Indias

India’s women post 298-7 in Navi Mumbai before bowling South Africa out for 246 to claim the 2025 Cricket World Cup.

India’s women have lifted the Cricket World Cup for the first time after beating South Africa by 52 runs in Navi Mumbai, India.

Reaching the final for a third time, Harmanpreet Kaur’s side dominated the contest from the off at DY Patil Stadium on Sunday, although South Africa captain Laura Wolvaardt did her best to spoil the hosts’ party in the run chase.

Replying to India’s 298-7, Wolvaardt led from the off and totalled 101 off 98 when she was eventually caught in the deep off the bowling off Deepti Sharma, who finished with 5-39.

The support was not there for Wolvaardt, unlike that enjoyed throughout a team effort with the bat by India, as South Africa regularly lost wickets at the other end before being bowled out for 246 in the 46th over.

Wolvaardt’s heroic effort added to the century she scored in the semifinal win against England on Thursday. She is only the second player to achieve the feat of the back-to-back centuries at this stage of the competition after Alyssa Healy did so in Australia’s victorious run in the 2022 edition.

Neither team has lifted the trophy; indeed, this was South Africa’s first final.

India had come close twice before, reaching the final in 2005 and 2017, losing to Australia and England, respectively.

This was also the first women’s World Cup final that did not involve either Australia or England, the former being the record winners with seven victories to their name.

Having been put in, after a long delay due to rain, India posted the second-highest total in a women’s World Cup final. But they will feel they should have comfortably cleared 300, having reached 151-1 at the halfway stage of their innings.

Opener Smriti Mandhana’s 45 meant the India batter finished with 434 runs for the tournament.

It puts her top of India’s list of run scorers at a World Cup ahead of Mithali Raj, who registered 409 in the 2017 edition.

The limelight on the day belonged to her opening partner, however, as Shafali Verma struck 87 off 78.

Deepti Sharma’s run-a-ball 58 kept the momentum going through the middle over, while Richa Ghosh thumped two sixes in an innings of 34 off 24 late on that marked the best strike-rate of the innings.

South Africa started the chase solidly enough, the opening pair bringing up the fifty partnership in the 10th over. The loss of Tazmin Brits, run out by a brilliant piece of fielding by Amanjot Kaur for 23, started a wobble, though.

Anneke Bosch pushed back a painful six-ball duck before being trapped LBW by Sree Charani.

Verma then came to the party with the ball, picking up Sune Luus and Marizanne Kapp to leave South Africa reeling on 123-4 in the 23rd over.

When Sinalo Jafta fell in the 30th with her side 148-5, it was difficult to see a way back for a team hoping to be the first senior side from their country to lift a major International Cricket Council (ICC) title.

By the time Wolvaardt’s innings was done, India’s women knew they were about to go one better than their male counterparts, who similarly hosted the 2023 edition only to be denied by Australia in the final.

India and Australia have history in World Cups.

There was Harmanpreet Kaur’s unforgettable 171 at Derby in 2017 to seal India’s place in the final, and the near-miss in the T20 semi-final at Cape Town in 2023 as the same player’s bat got stuck in the ground as she was crucially run out.

These two teams had already played out the best match of this tournament’s group stage, with Alyssa Healy’s side chasing 331 on that occasion.

Thursday’s thriller was another example of India and Australia taking the game to new levels.

Phoebe Litchfield’s stunning 119 set up Australia’s 338, supported by half-centuries from Ellyse Perry and Ash Gardner, as India were run ragged in the field.

At the halfway stage Australia’s eight-year unbeaten run at 50-over World Cups looked almost certain to continue.

However, such was Rodrigues’ brilliance – her speed between the wickets, her innovation by shuffling across her stumps, her pinpoint ability to pick the gaps between fielders – that the usually unflappable Australia were rocked.

Healy and Tahlia McGrath put down simple chances, and the team that had not lost a World Cup game since Harmanpreet’s epic were left stunned.

The batting was arguably of the highest quality that women’s cricket has ever seen – but of wider significance is what an India triumph at a home World Cup could mean.

They face South Africa in Sunday’s showpiece, meaning a new winner will be crowned for the first time since 2000.

Both finalists are chasing history – but an India victory could catapult the women’s game to new heights in terms of reach and investment.

“The pace at which women’s cricket is growing in India is unbelievable,” former IPL batter Abhishek Jhunjhunwala told BBC Test Match Special.

“Girls have started playing on the streets with boys, which you never used to see happen. They want to be a Jemimah Rodrigues or a Deepti Sharma.

“It is a proper career now for women. If India go on to win this World Cup, this will change women’s cricket. The game is growing rapidly worldwide but in a commercial aspect, this will change drastically.”

Around the stadiums in India, the shift is obvious in the sheer number of boys and men wearing shirts bearing the names of Smriti Mandhana or Harmanpreet, and the crowds have been electric for the hosts’ games.

The Women’s Premier League, India’s T20 franchise competition, has started the game-changing process with the salaries on offer to players. But based on this sensational semi-final, that could prove to be just the beginning.

Iyer suffers injury while attempting a catch in third and final ODI of India’s tour of Australia.

India batsman Shreyas Iyer is in stable condition and recovering well from spleen injury, Twenty20 captain Suryakumar Yadav says.

Iyer suffered a lacerated spleen on Saturday during India’s victory over Australia in their third one-day international (ODI) when he fell awkwardly while making a catch.

The 30-year-old was admitted to hospital, and Indian media reported that his condition was life-threatening.

“We spoke to him,” Suryakumar told reporters on Tuesday before India’s five-match Twenty20 series against Australia beginning in Canberra on Wednesday.

“When we got to know about his injury, I called him. Then I realised Shreyas doesn’t have his phone on him, and I called our physio, Kamlesh Jain, who told us he’s stable.

“He’s looking good 1761653559. We’ve been in touch for two days, he’s replying. If he’s able to reply on the phone, then he’s stable.”

How did Iyer sustain freak injury?

The 30-year-old sustained an impact injury in his left lower rib cage region as he pulled off a sensational backpedalling catch to remove Alex Carey, a key moment in the third ODI of the series, which India won by nine wickets.

Iyer, who is also the vice captain of the ODI team, was forced off the field after the injury and did not return for the rest of Australia’s innings.

“He was taken to the hospital for further evaluation,” the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said in a statement.

“Scans revealed a laceration injury to the spleen. He is under treatment, medically stable, and recovering well.”

He remained hospitalised in Sydney, where the BCCI medical team closely monitored him in consultation with specialists from Australia and India.

It was not clear when Iyer could return to action.

Despite the victory on Saturday, India lost the series 1-2 after suffering defeats in the first two games in Perth and Adelaide.

India’s next one-day outing is a home series against South Africa, starting on November 30.

Iyer has scored 2,917 runs from 73 ODIs at an average of 47.81.

A five-match T20 series between the two cricketing powerhouses begins on Wednesday, but Iyer is not a part of that squad.

India’s ageing stars Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli rebounded strongly in what may be their last match on Australian soil.

Rohit Sharma smashed his 33rd one-day international hundred, and Virat Kohli rebounded from back-to-back ducks with a meticulous half-century, as India avoided a whitewash against Australia with a nine-wicket win to close their three-match series, in what may have been their final ODI international in Australia.

Sharma, 38, and Kohli, 36, will not feature in the upcoming five-game T20 series against Australia tour starting on October 29, although neither player has confirmed Saturday’s fixture was their final match Down Under.

Sharma made an unbeaten 121 off 125 balls, with 13 fours and three sixes, and Kohli scored 74 not out, as both batters knocked off 237-1 with more than 11 overs to spare in what could be their last international innings in Australia.

Fast bowler Harshit Rana’s career-best 4-39 bowled out Australia for below-par 236 after India lost its 18th consecutive toss in an ODI, but all six of its bowlers were among the wickets.

Australia had clinched the series 2-0 by winning Thursday’s match in Adelaide by two wickets. That followed a seven-wicket victory in the rain-interrupted opener in Perth.

“We had a near-perfect game,” said India captain Shubman Gill, who scored 24 off 26 balls before falling to Josh Hazlewood. “Rohit and Kohli have done it for so many years – [a] delight to watch.

Sharma, Kohli return to form

Sharma and Kohli got loud cheers from the crowd of nearly 40,000 at the Sydney Cricket Ground as they shared a 168-run partnership – the first century stand between the two since January 2020.

Sharma’s century was punctuated by strong sweeps against the spinners on front of square, and he twice lofted Adam Zampa (0-50) for sixes on either side of the wicket before raising his hundred with a single against the leg-spinner.

Kohli, who was dismissed without scoring at Perth and Adelaide, pumped his fist gently as he drove Hazlewood for a single to wide mid-on from the first ball he faced. Kohli grew in confidence when he cut Zampa to the point boundary and welcomed Mitchell Starc with a straight driven boundary.

Kohli survived a close LBW review on 36 when he went to pull Nathan Ellis’s short ball before completing his half-century off 56 balls.

Kohli also overtook Kumar Sangakkara (14,234), and with 14,255 runs, he is now behind only Sachin Tendulkar’s all-time record of 18,426 runs.

Earlier, Matt Renshaw (56) scored his maiden ODI half-century before Australia collapsed and got bowled out in 46.4 overs.

Australia’s first six batters all crossed the 20-run mark, but could not convert them into big scores. The home team lost four wickets for 18 runs after sitting pretty at 183-3 in the 34th over as India kept picking up wickets with regular intervals.

Travis Head (29) started aggressively before he offered a tame catch at backward point off Mohammed Siraj, and Mitchell Marsh’s promising start came to an end when he gave himself too much room against left-arm spinner Axar Patel and was clean bowled on 41 in the 16th over.

Renshaw and Alex Carey added 59 runs for the fourth-wicket stand, before Shreyas Iyer took a stunning catch while running from backward point. Renshaw was out LBW in the 37th over when he advanced down the wicket to the off-spin of Washington Sundar (2-44), but was hit low on the pads. Ellis played a little cameo of 16 with three boundaries before Australia got bowled out.

“We needed one more stand in the back-end of our first innings,” Marsh said. “Had a great platform at 183-3, but couldn’t cash in.”

Lucknow, India – On the evening of September 4, an illuminated signboard lit up a predominantly Muslim neighbourhood in Kanpur, an industrial town in India’s northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

The signboard said: “I love Muhammad” – with a red heart standing in for the word, love.

It was the first time the mainly working-class residents in Kanpur’s Syed Nagar had put up such a sign as part of the decorations as they joined millions of Muslims around the world to celebrate Prophet Muhammad’s birthday.

The day, marked as Eid Milad-un-Nabi across South Asia, involves the faithful organising religious gatherings, Quran recitations, and sermons about the prophet’s life and teachings. At some places, the celebrations include mass processions, with people carrying posters to express their love and reverence for the prophet.

In Syed Nagar, however, as soon as the words glowed, a group of Hindu men swooped in, objecting to the celebration. Police were called in, and following a ruckus that lasted hours, the signboard was removed late that night.

Charges related to promoting enmity between different religious groups, as well as deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage the religious feelings of another community, were filed against nine Muslim men and 15 unidentified people from Syed Nagar. No arrests have been made so far.

Mohit Bajpayee, a Syed Nagar resident affiliated with a Hindu group named Sri Ramnavmi Samiti, said he had no objection to the text, ‘I love Muhammad’, but to the placement of the signboard at a place used by them for a Hindu festival.

“All religions have equal rights under the constitution,” he told Al Jazeera. “But the sign was put up at a location where our Ram Navami decorations are usually displayed. Everyone has a right to follow their religion, but new traditions should not be started in new locations.”

But the Muslim residents of Syed Nagar say the signboard was put up at a public place they converged at every year for the prophet’s birth anniversary.

“We had official permission for the decorations. Everyone has the right to practise their religion under the constitution,” said a 28-year-old resident who is one of those charged, unwilling to reveal his identity over fears of further action by the government.

MA Khan, the lawyer for the accused in Kanpur, told Al Jazeera that the Muslim men were also accused of tearing a banner of the Hindu community during the Eid Milad-un-Nabi procession on September 5.

“Many of those named were not even present in the procession,” he said.

‘Disturbing communal harmony’

Uttar Pradesh is home to 38 million Muslims – more than the entire population of Saudi Arabia – comprising nearly 20 percent of India’s most populous state. Since 2017, the politically crucial state has been governed by Yogi Adityanath, a hardline Hindu monk known for his anti-Muslim speech and policies, and a prominent politician from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu majoritarian Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Days later, the spark from Kanpur ignited a fire some 270km (168 miles) away, in another Uttar Pradesh town called Bareilly – headquarters of the Barelvi sect of Sunni Muslims, who number between 200 million to 300 million across the world.

On September 10, the state police registered a first information report (FIR) against nine Muslims in Bareilly, including a religious scholar, accusing them of “disturbing communal harmony” and starting a “new tradition” that threatened public order.

On September 21, Maulana Tauqeer Raza Khan, chief of a Muslim group called Ittehad-e-Millat Council (IMC) and descendant of Imam Ahmed Raza Khan, the founder of the Barelvi sect, announced a protest over the FIRs filed in Bareilly and Kanpur, and urged his supporters to gather at a ground after Friday prayers on September 26 to denounce the police action.

The district administration denied Khan permission for the rally.

On September 25, the IMC issued a statement asking people not to gather for the protest. But hours later, Khan’s supporters allegedly circulated a social media message, claiming the IMC statement was fake and aimed at defaming the Muslim body.

The next day, thousands of Muslims assembled near a famous Muslim shrine in Bareilly after the Friday prayers, holding “I love Muhammad” posters and raising slogans against the police for their action in Kanpur.

District authorities alleged that the march was unauthorised and accused some participants of pelting stones at the police and vandalising public property. The police responded with a baton charge, and arrested Khan and dozens of others, as authorities shut down the internet in the town.

In a video message recorded before his arrest, Khan said the crackdown was a targeted suppression of religious expression. “Attempts to suppress our religious sentiments will backfire,” he warned.

A day later, while speaking at an event in the state capital, Lucknow, Chief Minister Adityanath condemned the Bareilly unrest as a “well-orchestrated attempt” to disturb social harmony.

“Sometimes, people are not able to shun their bad habits easily. For that, some denting-painting is required … You saw that in Bareilly yesterday. A maulana [Muslim scholar] forgot who is in power,” he said in Hindi, without naming anyone.

The “denting-painting” soon followed, as has been the pattern with Adityanath’s crackdown on Muslims accused of disrupting public order. A banquet hall belonging to one of the accused was bulldozed by the authorities in Bareilly.

‘Government wants to instil fear’

Demolition of homes and commercial properties belonging to Muslims accused of a range of crimes has become a common practice in Uttar Pradesh and other BJP-ruled states, despite India’s top court recently banning what it called the “bulldozer justice”. Rights groups say such demolitions are a form of extralegal punishment that bypasses judicial processes and devastates families economically.

While the Uttar Pradesh government claimed the demolitions in Bareilly targeted illegally-constructed buildings, the timing and targets suggest a clear strategy of intimidation.

“Police are registering cases against Muslims across the nation to suppress their legitimate protests … The BJP government wants to instil fear so Muslims lose the courage to speak for their religious and fundamental rights,” Sumaiya Rana, daughter of the famous Urdu poet late Munawwar Rana, told Al Jazeera.

Rana herself organised a protest outside the state assembly building in Lucknow, where more than a dozen demonstrators holding “I love Muhammad” placards were briefly detained by the police.

The Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR), a rights group, says at least 22 FIRs have been filed across India in connection with the Muslim campaign, naming more than 2,500 individuals, with at least 89 arrested in Bareilly so far.

“Authorities have treated a slogan expressing love for the prophet as a criminal act and described it as provocative,” APCR secretary Nadeem Khan told Al Jazeera. “In many cases, the administration violated due process in registering cases and demolishing the properties of the accused, which has severe social and economic impacts on Muslim communities.”

SQR Ilyasi, a member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, a prominent Muslim body, stressed that peaceful protest is not illegal for any community in India. “Expressing love for the prophet is our right,” he told Al Jazeera.

Activist Vandana Mishra of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties, a rights group, said the authorities frequently allow the Hindu community to “raise religious slogans freely, while the minority faces arrest for expressing love for the prophet”.

“This contravenes the secular and democratic ethos of our constitution,” she told Al Jazeera.

Opposition parties have also criticised the Uttar Pradesh government’s actions.

The Samajwadi Party, one of the state’s biggest political forces, said it attempted to send a delegation to Bareilly to meet the victims of the police crackdown, but claimed its members were prevented. “The government talks of democracy but acts in complete disregard of it,” the leader of the opposition in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, Mata Prasad Pandey, told reporters in Lucknow.

Lawyer Zia Jillani, who recently visited Bareilly and is representing some of the accused, told Al Jazeera that most of those arrested or facing charges “belong to the marginalised sections of society and earn on a daily wage basis”.

“For them, due to their financial incapability, pursuing and fighting legal cases against the injustices inflicted upon them is an unbearable task,” he said.

“This kind of hate politics preys on the poor, taking advantage of their vulnerability while ignoring justice and accountability.”

India is set to host the centenary Commonwealth Games in 2030 – the second time in 20 years that the event will have been held in the world’s most populous nation.

The city of Ahmedabad in the west of the country has been chosen ahead of Abuja in Nigeria by an evaluation commission from governing body Commonwealth Sport.

And the decision to hold the Games there in five years time is now expected to be ratified at the organisation’s general assembly in Glasgow on 26 November.

Ahmedabad can boast the Narendra Modi Stadium – the largest in the world, with a capacity of 132,000 – which hosted the Cricket World Cup final in 2023.

The city has a population in excess of five million people, and has even been suggested as a potential bidder to host a future Olympic Games.

“We see the 2030 Games as a powerful opportunity to inspire our youth, strengthen international partnerships and contribute to a shared future across the Commonwealth,” said Dr. P T Usha, president of Commonwealth Games Association India.

The Games first visited India in 2010 when Delhi hosted.

It is the second time Abuja has missed out on staging the Commonwealths, having been overlooked for the 2014 edition in favour of Glasgow.

And it also means Africa’s wait to hold the event for a first time will continue.

The news looks set to end fears that Glasgow 2026 might be the last-ever Games, with Scotland’s largest city having stepped in after the Australian state of Victoria withdrew for financial reasons.

That came after Birmingham took on the 2022 event after the South African city of Durban pulled out.

However, a reimagined format – with fewer sports, athletes and venues – has lessened the cost and enticed India, Nigeria and a handful of other countries to make their pitch to welcome the 74 Commonwealth Sport nations and territories.

A Commonwealth Sport statement said they “assessed candidate cities against a wide range of criteria including technical delivery, athlete experience, infrastructure, governance, and alignment with Commonwealth Sport values”.

It added: “The Commonwealth Sport Executive Board has agreed to develop a strategy for supporting and accelerating Nigeria’s hosting ambitions for future Games, including consideration for 2034.”

The 2030 Games will mark the centenary of the inaugural event held in Hamilton, Canada, in 1930.

Dozens of dilapidated stone buildings are all that remain of the once-thriving border village of Martoli, in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand. Nestled in the Johar Valley and surrounded by Himalayan peaks, the most notable being Nanda Devi, once considered the tallest mountain in the world, this village had traded sugar, lentils, spices, and cloth for salt and wool with Tibetans across the border.

The nomadic inhabitants of several villages spent the winter months in the plains gathering goods to be traded with Tibetans in the summer. However, the border was sealed following an armed conflict between India and China in 1962, disrupting life in the high villages and leaving people with little incentive to return.

Kishan Singh, 77, was 14 when he left with his family to settle in the lower village of Thal. He still returns to Martoli every summer to till the land and cultivate buckwheat, strawberries, and black cumin.

His ancestral home has no roof, so he sleeps in a neighbour’s abandoned house during the six months he spends in this village.

“I enjoy being in the mountains and the land here is very fertile,” he says.

In late autumn, he hires mules to transport his harvest to his home in the plains, where he sells it at a modest profit.

The largest of the Johar Valley villages had about 1,500 people at its peak in the early 1960s. Martoli had about 500 residents then, while some of the dozen or so other villages had 10 to 15 homes each.

Now, only three or four people return to Martoli each summer.

A few villagers are returning in summer to the nearby villages of Laspa, Ghanghar, and Rilkot, as they can now travel by vehicle to within a few kilometres (miles) of their villages on a recently built unpaved road.

Among the scattered remnants of earlier stone houses in Martoli, a new guesthouse has appeared to cater for a few trekkers who pass through the village en route to the Nanda Devi Base Camp.

Under blazing skies at a tea plantation in India’s northeastern state of Assam, worker Kamini Kurmi wears an umbrella fastened over her head to keep her hands free to pluck delicate leaves from the bushes.

“When it’s really hot, my head spins and my heart begins to beat very fast,” said Kurmi, one of the many women employed for their dextrous fingers, instead of machines that harvest most conventional crops within a matter of days.

Weather extremes are shrivelling harvests on India’s tea plantations, endangering the future of an industry renowned for beverages as refreshing as the state of Assam and the adjoining hill station of Darjeeling in West Bengal state, while reshaping a global trade estimated at more than $10bn a year.

“Shifts in temperature and rainfall patterns are no longer occasional anomalies; they are the new normal,” said Rupanjali Deb Baruah, a scientist at the Tea Research Association.

As changing patterns reduce yields and stall output, rising domestic consumption in India is expected to shrink exports from the world’s second-largest tea producer.

While output stagnates in other key producers such as Kenya and Sri Lanka, declining Indian exports, which made up 12 percent of global trade last year, could boost prices.

Tea prices at Indian auctions have grown by just 4.8 percent a year for three decades, far behind the 10 percent achieved by staples such as wheat and rice.

The mildly warm, humid conditions crucial for Assam’s tea-growing districts are increasingly being disrupted by lengthy dry spells and sudden, intense rains.

Such weather not only helps pests breed, but also forces estate owners to turn to the rarely used practice of irrigating plantations, said Mritunjay Jalan, the owner of an 82-year-old tea estate in Assam’s Tinsukia district.

Rainfall there has dropped by more than 250mm (10 inches) between 1921 and 2024, while minimum temperatures have risen by 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.2 degrees Fahrenheit), the Tea Research Association says.

The monsoon, Assam’s key source of rain, as summer and winter showers have nearly disappeared, brought rainfall this season that was 38 percent below average.

That has helped to shorten the peak output season to just a few months, narrowing the harvesting window, said senior tea planter Prabhat Bezboruah.

Patchy rains bring more frequent pest infestations, leaving tea leaves discoloured, blotched brown, and sometimes riddled with tiny holes.

These measures, in turn, add to costs, which are already rising at 8 to 9 percent a year, driven up by higher wages and prices of fertiliser, said Hemant Bangur, chairman of the leading industry body, the Indian Tea Association.

Planters say government incentives are insufficient to spur replanting, crucial in Assam, where many colonial-era tea bushes yield less and lose resilience to weather as they age beyond the usual productive span of 40 to 50 years.

India’s tea industry has flourished for nearly 200 years, but its share of global trade could fall below the 2024 figure of 12 percent, as the increasing prosperity of a growing population boosts demand at home.

Domestic consumption jumped 23 percent over the past decade to 1.2 million tonnes, far outpacing production growth of 6.3 percent, the Indian Tea Association says.

While exports of quality tea have shrunk in recent years, India’s imports have grown, nearly doubling in 2024 to a record 45,300 tonnes.

That adds expense for overseas buyers, said executives of India’s leading merchants, at a time when global competitors such as Kenya face similar problems.

Test captain Gill takes over the 50-over leadership role ahead of the ODI series against Australia.

Rohit Sharma has been replaced by Shubman Gill as India’s one-day international (ODI) men’s captain, says the country’s cricket board.

Rohit was India’s all-format captain until June 2024 and has been included in India’s 15-man squad for the ODI series against Australia, along with star batter Virat Kohli, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said in a statement on Saturday.

Gill, who took over as the Test captain after Rohit’s retirement from the format in May, will take over the role ahead of the ODI series away in Australia starting on October 19.

Rohit has led India in the ODI format at the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 in February and March, when his team won the title in the final against New Zealand in Dubai.

The 38-year-old also led India to their second ICC Men’s T20 World Cup title in 2024 in Barbados, following which he announced his retirement from the 20-over format along with Kohli.

The stalwarts of Indian cricket have also hung up their boots in the longest form of the game following the 2024-25 Test tour of Australia.

Kohli, who turns 37 in November, has also retired from Test cricket.

Suryakumar Yadav replaced Rohit as the T20 international captain in July and led India’s triumphant run at the T20 Asia Cup 2025.

There were no surprises in India’s squad for the five-match T20I series against Australia.

🚨 India’s squad for Tour of Australia announced

Shubman Gill named #TeamIndia Captain for ODIs

The #AUSvIND bilateral series comprises three ODIs and five T20Is against Australia in October-November pic.twitter.com/l3I2LA1dBJ

— BCCI (@BCCI) October 4, 2025

Varanasi, India – Mohammed Ahmad Ansari has spent his entire life in the narrow and congested lanes of Varanasi, a city often described as the spiritual capital of India, and the constituency of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The 55-year-old has spent decades weaving Banarasi saris and thoroughly enjoys the clacking noises of handlooms at work against the backdrop of temple bells and evening calls of azan in the holy city that is widely believed to be the oldest settlement in India, dating back as early as 1800 BCE and known for the blend of Hindu-Muslim culture.

But of late, sales have taken a hit for a range of reasons, the latest being ongoing tensions between India and its neighbour, Bangladesh.

Diplomatic relations between the once-close allies have been sharply tested since August last year, when former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled to New Delhi from Dhaka after an uprising against her rule.

Bangladesh blames India for some of its troubles, including Modi’s support for Hasina when she was in power.

There have been a few attacks on religious minorities, including Hindus, since her overthrow, as those communities were viewed as Hasina supporters, and Indian businesses, too, have been boycotted or attacked in Bangladesh as the country demands that New Delhi hand over Hasina to face charges in her home country.

In April, Bangladesh restricted the imports of certain items from India, including yarn and rice. On May 17, India retaliated by banning the imports of readymade garments and processed food items from Bangladesh across land borders. While Bangladesh can still send its saris to India, it will have to use the more expensive and time-consuming sea route.

Banarasi saris are globally known for their exquisite craftsmanship, luxurious silk, meticulous zari work of fine gold and silver wire embroidery, and it can often take up to six months to weave a single sari. These can sell for as much as 100,000 rupees ($1,130) each, or more, depending upon the design and the material used.

“These saris are in high demand in Bangladesh during festivals and weddings, but the ban has led to a more than 50 percent drop in business,” Ansari told Al Jazeera.

This is the latest blow to the industry that has already been hit with earlier government policies – including the so-called demonetisation when India overnight invalidated high-value notes and a hike in power tariffs – as well as the COVID-19 pandemic and cheaper competition from saris made on advanced power looms in other parts of the country, particularly Surat in Gujarat in western India.

This onslaught of the past few years has added up, forcing weavers out of the business and halving their numbers to about 200,000 now, as the rest either left the city in search of other jobs or took up new jobs, like driving rickshaws to earn a living.

Pawan Yadav, 61, a wholesale sari trader in Varanasi, told Al Jazeera that the business has come to a standstill since the change of regime in Dhaka.

“We used to supply around 10,000 saris annually to Bangladesh, but everything has come to a halt,” Yadav said, adding that he is still owed 1.5 million rupees ($17,140) by clients in the neighbouring country, “but the recovery seems impossible due to the political turmoil.”

India has 108 documented ways of draping sarees that hold a special position globally for their intricate designs, vibrant colours symbolising timeless elegance and beauty.

Despite the current turmoil, the textile sector employs the second-highest number of people after agriculture in India, with more than 3.5 million people working in it, per government data. Within that, the sari industry is valued at approximately 80,000 crore rupees ($9.01bn), including some $300m in exports.

Varanasi’s weavers and traders, who voted Modi into parliament for the third consecutive time, are waiting for the prime minister to find an amicable solution to the trade issue with Bangladesh.

In 2015, the Modi government designated August 7 as the National Handloom Day and promised to bring a change in the lives of handloom weavers by promoting domestic products. But nothing meaningful has come of that so far, traders and weavers who spoke to Al Jazeera said.

“India has a unique handloom craft which no country can compete with,” but without sufficient businesses or reliable income, many artisans have been forced to abandon the trade, and now “it is difficult to even find a young weaver”, Ramesh Menon, founder of Save the Loom, a social enterprise working for the revival of handloom, said. “The need of the hour is to re-position handloom as a product of luxury, and not poverty.”

West Bengal traders welcome ban

The situation, however, is completely different in West Bengal, around 610km (380 miles) from Varanasi and along the border with Bangladesh.

The ban on the sari trade between the two countries has offered a new lease of life to the traders of cotton saris in Bengal, who had been losing market share to Dhaka’s saris.

Tarak Nath Das, a cotton sari trader for the past four decades in Shantipur in West Bengal, supplies saris woven by local artisans to various showrooms across the country.

After years of losses, the 65-year-old finally saw business boom in the last few weeks in the lead-up to the main festival of Durga Puja, and was all smiles.

“The saris from Bangladesh had devoured at least 30 percent of our market, and the local industry was bleeding. We have slowly started to recapture our old markets as orders have started pouring in. The sale of the saris during the just concluded festival was better by at least 25 percent as compared to last year,” Das told Al Jazeera.

Shantipur is home to more than 100,000 weavers and traders and is regarded as the hub of the sari business in eastern India. The town and surrounding areas in Nadia district are famous for their handloom weaving industry, which produces a fine variety of saris, including the highly popular Shantipur cotton sari.

Nearby areas of Hooghly and Murshidabad district are also famous for their cotton saris, and these are sold both locally and across the country as well as exported to Greece, Turkiye and other countries.

Sanjay Karmakar, 40, a wholesale trader of cotton saris in Nadia district, is also happy with the ban.

“The local women prefer to buy Bangladeshi saris as they come in attractive packaging and the fabric used there is slightly superior to ours,” he said.

That, coupled with younger women choosing leggings, tunics and other modern clothes over traditional saris, had been pinching sales.

Santanu Guha Thakurta, 62, a fashion creator, told Al Jazeera that Indian weavers and traders would benefit immensely from the import restrictions on Bangladesh. That also shut down cheap knockoffs of the more expensive designs.

“The restrictions came at the right time, just before the onset of the festival season and that immensely benefited the industry.”

Barpeta/Guwahati, Assam, India – For more than 15 years, truck driver Imam Hussain found solace in singer Zubeen Garg’s voice and music as he drove his vehicle on quiet and lonely nights along the Himalayan hills and plains of the northeastern Indian state of Assam.

It was a period in which Bengali-speaking Muslims – the community 42-year-old Hussein belongs to – increasingly came under attack in Assam. They’ve been accused of being outsiders – even infiltrators – in their own home.

Amid soaring Hindu-Muslim tensions, the music of Garg – a Hindu – served as a rare unifier. “His music was my inner peace,” said Hussain.

On September 19, Garg died by drowning near Lazarus Island in Singapore, where he was scheduled to perform at the Northeast India Festival, an event that celebrates the art and culture of the Indian region.

The sudden death of the 52-year-old artist, who enjoyed a cult-like status among millions of his fans in and outside Assam, triggered a massive outpouring of grief that further cemented his stature as a public figure whose appeal spanned divisions that have otherwise fractured the state. The singer’s wife, Garima Saikia Garg, issued a statement, saying her husband “suffered a seizure attack” while swimming in the sea.

While Hussain was mourning Garg’s death, so was Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose Hindu majoritarian Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is accused by critics of fanning Hindu-Muslim divisions nationally and in Assam.

“He will be remembered for his rich contribution to music,” Modi said in a condolence message. “His renditions were very popular among people across all walks of life.”

Assam’s Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who belongs to Modi’s party, said the state “lost one of its favourite sons”.

“Zubeen’s voice had an unmatched ability to energise people, and his music spoke directly to our minds and souls. He has left a void that will never be filled,” Sarma said.

The Assam government declared four days of state mourning as Sarma flew to the capital, New Delhi, to receive Garg’s body when it returned from Singapore.

A polarised backdrop

Two days later, on September 21, tens of thousands of Garg’s fans gathered outside the main airport in Guwahati, Assam’s biggest city. They waited as state officials received Garg’s body after it landed.

Then, they marched behind a convoy carrying the body to a stadium some 30 kilometres (19 miles) away for public viewing, singing some of his most famous songs in unison. Some held his posters, while others walked teary-eyed with candles in their hands. After four days of state mourning, Garg was cremated on September 23 with full state honours and a 21-gun salute.

Those scenes of unity were a break from the religious and linguistic fractures that have deepened in Assam in recent years.

The fault lines between the Indigenous Assamese-speaking and the mostly migrant Bengali-speaking communities in Assam aren’t new: They go back nearly two centuries, when the British brought large numbers of Bengali-speaking Hindus from Bengal to run the colonial bureaucracy, creating resentment among the Indigenous Assamese who feared the outsiders would take their jobs and occupy lands.

A second wave of migration of Bengali-speaking Hindus and Muslims to Assam started in 1947 with India’s independence and the formation of Pakistan, which included the territory that in 1971 declared itself the independent nation of Bangladesh. Millions of people migrated from Bangladesh to Assam in these years, triggering backlash from the Indigenous Assamese, which often turned violent.

Those ethnic and religious tensions continue to dominate Assam’s politics even today as suspicions over the identity and citizenship of mainly Bengali-speaking Muslims – pejoratively called “miya” – deepen, with thousands of them declared “Bangladeshi infiltrators” and many of them sent to detention camps or forced to cross over to Bangladesh by Indian security forces.

Garg was composing his music against this polarised backdrop, responding to the communal fissures with his verses and voice.

On many occasions, the singer described himself as an atheist and a “social leftist” as he distanced himself from the state’s mainstream parties, the centrist Congress and the right-wing BJP.

He was also a vocal critic of India’s deeply entrenched caste system.

In an undated video now viral after his death, a person on stage is seen teasing Garg for not wearing the sacred thread worn by other Brahmins, who sit at the top of Hinduism’s complex caste hierarchy.

Garg shot back, saying, “I am just a human. I have no caste, no religion, and no God.”

In another instance, Garg in 2018 encouraged famous female Assamese Olympian, Hima Das, to consume beef in order to “gain strength” to compete in international and national sports events. Many Hindus belonging to privileged castes revere the cow, and its slaughter and consumption are banned in several Indian states. It is unclear whether Das accepted Garg’s advice.

He was also at the forefront of a 2019 campaign against India’s controversial new citizenship law, which made religion a basis for expediting citizenship for immigrants from neighbouring nations, excluding Muslims. The law led to nationwide protests against Modi’s government, while the United Nations called it “fundamentally discriminatory” and urged a review.

Assamese social media creator Dr Medusssa told Al Jazeera that as anti-Muslim hate permeated Assamese society, Garg’s public positions stood out, turning him into an emblem of Hindu-Muslim harmony.

“It is precisely because of Zubeen’s persona of being inclusive, and how he represented marginalised communities through his songs, that his legacy is being claimed by all,” said Medusssa, who requested to be identified by her social media name.

“He refused to belong to any particular community. He was for all.”

For Akhil Ranjan Dutta, a political scientist at Gauhati University in Assam, the celebration of Garg by Modi and Sarma – despite the dissident artist’s opposition to Hindu majoritarianism – is partly due to the way the singer approached the politics of dissent.

“While he [Garg] would openly criticise the policies and the actions of the federal and state-level BJP governments, he would seldom attack BJP leaders [personally],” Dutta told Al Jazeera. “This makes it easier for the BJP to appropriate his legacy as not mourning him would otherwise put them under public scrutiny.”

Another political commentator who did not wish to be named – fearing reprisal from the government – was more blunt in his view of Garg’s ability to bridge political divisions.

While Garg was dismissive about the BJP as a political party, “he would not rattle their nerves by criticising their anti-Muslim policies or the attacks on Muslims very openly”, the commentator said. “That way, the Hindu nationalist party never feel too alienated by him.”

‘Artistic tour de force’

Born in 1972 to Assamese writer Mohini Mohan Borthakur and singer Ily Borhakur in Assam’s Jorhat town, Garg began singing at the age of three and was soon regarded as a child prodigy by his teachers. He moved to Guwahati to build his career as a singer and got his first major breakthrough in 1992 with the release of his debut Assamese album, Anamika.

It was the beginning of an illustrious career that saw Garg singing more than 38,000 songs in dozens of languages and dialects. He also sang several songs for Bollywood films, bursting into the national scene in 2006 with his Hindi hit, Ya Ali, for the film Gangster: A Love Story.

The next year, Garg won the national award for composing songs for the non-feature film, Echoes of Silence. Affectionately known as Zubeen Da among other sobriquets, he later ventured into acting and direction.

But more than Garg’s body of work, says Angshuman Choudhury, a joint doctoral candidate at the National University of Singapore and King’s College London, what made him a musical phenomenon was his refusal to conform to the archetype of a “tamed” and “cultured Assamese artist”.

The state’s popular culture, for the most part, according to Choudhury, was shaped until the 1990s by artists like musician Bhupen Hazarika and singer Janyata Hazarika, who “respected norms of social civility, never deviated from the script, and lacked the audacity to be that iconoclast that Garg was”.

“Garg, on the other hand, was an artistic tour de force in Assam. He disrupted and distorted the very image of a public performer and artist,” says Choudhury, whose doctoral research focuses on the ethnicity and politics of northeast India.

“He would use verbal expletives while on stage, sing under intoxication, and on many occasions, show overt defiance against established norms and culture.”

For instance, he once refused to perform at an event to mark Bihu – arguably Assam’s most important festival – after the organisers said that he could not sing in Hindi.

Prithiraj Borah, a sociologist from Assam who teaches at the National Academy of Legal Studies and Research in Hyderabad, said that Garg’s art also touched deeper, emotional and philosophical questions.

“Zubeen’s songs did not merely entertain,” he told Al Jazeera. “They also addressed the depths of what it means to be human, to love, to suffer, and to find meaning in an often-absurd world.”

Borah cites Garg’s song, Pakhi Pakhi Ei Mon (My heart is like a feather), in which he explored themes of freedom and captivity.

“The feather becomes a metaphor for the human condition, caught between the desire for liberty and the reality of various constraints,” Borah said.

Accessible to all

Abrar Nadim, a health officer in Assam’s Barpeta district, says he has memorised most of Garg’s songs since he was four.

“His song, Aei Mayar Dhorat [In this world of earthly pleasures] brought me closure to spirituality,” said Nadim, 30, as he stood next to a garlanded poster of Garg, while wearing black in mourning.

“The song describes temporary happiness in this world where corrupt people enjoy even after committing acts of injustice, corruption, and oppression, but little remains in the end.”

Maitrayee Patar, a prominent Assamese songwriter and poet, who had collaborated with the singer, including as recently as in 2023, said Garg, as an artist, “exuded a humanitarian side that was raw and relatable to all”.

“He disregarded political correctness and refused to align himself with majoritarian politics or any political parties, which made [him] come across as an artist loved by all,” Patar told Al Jazeera.

As clips from Garg’s songs and old interviews flood Assam’s social media, Hussain, the Bengali-Muslim truck driver in Guwahati, says his staunch rejection of hate politics and his humility in treating everyone as equal made him accessible to all.

Garg was Hindu. But after his death, students in madrasas – Islamic schools – were seen playing his songs, while Muslim leaders held prayers in his honour and recited the Quran before his photos – grieving practices not typically allowed by Islamic tenets.

“He [Garg] sang jikir – devotional folk songs sung by the Assamese-speaking Muslim community – to honour us,” Nadim said. “So there is nothing wrong if we pray for him by singing his songs.”

Back in Guwahati, truck driver Hussain recalled how Garg “never vilified” Bengali-speaking Muslims, as he wore a T-shirt bearing Garg’s photo.

Hussain hummed Garg’s iconic 2007 hit, Maya (Illusion) – a song in which the singer likens chasing a love interest to an illusion. The soothing melody, Hussein said, reminded him of the void left by the Garg’s death.

In Garg’s music, the idea of an Assam for Hindus and Muslims, Assamese speakers and Bengali speakers alike, was not an illusion.

India’s cricket team hoisted an imaginary trophy after winning the 2025 Asia Cup against Pakistan, refusing to accept the real one from Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi. The match came four months after a brief aerial war between the two nuclear-armed rivals over a deadly attack on a tourist area in Indian-administered Kashmir.

The move will enable asset seizures and prosecutions of Bishnoi gang, which has been accused of targeting Sikh activists abroad.

Canada has formally declared India’s Bishnoi gang a “terrorist” organisation, giving authorities the power to freeze assets, block funding, and prosecute members under “anti-terrorism” laws.

Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree announced the designation on Monday, saying the gang had instilled fear within Indian diaspora communities across the country.

“Specific communities have been targeted for terror, violence and intimidation by the Bishnoi Gang. Listing this group of criminal terrorists gives us more powerful and effective tools to confront and put a stop to their crimes,” said Anandasangaree.

Ottawa stressed that “acts of violence and terror have no place in Canada, especially those that target specific communities to create a climate of fear and intimidation.”

The gang, run by jailed Indian gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, is described by Canadian officials as a transnational criminal syndicate operating largely from India but with a presence in Canada.

Bishnoi, 32, has been imprisoned for a decade in India but is accused of directing a network of hundreds of members engaged in drug trafficking, arms smuggling, extortion, and targeted killings.

Canadian police have previously alleged that Indian intelligence services used Bishnoi associates to carry out killings and violent intimidation of supporters of the Khalistan movement, which seeks an independent state for the Sikh minority in the Indian state of Punjab, abroad.

India dismissed the claims, accusing Ottawa of failing to provide evidence and of ignoring repeated extradition requests for Bishnoi-linked suspects.

The Canadian government says the “terrorist” listing not only allows property and funds tied to the gang to be seized but also strengthens law enforcement’s ability to disrupt recruitment, financing, and international travel linked to the gang’s operations.

Political pressure has been mounting on Ottawa, with opposition leaders and provincial premiers in Alberta and British Columbia demanding tougher measures against the gang. Canada is home to more than 770,000 Sikhs, accounting for about 2 percent of Canada’s population.

‘A strong signal to India’

The Bishnoi gang’s notoriety has grown amid wider diplomatic tensions between Ottawa and New Delhi. The assassination of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar outside a Vancouver-area gurdwara in June 2023 threw the issue into sharp relief.

Canada accused Indian officials of directing intelligence to “criminal organisations like the Lawrence Bishnoi gang” to silence critics of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government abroad – an allegation India rejected.

New Delhi insists Ottawa has ignored more than two dozen extradition requests for Bishnoi members and continues to shield individuals wanted for crimes in India.

Despite the deep rift, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s national security adviser, Nathalie Drouin, said last week that Indian officials had pledged to cooperate in ongoing investigations and agreed to refrain from cross-border repression.

Indian leader controversially refers to the politically-charged win as an extension of ‘Operation Sindoor’.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has contentiously invoked the conflict with Pakistan in May, which brought the nuclear-armed neighbours to the cusp of a fifth all-out war, to celebrate India’s Asia Cup final cricket win against their regional arch foes.

“#OperationSindoor on the games field. Outcome is the same – India wins! Congrats to our cricketers,” Modi posted on X on Monday.

Modi was referring to the four-day conflict between the two nations, with its focus on Indian-administered Kashmir, in May, following an attack that killed 22 tourists that India blamed on Pakistan, an accusation that Islamabad vehemently denies.

During the conflict, Modi announced “Operation Sindoor” as a response to the attack, which heightened tensions and led to retaliation from Pakistan. The short conflict killed more than 70 people in missile and drone attacks, with both sides claiming victory.

In June, an Indian naval officer conceded that the country lost several fighter jets to Pakistani fire during their conflict in May and said the losses were a result of “constraints” placed on Indian forces by the government in New Delhi.

India and Pakistan traded other slights after Indian cricket players refused to shake hands with their Pakistani counterparts in the final of the Asia Cup, as tensions between the two countries remain heavily strained.

After India beat Pakistan at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Sunday by five wickets, the Indian team refused to accept the trophy from Asia Cricket Council (ACC) chief Mohsin Naqvi, who is also the chief of Pakistan’s Cricket Board (PCB) and Pakistan’s interior minister.

Simon Doull, a former New Zealand cricketer and broadcaster, announced, citing the ACC, that the Indian team would not be collecting their awards due to the tensions.

During the course of the tournament, the Indian team refused to shake hands with the Pakistan team in any of the three matches the two sides played.

Naqvi reportedly refused to step down from the presentation ceremony to hand out the award altogether.

Indian players Tilak Varma, who won the player-of-the-match award, Abhishek Sharma, who won the player-of-the-tournament award, and Kuldeep Yadav, who won the Most Valuable Player award, turned up to accept their individual awards but did not acknowledge Naqvi.

The Pakistani official was also the only person on stage who did not applaud the Indian trio.

In a post-match conference, Yadav said he had “never seen” a winning team denied their trophy.

But Pakistan’s captain, Salman Agha, accused India’s behaviour during the tournament of being “bad for cricket”.

“What they did today, a good team doesn’t do that. Good teams do what we have done. We waited for our medals and took them,” Agha said.

Indian cricket board (BCCI) secretary Devajit Saikia announced that the board will lodge a protest against Naqvi in the next meeting of the governing International Cricket Council (ICC) in November.

Indian captain Yadav was accused of making a political statement after the first match, while Pakistan opener Sahibzada Farhan and pacer Haris Rauf made political gestures in the second.

Ladakh, a high-altitude cold desert region in the Himalayas that has been at the heart of recent India-China tensions, was rocked on Wednesday by violent Gen Z-led protests as youth torched the regional office of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

As protesters, including school students, clashed with the police in Leh, the regional capital, at least four of them were killed and dozens were injured, protest coordinators told Al Jazeera, following additional deployment of the armed forces. Authorities said dozens of security forces were also injured in the clashes.

For the past six years, thousands of people in Ladakh, led by local civic bodies, have taken out peaceful marches and gone on hunger strikes demanding greater constitutional safeguards and statehood from India, which has governed the region federally since 2019. They want the power to elect a local government.

On Wednesday, however, groups of disillusioned youth broke with those peaceful protests, said Sonam Wangchuk, an educator who has been spearheading a series of hunger strikes.

“It was an outburst of youth, a kind of Gen-Z revolution, that brought them on streets,” Wangchuk said in a video statement, referring to recent uprisings in South Asian countries, including in Nepal earlier this month, that led to the overthrow of the government of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli.

So, what’s happening in Ladakh? What are their demands? How did the Himalayan region get to this point? And why does the crisis in Ladakh matter so much?

What triggered clashes in Ladakh?

On Wednesday morning, a hunger strike by local Ladakhi activists, led by the Ladakh Apex Body, an amalgam of socio-religious and political organisations, entered its 15th day.

Two activists, aged 62 and 71, had been hospitalised the previous evening after two weeks of hunger strike, leading to a call by organisers for a local shutdown. The protesters were also angry with the Modi government for delaying talks with them.

These issues led the youth to believe that “peace is not working”, Wangchuk said on Wednesday evening in a virtual press meeting, during which he appeared frail.

Then the youth-led groups broke away from the protest site in Leh at the Martyrs’ Memorial Park and moved towards local official buildings and a BJP office, raising slogans, leading to clashes with the police. Four were killed and another remains critical, while dozens were injured.

“This is the bloodiest day in the history of Ladakh. They martyred our young people – the general public who were on the streets to support the demands of the strike,” said Jigmat Paljor, the coordinator of the apex body behind the hunger strikes.

“The people were tired of fake promises for five years by the government, and people were filled with anger,” Paljor told Al Jazeera. Amid the violence, he said, his organisation withdrew the hunger strike, calling for peace.

In a statement, India’s home ministry said that clashes “unruly mob” had left over 30 forces personnel injured — and that “police had to resort to firing” in self defence, leading to “some casualties”.

The government said that “it was clear that the mob was incited by [Wangchuk]”, adding that the educator was “misleading the people through his provocative mention of Arab Spring-style protest and references to Gen Z protests in Nepal.” Wangchuk has been warning that youth sentiments could turn to violence if the government does not pay heed to the demands of peaceful protesters — but insists he has never advocated violence himself.

What do protesters want?

In 2019, the Modi government unilaterally stripped the semi-autonomous status and statehood that Indian-administered Kashmir had previously enjoyed under the Indian constitution.

The state had three regions – the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley, the Hindu-majority Jammu, and Ladakh, where Muslims and Buddhists each form about 40 percent of the population.

Then, the Modi government bifurcated the erstwhile state into two territories: Jammu and Kashmir with a legislature, and Ladakh without one. While both are federally governed and neither has the powers of other states in India, Jammu and Kashmir’s legislature at least allows its population to elect local leaders who can represent their concerns and voice them to New Delhi. Ladakh, locals argue, doesn’t even have that.

Kashmir is a disputed region between India, Pakistan and China – the three nuclear-armed neighbours each control a part. India claims all of it, and Pakistan claims all except the part held by China, its ally. Indian-administered Kashmir borders Pakistan on the west, and Ladakh shares a 1,600km (994-mile) border with China on the east.

Since the end of statehood, Ladakhis have found themselves under the rule of bureaucrats. More than 90 percent of the region’s population is listed as Scheduled Tribes. That status has prompted a demand for Ladakh to be included under the Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution, which provides autonomous administrative and governance structures to regions where recognised Indigenous communities dominate the population. There are currently 10 regions in India’s northeastern states that are listed under the schedule.

However, the Modi government has so far resisted both statehood and the protections of the Sixth Schedule for Ladakh.

The separation of Jammu and Kashmir from Ladakh has meant that it is harder for Ladakhis to find work in Jammu and Kashmir, where most jobs in the previously unified region were. Since 2019, locals have also accused the Indian government of not putting in place clear policies for hirings to public sector jobs.

“[The young protesters] are unemployed for five years, and Ladakh is not being granted [constitutional] protections,” Wangchuk said on Wednesday. “This is the recipe of social unrest in society: keep youth unemployed and then snatch their democratic rights.”

Ladakh has a 97 percent literacy rate, well above India’s national average of about 80 percent. But a 2023 survey found that 26.5 percent of Ladakh’s graduates are unemployed – double the national average.

On Wednesday, the anger tipped over.

“What’s happening in Ladakh is horrific,” said Siddiq Wahid, an academic and political analyst from Leh. “It is scary to see Ladakh sort of pushed to this edge.”

“In the last six years, Ladakhis have realised the dangers that their identity faces,” he said, adding that the people have been “adamant about the need to retrieve their rights since they were snatched away six years ago”.

“The youth anger is a particularly worrisome angle because they’re impatient. They’ve been waiting for a resolution for years,” said Wahid. “Now, they are frustrated because they don’t see a future for themselves.”

Have there been protests earlier in Ladakh?

Yes. Since the abrogation of the region’s semi-autonomous status and the removal of statehood, several local civic groups have staged protest marches and at times gone on hunger strikes.

Wangchuk, the educator, has led five hunger strikes in the last three years, demanding constitutional protections for Ladakh. He is also the most well-known face of the protests in Ladakh – having a wider reach due to his past sustainability innovations. Wangchuk’s life has also inspired a Bollywood blockbuster movie that has also gained legions of fans in China.

The site of the hunger strike, the Martyrs’ Memorial Park, is also dedicated to three Ladakhis who were killed in August 1989 in a firing incident during protests. At the time, the protests were over anger about perceived Kashmiri dominance in the unified state that Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir belonged to.

The site also honours two other protesters who were killed in January 1981 during an agitation demanding Scheduled Tribe status for Ladakhis.

But Wednesday’s protest marked the deadliest day in Ladakh’s political history.

Sajad Kargili, a civil member of a committee constituted by the Modi government to speak with the protesting activists, said that the violence in Ladakh “highlights the frustration of our youth”.

“The government needs to understand that there are young people here who are angry and not opting to sit on a hunger strike,” Kargili said. “The Modi government should not turn its back on these calls.”

Why Ladakh is so significant

Ladakh sits at India’s Himalayan frontier, bordering China.

The region also connects to vital mountain passes, airfields, and supply routes that are critical for India’s military in the event of a conflict with China. In 2020, the Indian and Chinese forces clashed in eastern Ladakh along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), following a Chinese incursion.

At least 20 Indian forces personnel were killed alongside four Chinese. The confrontation triggered the mobilisation of tens of thousands of troops on both sides, with heavy weaponry and infrastructure being rushed to high-altitude posts.

Since then, Ladakh has remained the nerve centre of India-China border tensions. Multiple rounds of military and diplomatic talks have led to a thaw since late last year.

Now, Wahid, the political analyst, said that the Modi government’s actions in 2019 are returning to haunt India with a new threat in Ladakh – an internal one. Indian authorities, he pointed out, have long had to deal with Kashmir as a “centre of discontent”. Now, they have Ladakh to contend with, too.

Leading activist says three to five people feared killed in police fire, but no official word yet on casualty figures.

A protest in the Indian Himalayan region of Ladakh demanding statehood for the federal territory has turned violent as protesters clashed with police and set fire to a paramilitary vehicle and the office of the country’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Police fired tear gas on Wednesday and charged demonstrators with batons, injuring dozens of them, police said. Some among the injured were in critical condition, residents said.

Authorities banned the assembly of more than five people in Leh district, the capital of the Ladakh region, after the clashes.

No official statement has been released on the number of casualties, but a local activist who has been on hunger strike seeking more power for the region bordering China told Indian media that three to five people are believed to have been killed in police gunfire.

“We have reports that many people have been injured. We don’t know the exact count,” Sonam Wangchuk was quoted as saying by the Indian Express site.

Al Jazeera could not independently verify the casualty figures.

Protests erupted after youth groups called for the shutdown of Leh.

The protests are part of a larger movement in the federally governed region that seeks statehood and constitutional provisions from the Indian government for autonomy over land and agricultural decisions.

Ladakh lost its autonomy in 2019 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government carved the region out of India-administered Kashmir. Since then, the majority Muslim-Buddhist territory has been directly governed from New Delhi.

Protesters have called for Ladakh to be given special status that would allow for the creation of elected local bodies to protect its tribal areas.

At its core, the protests are calling for Ladakh to be included under the Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution, which provides provisions for tribal areas and allows local communities to have a say in how the regions are administered.

Wangchuk called for restraint as he called off his hunger strike, which he launched two weeks ago. “My message of peaceful path failed today. I appeal to [the] youth to please stop this nonsense. This only damages our cause,” he said.

In a public notice, District Administrator Romil Singh Donk announced a ban on demonstrations, public gatherings and inflammatory speech.

Activists and local politicians in Ladakh have accused Modi’s government of not addressing their concerns. Several rounds of talks between local politicians and representatives from New Delhi in the past few years have not yielded results.

The next round of talks is expected to take place on October 6.

Ladakh, which shares a long border with China, is a strategically important territory for India. Ladakh was the site of deadly clashes between Indian and Chinese soldiers in 2020 that strained the ties between the two Asian countries. The two Asian giants have recently moved to mend their ties in the wake of Trump’s punishing tariff war.

The northeastern state has been bitterly divided since May 2023 when violence broke out between the Meitei majority and largely Christian Kuki community.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made his first visit to the troubled Manipur state where at least 260 people have been killed in ethnic clashes in two years.

Manipur in the northeast has been bitterly divided since May 2023, when violence broke out between the mainly Hindu Meitei majority and the largely Christian Kuki community.

The violence has also displaced tens of thousands of people who are still living in makeshift camps set up by the government.

“In order to bring life back on track in Manipur, the government of India is making all possible efforts,” Modi told a gathering of thousands in Churachandpur, a Kuki-dominated town, on Saturday.

“I promise you today that I’m with you. The government of India is with the people of Manipur,” Modi said, while also appealing “to all groups to take the path of peace for realising their dreams.”

Modi was also scheduled to address a rally at Imphal, the Meitei-dominated capital of the state.

The Hindu nationalist leader last visited the state, bordering Myanmar and 1,700km (1,050 miles) from New Delhi, in 2022. He inaugurated development projects worth more than $960m, including five highways and a new police headquarters.

Manipur’s former chief minister, N Biren Singh, from Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), resigned in February after criticism that he failed to stop the bloodshed there. The state of nearly three million people has since been ruled directly from New Delhi.

Tensions between Meiteis and Kukis, rooted in competition for land and government jobs, have long simmered in the region. Rights groups accuse political leaders of fuelling the divisions for their own gain.

Modi’s visit to Manipur is part of a three-day tour that also includes Assam, which borders Bangladesh, and Bihar, India’s third-most populous state with at least 130 million people.

Bihar is a key electoral battleground ahead of polls slated for October or November, the only state in India’s northern Hindi-speaking heartland where Modi’s BJP has never ruled alone.

It is also India’s poorest, and Modi was set to unveil investments worth $8bn, a package that includes agricultural projects, rail links, road upgrades and an airport terminal.

Indian leader’s remarks follow Trump reaffirming their personal friendship and downplaying his earlier remarks about ‘losing India’ to China.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi says ties with the United States remain “very positive”, after US President Donald Trump reaffirmed their personal friendship and downplayed earlier remarks about “losing India” to China.

“Deeply appreciate and fully reciprocate President Trump’s sentiments and positive assessment of our ties,” Modi said in a statement posted on X on Saturday, adding that India and the US “have a very positive and forward-looking comprehensive and global strategic partnership”.

Strains have emerged between the two longtime allies after the Trump administration imposed tariffs of up to 50 percent on Indian imports, accusing New Delhi of fuelling Moscow’s deadly attacks on Ukraine by purchasing Russian oil.

Speculation of a deepening rift further intensified when Trump remarked on Friday that India, alongside Russia, seems to have been “lost” to China. This came after Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a security summit in China.

Earlier this week, Xi hosted more than 20 leaders of non-Western countries – including Modi and Putin – for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in the Chinese port city of Tianjin. It was Modi’s first visit to China in seven years, signalling a thaw between the two Asian powers.

“Looks like we’ve lost India and Russia to deepest, darkest, China. May they have a long and prosperous future together!” Trump wrote in a social media post, with a photo of Modi alongside Xi and Putin.

When asked by reporters later on Friday about his remarks, Trump downplayed his earlier statement, saying he did not think the US had lost India to China.

“I don’t think we have,” he said. “I’ve been very disappointed that India would be buying so much oil, as you know, from Russia. And I let them know that.”

Trump insisted that he “will always be friends with Modi”, adding that “India and the United States have a special relationship“. “There is nothing to worry about,” he said.

Since his first term in office, Trump and Modi, both right-wing populists, have shared a strong bond.

But recently, Trump also appeared irritated at New Delhi as he sought credit for what he said was Nobel Prize-worthy diplomacy for brokering peace between Pakistan and India following the worst conflict in decades between the nuclear-armed neighbours in May.

India, which adamantly rejects any third-party mediation on Kashmir, has since given the cold shoulder to Trump on the matter.

Trump has also been frustrated at his inability to convince Russia and Ukraine to reach an end to their war, more than three years after Russian forces invaded Ukraine.

In India, tens of thousands of Muslims and people from marginalised groups have seen their homes and businesses demolished by authorities in what the country’s Supreme Court has called “unconstitutional” and “lawless” attacks.

Representatives of the Hindu nationalist party, the BJP, say the demolitions are in response to illegal encroachment.

But critics say the demolitions target Muslims and other minorities, a claim the BJP denies.

101 East investigates if India’s bulldozers are delivering justice – or demolishing it.