quarterly Review
India's financial capital, Mumbai, has seen terror attacks that killed at least 170 people in 2008. However, mounting tensions among its population aren’t focused on religion but on language use.
Donate Now
