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People in Government and Politics
The Birth of a Nation: Israel in Pictures
David Rubinger was there at some of the most significant moments of Israel's history. His photographs are a testimony of its tumultuous past, which remains very much a part of the country's present. He shared these works of his in an exclusive interview with theasiamag.com.
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India Votes: Special reports on the 2009 parliamentary elections in the world's largest democracy
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“What struck me most was it is amazing that in this country of a thousand different Indias, people still manage to live in such relative harmony and function as a democracy. I think we do not give Indian voters the credit they deserve. I realise that I am guilty of it as well, being cynical and pointing out all the problems with this democracy and the corruption. Of course it exists, it is endemic. But at the same time, the fact that over 700 million people can go to the polls and do so in a largely peaceful fashion, all across the country, with divisions based on linguistics, culture, religion, economic, politics.”
Karishma Vaswani on reporting on the Indian elections
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Post-Election Analysis: Why everyone called it wrong
On Saturday May 16th, India's ruling Congress Party was kept in power, winning an astonishing 262 votes, its best results since 1990. Just ten votes short of the 272 needed for a parliamentary majority, it will be able to govern without the need to make deals with regional parties. The markets responded with a resounding 17 percent surge in share prices, its biggest one-day-gain in three decades. Yet this was a victory margin none of the pundits saw coming.
As India Votes 2009
Illustration: Vikash Sharma
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- Geopolitics and Strategic Relations
- Of Government and Politics
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Villages devoid of young men in modern India
One of the most common scenes on Indian trains are men with their belongings on their backs, heading out to the big cities in search of a better life. Many of them come from the state of Bihar, where moving miles away from home for work is the only way for their families to simply subsist at home.
As India Votes 2009
Illustration: Vikash Sharma
Deng Xiaoping: Lover of dog meat
The late Chinese leader, famous for reforms that transformed China into a booming economy, never stopped hankering for his favourite dish.
The ties that bind
Last year the Liem Sioe Liong family again made news in Malaysia, but not in the way it wanted.
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- Bambang Trihatmodjo
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- Mahathir Mohamad
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Days of plunder
There are many who practise crony capitalism — getting economic gains by toadying up to the powers that be — but few, if any, match the scale of Liem Sioe Liong.
Burglars and acquisitions
But for a robbery, the fact that Mirzan and Jane have kept a luxurious house in Vancouver, Western Canada, would probably have never been made public.
What it means to vote in India
The freedom to choose their government was a hard-won victory from the British for the people of India more than 60 years ago. Today, they still go to surprising lengths to honour that right, as Karishma Vaswani learns when she goes voting with a Mumbaikar.
As India Votes 2009
Illustration: Vikash Sharma
There simply isn't just one Mumbai
Karishma Vaswani shows theasiamag.com the highlights of this astounding metropolis of 18 million and makes sense of the economic spectrum of people who call this city home.
As India Votes 2009
Illustration: Vikash Sharma
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