Also:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/21/india-says-maoist-rebel-chief-killed-in-breakthrough-blow
I had no idea there were Maoist rebels in India.
Yeah, the Naxalites - they've been around for ages, IIRC. Al Jazeera is a bit off when it says "At its peak in the mid-2000s, the rebellion controlled nearly a third of the country and had an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 fighters" - no, honey, at no point was a third of India controlled by Maoists, you are making that up - but it's true that they operated across a huge swathe of the country in the late 2000s.
Apart from anything else, you can't control a third of India with 20,000 soldiers, take it from a Brit.
Maoism seems, like, awfully serious, man. Couldn't we just start a band or something? Hope it all works out?
India is massively under-reported in the West (not as bad as Indonesia, but still) which is why everyone needs to read the Times of India regularly, not only because it will improve your written English and expand your vocabulary to include words like "dacoity", but because you'll realise that things like the Naxalite rebellion are happening at huge scale and it's just not making a splash. Back in the 2000s the Naxalites were killing about a thousand a year, and the Indian army - and various anti-Naxalite militias - the same.
India is massively under-reported in the West
This, somehow, is still an understatement. I would wager fewer than 1 in 20 Americans could name any Indian politician, living or dead, other than Gandhi (just the one) and Modi and likely couldn't come up with more than the names and that Gandhi was sorta MLK.
My views on Gandhi are more nuanced because of how often he's nuked me and because I can name at least one other Gandhi.
Meanwhile, in the fever swamp:
https://swarajyamag.com/north-east/explained-the-road-to-peace-in-manipur-travels-through-myanmars-chin-province
"Oh, you're an Indian politics fan? Name five Indian politicians."
"Gandhi."
"...Yeah, that's on me, I set the bar too low."
I would wager fewer than 1 in 20 Americans could name any Indian politician, living or dead, other than Gandhi (just the one) and Modi
I'm having a bit of introspection now about what the largest country is that I couldn't say this about - ie "cannot name any but the two most famous politicians, living or dead, from this country". I think it's Thailand - my excuse is that Thai names are really long and hard to remember.
But the exercise has really brought home how little I know about some pretty huge countries. Ethiopia was a bit of a struggle.
9: I'm a fairly slow reader by unfogged standards, so I need more carefully curated reading lists than others. I often wonder how much one needs to read and o to qualify as well-informed enough and what the goals of that are.
I need to be able to think critically and as a citizen, I want to know enough to vote for the right people. Knowing a lot from reading without actually being an expert leaves you feeling the burden but not having skills that allow me to change the situation just makes me feel burdened. This basically sums up how I feel about life in the era of Trump.
14: Most of the South American continent was an empty knowledge well for me until very recently.
15: perhaps I over-emphasised that. I'm not judging anyone for not reading the Times of India; I just think it's an interesting news source and you'll come across stuff that is not really covered very well by Western media.
15: of course. I do still feel terribly guilty that I don't know more about India or South America etc.
I want to know enough to vote for the right people.
As an American who came of age in the 70s "vote for the Democrat" has been efficient and has not yet been wrong.
19: Exactly my point. But in local elections, almost everyone is a Democrat or a it's non-partisan election, so I need to do a little bit more work and be more informed.
We are determined as a nation, not to know anything about the outside world, because we just banned pretty much all new foreign students. Jesus.
I have no idea what is going to stick, but the foreign student ban will be a hit for the local economy.
"Oh, you're an Indian German politics fan? Name five Indian politicians key dates."
"Gandhi November 9."
"...Yeah, that's on me, I set the bar too low."