• In the Southasian Monitor, Matiru Rahman Chowdhory explains how Bangladesh is slipping out of India’s sphere of influenced, pushed by factors such as the National Register of Citizens and pulled by China’s immense economic might. 
  • BR Ambedkar’s core idea of political representation for Dalits and Adivasis was reserved seats with separate electorates and its extension on the basis of mutual agreement, explains Raj Shekhar Vundru in the Indian Express.
  • On the Volkerrechtsblog, Medha Srivastav explains how India’s judiciary has provided a cloak of legitimacy to authoritatian actions of the government.
  • By occupying key vantage points in eastern Ladakh in an operation backed by tens of thousands of troops in the rear, China has entered a dangerous new phase in its territorial expansionism. To stop this, India must inflict substantive costs on the aggressor, argues Brahma Chellaney in The Hindustan Times. 
  • Modi’s political success is built on not speaking on difficult issues – like the Chinese intrusions in Ladakh – but constantly making positive announcements. But at some point, this will catch up with him, argues TN Ninan in the Business Standard.  
  • With a crashing economy and rising authoritarianism, there is no “India Story” of any sort any more, argues Ramachandra Guha in the Telegraph.
  • A great mud boom 400 million years ago played a role in everything from the shape of rivers to Earth’s biodiversity explains Laura Poppick And Knowable in the Atlantic.
  • In the New York Times, Jason Farago takes readers through his favorite woodblock print by Katsushika Hokusai, the most famous Japanese artist of the 19th century.
  • Renowned for his pessimism, Arthur Schopenhauer was nonetheless a conoisseur of very distinctive kinds of happiness, writes Nigel Warburton in Aeon.
  • How America was unmade: In the New York Times, Anand Giridharadas reviews Kurt Andersen’s new book on how America lost it way and what can be done to set it back on track.