While the world focused on the clashes between Indian and Pakistani forces in May 2025, it is important to remember that the Kashmir conflict has not only been shaped by the two states, but also by various armed non-state actors with conflicting goals, ideologies and allegiances. This article seeks to explore the various armed non-state actors that have shaped the conflict in Jammu and Kashmir, focusing on their histories, ideologies and relations to the Indian and Pakistani states and intelligence services.

Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) – Pro-Independence

The Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front was founded in the late 1970s, with considerable support from the British-Pakistani diaspora, most of whom trace their origins to Mirpur in Pakistan-administered Jammu and Kashmir. After carrying out attacks on Indian military personnel, diplomats and Kashmiri Hindus, JKLF shot to prominence with the execution of key leadership and the conclusion of the 1987 elections in Jammu and Kashmir, widely regarded as rigged in favor of a pro-India Kashmiri party. This prompted many Kashmiri youth to pick up arms to fight Indian rule, starting the armed Kashmir conflict. 

JKLF initially received support from the Pakistani intelligence agencies with the common goal of separating from Indian rule, but the group adopted a relatively secular, Kashmiri-nationalist ideology that sought to unite Indian-administered Kashmir and Pakistani-administered Kashmir as an independent country. 

In the mid-1990s, a diversion of funding from Pakistani intelligence services to pro-Pakistan militant groups combined with crackdowns from India and Pakistan saw JKLF renounce violent struggle in 1994. They continue to operate politically on both sides of the ceasefire line dividing the region, advocating for independence, but face restrictions from both countries. 

Currently, Pakistan restricts political activity by JKLF and other pro-independence groups in Pakistani-administered Kashmir, and India has banned JKLF since revoking Indian-administered Kashmir’s semi-autonomous status in 2019.

Hizbul-Mujahideen (HM) – Pro-Pakistan

Another non-state armed group, Hizbul-Mujahideen, emerged in 1989 after the 1987 elections. HM, like the JKLF, was predominantly composed of Kashmiri Muslims seeking to separate from Indian rule. However, unlike the JKLF, they sought to merge all of Jammu and Kashmir with Pakistan, and justified their struggle as a jihad against India in contrast to secular nationalism. By the early 1990s, they overtook JKLF as the foremost separatist militant organization in the Indian-administered Kashmir with Pakistani support. 

The group has historically enjoyed close ties with Jamaat-e-Islami Kashmir, an Islamist political party in Kashmir. HM has engaged in attacks against Indian armed forces, Jammu and Kashmir police officers, pro-Indian politicians in Jammu and Kashmir and Kashmiri Hindus, leading to the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits in 1989-1990. They are accused of committing the 1998 massacre of Hindus in Prankote. They are also held responsible for the Wandhama massacre of Kashmiri Hindus in 1998. Furthermore, a popular HM commander was killed by Indian security forces in 2016, prompting massive protests in Kashmir. Indian forces were widely criticized for the usage of pellet guns to quell the protests which caused severe injuries, including blindness, to hundreds of Kashmiris. 

HM is designated as a terrorist organization by India, the U.S., Canada and the European Union. It is a legally operating organization in Pakistan. It remains active, but severely weakened due to Indian crackdowns and infighting.

Ikhwan ul-Muslimeen – Pro-India

The Ikhwan ul-Muslimeen was formed around 1993-1994, backed by the Indian intelligence services. Pakistan’s intelligence services initially supported multiple armed groups in the JKLF umbrella, but later concentrated support on the pro-Pakistan HM. This led many other militant organizations to lose their weapons, training, funding and bases, pressuring members to defect to HM. Many militants became disillusioned, and instead sought revenge on HM and other pro-Pakistani organizations. Indian intelligence services and their collaborators organized these groups together to form the Ikhwan. They recruited Kashmiri Muslims with pro-India leanings, those seeking revenge against HM due to loss of resources or friends and family members to militant attacks and suspected, surrendered and imprisoned militants who sought freedom and protection from both India and HM. 

While considered effective by India for counterinsurgency operations, they were widely criticized in Kashmir for egregious human rights violations, including torture, extortion and extrajudicial killings. Lack of popularity in Kashmir pressured Indian forces to disband and remove security from the organization, leading to the killing of many Ikhwanis by rivals. Others were absorbed into the Jammu and Kashmir police force (JKP) or Indian army. Many joined the Special Operations Group (SOG), a specialized counterinsurgent unit of the JKP. While the SOG is officially affiliated with the state, recruiting police officers from the various ethnic groups of Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir, it is also widely accused of serious human rights abuses, with particular concern that cash incentives from the Indian military for killing militants has encouraged SOG members to kill civilians and label them as militants for financial rewards.

Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) / The Resistance Front (TRF) – Pro-Pakistan

The LeT was established in 1990 in Afghanistan, as one of the various Mujahideen organizations, after the merger of two Islamist missionary organizations. After the Soviets were defeated in Afghanistan, it shifted its focus in the mid-1990s on fighting India with the objective of merging Jammu and Kashmir with Pakistan. Unlike Hizbul-Mujahideen, who were mostly made up of Kashmiris, most LeT fighters were Pakistani Punjabis. The group expanded from suicide bombings and shootings in Kashmir to attacks in major Indian cities, becoming notorious for both the 2001 attacks on the Indian Parliament, and the 2008 Mumbai attacks, where 10 LeT fighters sieged the Taj Hotel and killed more than 160 people. The group is also accused of collaborating with Indian Muslim extremist groups in coordinating attacks, and enjoys ties to al-Qaeda and the Taliban. It is designated as a terrorist organization by the UN, European Union, U.S., India and Pakistan.

 In spite of its official ban, Pakistan’s intelligence services are widely accused of continued support to the organization, particularly through allowing its charity front, Jamaat ud-Dawa (JuD), to continue its activities within Pakistan, as well as taking limited action against LeT leadership. While Pakistan has cracked down on LeT and JuD since 2018 to comply with FATF regulations, seizing assets and jailing leaders, criticism remains that the organization continues to receive covert support from military and intelligence circles. Top leadership have historically lived openly in Lahore, holding political rallies and appearing on television interviews, in spite of UN sanctions and American bounties.

The Resistance Front (TRF) has emerged in resistance to the 2019 revocation of Article 370 in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir. The group has become known for its attacks on Indian military personnel, Jammu and Kashmir police, migrant laborers and minorities. The group shot to prominence with the April 2025 massacre of Indian tourists in Pahalgam, prompting the military standoff between India and Pakistan. The group appears to have deliberately targeted Hindus during the attack, sparing those who could recite Islamic verses. Both India and the U.S. allege the group is a local proxy of the LeT, with considerable overlap between its leadership. Unlike the LeT, it has framed its struggle against India in more secular terms in an attempt to distance itself from the LeT’s religious rhetoric, seen as a strategic shift to win more tolerance for their cause.

Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) – Pro-Pakistan

Jaish-e-Muhammed (JeM) is a newer group, founded in 2000 in Pakistan by militants released from an Indian prison in exchange for Indian hostages from a plane hijacking. The group, like LeT, seeks Jammu and Kashmir’s merger with Pakistan, and largely draws membership from Pakistani Punjabis who had experience in the Afghan Mujahideen. The group became notorious for its suicide attacks, including on both the Indian Parliament and the Jammu and Kashmir legislative assembly in 2001, Indian consulates in Afghanistan and the Pulwama attack on Indian paramilitary forces in 2019. They also launched attacks on Indian military personnel in 2016. It is designated as a terrorist organization by the UN, most western countries, India and Pakistan. However, Pakistan remains accused of allowing the organization to effectively function, with no serious legal action or arrests against the organization. Pakistani intelligence is suspected of supporting the group in attacks against India and shielding its leadership, as well as utilizing it as a counter to the Pakistani Taliban which wages war against the state. Both JeM and the Taliban share ideological links from the Deobandi school, leading to competition for cadre. The group remains active.

Village Defence Guards (VDG) – Pro-India

The Village Defence Guards, formerly known as Village Defence Committees, were organized in the mid-1990s as a civilian militia against militants in Jammu. Villagers were predominantly recruited from pro-India ethnic and religious groups in Jammu, such as the Hindu Dogras, Hindu and Muslim Paharis, Sikhs and Muslim Gujjar-Bakarwals. The VDG system has been criticized for arming civilians, enabling them to settle personal scores. With most VDG members being Hindu, the program has also been accused of enabling majoritarian violence against Muslim Gujjar villagers. While inactive for most of the 21st century, the VDGs were resurrected after the abrogation of Article 370, particularly as more militant attacks are shifting to Jammu from the Kashmir Valley. The VDGs are armed, trained and paid by the Indian army.

Conclusion

Armed non-state actors have played a significant role in Kashmir for decades, complicating the conflict beyond the formal militaries of India and Pakistan. For the Kashmir conflict to reach a resolution, and for India and Pakistan to resolve their differences, the complications arising from these various organizations are an important factor to account for and keep in mind.

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The leader who has emerged in the months since the fall has been Ahmed al-Sharaa, a military commander who led the rebellion against Assad and former al-Qaeda member. His role in al-Qaeda is something that has raised concern on a global stage, though Sharaa cut ties with the group in 2016. The United States has designated Sharaa, previously known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, as a terrorist when, in 2011, he established a new Syrian branch of al-Qaeda called the Nusra Front. Sharaa refused to bring the Nusra Front into ISIS in 2013 and, in 2016, the group was renamed to Jabhat Fateh al-Sham and broke off from al-Qaeda. Sharaa’s newest insurgent front is named Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and is ultimately the group that toppled the Assad regime.

In 2013, while still maintaining ties with al-Qaeda, Sharaa named his intent for Syria to exist as a fundamentalist Islamic state, stating that religious minorities would have no room in the country. Since then, however, Sharaa has appeared to pull back from this intent, announcing in 2015 that he does not wish to target religious minorities or to create conflict with Europe or the United States. In 2023 and 2024, Sharaa showed little understanding for dissenters and was not known to show mercy. Although this may bear similarity to the Assad regime, HTS has shown far less suppression of those with differing beliefs and Sharaa has since maintained his commitment to a freer Syria. With the signing of a new transitional Constitution, Sharaa remains committed to the freedoms of expression and media and remains steadfast in his commitment to a unified Syria.

In a 2021 interview with PBS, Sharaa spoke with a U.S. news outlet for the first time. Here, he re-emphasized that he does not wish to infringe upon the security of Europe and America and criticized his designation as a terrorist, asking, “Terrorism, how do you define it? Today, every country has a terrorism list. Any person or party that the country claims is opposing it is automatically added to the terrorism list.” Sharaa also urged people to ask the question of why people join al-Qaeda and to understand how U.S. policy has driven many to join al-Qaeda. Despite al-Qaeda’s attacks on civilians, such as those on 9/11, Sharaa claims that he does not, and never has, supported external attacks on civilians and that he has never killed an innocent person in one of his operations.

Regarding Sharaa’s plans for Syria’s future, he has highlighted the need for unity and democracy within the country. Sharaa has been named as Syria’s transitional president and HTS has also declared that the Constitution will be repealed and the army and parliament will both be terminated. HTS seems to be planning a complete upheaval of the existing Syrian government and Sharaa has announced his intention to create a constitution for this transition period and to hold a national dialogue conference to discuss the future of Syria. 

As a result of the Syrian civil war, which began in 2011, parts of Syria have been controlled by various militia groups. This civil war began with Assad’s crackdown on pro-democracy protests and did not end until the regime was overthrown. Sharaa has announced that all rebel militia groups will be absorbed into the government and that, to promote unity, all guns held by non-state actors should be surrendered to the new government. Regardless of whether Sharaa’s intentions are in earnest, this will likely be a difficult endeavor and possibly one that will never occur. After 53 years under the iron fist of the Assad regime, Syrians are their militia groups have faced constant terror and threat from their government and can be expected to be distrustful of a future government, especially one led by a former al-Qaeda member and a man who advocated for a fundamentalist Islamic rule. 

Due to the 14-year civil war, it has been incredibly difficult to obtain accurate data about Syria’s population statistics. The numbers vary by source, but it is estimated that Syria’s population is 70% Sunni Muslim, 10% Alawite and 3% Shi’a with a variety of other religious minorities, primarily Christian denominations.Sharaa is a Sunni Muslim, something that has worried many Syrians and even caused some Shi’a Muslims to flee the country for fear that Sharaa will lead religious persecution efforts. Conflicts between Sunni and Shi’a Muslims have defined much of the recent history of the Middle East and it remains to be seen how tensions between the two will play a role in Syria’s future.

Throughout early March 2025, the Alawites, a religious minority in Syria, have experienced a surge in violence against them. This has been a fear among Alawites since the overthrow of Assad as the Alawites have been politically dominant throughout the entirety of the Assad regime. Bashar al-Assad, along with his father, was an Alawate and installed Alawite leaders in his regime, suppressing other religious groups. Because of this, Alawites are often viewed as more sympathetic to the Assad regime. On Mar. 6, 2025, on the coast of Syria, a group of Assad loyalists attacked, killing hundreds of civilians and security forces. Security forces then provided a defense against these pro-Assad fighters. A number of unknown fighters then came in, killing Alawites in, presumably, a retaliatory action. As of Mar. 17, 2025, the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) has reported at least 639 deaths as a result of the fighting on the Syrian coast. Following these events, Sharaa has called for peace amongst Syrians and promises that those responsible for targeting civilians will be held responsible.

With the changing landscape of Syria and the chaos within the country, the future of Syria remains unclear. Many have hope for the rule of Sharaa and many others worry that this will only continue division within the country and that this new rule will be no better than that of Assad. Sharaa holds firm in his hope for a united Syria, however, and the future of Syria remains hopeful, though unknown.

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Lebanese citizens’ opinions on Hezbollah are varied and many are quite critical of the organization. Throughout Lebanon, Shia Muslims look at the group relatively favorably while Sunni Muslims and Christians have a much more negative opinion of Hezbollah. However, despite disagreements on the stances and actions of the group, 99% of Arabs agree that all Arab countries must cease contact with Israel in response to Israeli military action in Gaza. Hezbollah as an ideological entity is not necessarily well-loved, but it is also one of few groups committed to resisting the Israeli occupation. This then becomes a difficult issue for many Lebanese civilians as Israel continues its attempt to expand into southern Lebanon, in addition to Gaza and the West Bank. It seems that the only solution is the creation of an organization that will both have higher approval from Lebanese citizens and protect the country from Israeli occupation.

In this conversation of Lebanese support for Hezbollah, it is important to understand the religious makeup of Lebanon. While Lebanon recognizes 18 religious sects, there are three major factions, with 31.9% of Lebanese citizens identifying as Sunni Muslims, 31.2% as Shia Muslims and 32.4% as Christians. While all three groups are very close in size, it is interesting to note that Hezbollah is a Shiite group despite Shia Muslims being the smallest of the three largest religious groups. Shia Muslims are the largest group in Iran, however, which is the country responsible for the funding of Hezbollah.

Conflict between Sunni and Shia Muslims has been a cause of division throughout the Middle East, with major clashes in both Syria and Iraq. Despite 85% of Muslims identifying as Sunni and 15% as Shia, Sunnis have not dominated militarily and there remains a great sectarian divide in countries like Lebanon. Fear of conflict is not limited to one group, though, with 67% of Lebanese Muslims believing that Shia-Sunni tensions are a big issue. The emergence of Hezbollah has certainly not aided this and, despite having governmental representation, Sunnis and Christians alike feel as though Hezbollah as a governing entity does not represent them.

Notably, in September 2024, an Israeli airstrike killed Hassan Nasrallah, a Hezbollah founder who led the group for over 30 years. Despite disagreements over Hezbollah’s existence, Nasrallah was relatively well-liked due to his resistance to Israel, including overseeing the end of Israel’s 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon.

During an interview in September 1992, Nasrallah asserted that Hezbollah is a resistance party that opposes the creation of an Islamic Republic in Lebanon. Additionally, in their 1998 Statement of Purpose, Hezbollah says, “It should be clear that the kind of Islam we want is a civilized endeavor that rejects injustice, humiliation, slavery, subjugation, colonialism and blackmail while we stretch out our arms for communication among nations on the basis of mutual respect.” 

In the U.S. Counterterrorism Guide, Hezbollah has been classified as a terrorist group since 1997, a designation shared by the Arab League and the EU, among others. Since the group’s inception, it has been responsible for several terrorist attacks around the world. Hezbollah has bombed the U.S. Embassy in Beirut both in 1983 and 1984, with a total of 101 killed and at least 120 injured.

While Hezbollah was created to force Israel to cede its occupied Lebanese territory, the group has now morphed into a different sort of entity. Now, Hezbollah has transitioned from a military wing to a group with heavy influence in both Lebanese military action and politics. In addition, Hezbollah no longer solely targets the Israeli occupation. A prime example of this is the 1994 operation targeting a Jewish community center and killing 94 people in Buenos Aires. 
Since its inception, the United States has given Israel a total of $310 billion in aid, a vast majority of such being military. While the United States views the Hezbollah attacks as unprecedented, Hezbollah sees the United States as a proxy for Israel, funding the occupation of Palestine as well as southern Lebanon. As the United States continues to fund Israel’s attacks on Gazan civilians, a direct opposition to the goals of Hezbollah, it is difficult to see a future where Hezbollah’s terrorist designation is removed.

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Antibiotics are particularly powerful because the medication targets and restricts bacterial cell functions, either immobilizing their spread or killing them completely. The first antibiotic created was Penicillin, invented by physician and microbiologist, Alexander Flemming, in 1928. 

Dr. Mukherjee, the author of the Pulitzer Prize winner, The Emperor of All Maladies, concludes that, “Penicillin kills the bacterial enzymes that synthesize the cell wall, resulting in bacteria with ‘holes,’ in their walls. Human cells don’t possess these particular kinds of cells, thereby making penicillin a magic bullet”. Penicillin was revolutionary because it was the first time in history that there was a cure for infectious bacterial diseases. The efficacy of this new antibiotic had a monumental impact on World War II by controlling bacterial infections. During war, infectious diseases were often referred to as the “third army” because disease was a primary threat to soldiers. The unsanitary conditions, nutrition, overcrowding and open wounds created an ideal environment for bacterial diseases to thrive. “In World War I the death rate for bacterial pneumonia was 18% and in World War II it was less than 1%.” After World War II penicillin was being manufactured by the billions every month. 

Ever since its introduction, penicillin has become the “magic bullet” in medicine. However, the medical world realized it would not last forever. Alexander Flemming accepted the Nobel prize warning generations to come that the overuse of penicillin will cause bacterial resistance. The magic bullet, antibiotics, would become an old-fashioned bayonet against modern nuclear weapons – resistant bacteria.  

Bacterial infections can become resistant to antibiotics. Essentially, the process begins with antibiotics killing the microbes that are causing the infection. Then, the fraction of those microbes that survive the antibiotic treatment are naturally selected for the genes that make them resistant. As such, the presence of antibiotics increases the propagation of the surviving microbe, creating generations of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. 

The new generation of antibiotic-resistant bacteria essentially outsmarts the drug through the process of evolution. Therefore, the increasing usage of antibiotics generates new strains of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections. Many bacterial strains have not only become resistant to one antibiotic but have become multidrug-resistant.  

Consequently, the world has moved into an era of pan-resistant infections, where microbes are no longer just multidrug-resistant, they are resistant to all available antibiotics. The drug that once protected and saved millions of lives has become a threat due to its overuse and misuse. 

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and Antibiotic resistance (AR) is the global silent pandemic. 

Antimicrobial resistance is a term that captures a broader range of infections caused by other microbes and is used in conjunction to antibiotic resistance. Millions of people die from antimicrobial resistance annually. The World Health Organization (WHO) published in 2019 that AMR contributed to 4.95 million deaths, including 1.27 million deaths where AMR was the direct cause of death. The WHO has declared AMR as “one of the top 10 global public health threats facing humanity.” 

Antibiotics are notoriously inappropriately prescribed. C. Lee Ventola, a highly cited researcher on drug response, has uncovered that “treatment indication, choice of agent, or duration of antibiotic therapy is incorrect in 30% to 50% of cases” in the United States. He also highlights that 30% to 60% of antibiotics prescribed in intensive care units (ICUs) follow suit. 

Antibiotic prescriptions and over-the-counter antibiotics are unregulated in many countries. Antibiotic resistance is largely attributed to the overuse and misuse of antibiotics. Antibiotics have become a convenient catch-all drug that is commonly prescribed for unnecessary treatments. Antibiotics accessibility, economic costs and lack of new advancing antibiotic research in the medical and pharmaceutical sectors contribute to its misuse. 

The antibiotic resistance issue is defined by its complexity and is in need of progressive, multifaceted solutions that will require the cooperation of many international actors. 

The fight against antibiotic resistance needs new global economic incentives for drug development, a reimagined advocacy viewpoint and an approach to stimulate awareness and cooperation. 

Modern medicine has created some of the most revolutionary achievements of mankind. The twentieth century has ushered in futuristic genetic engineering, novel immunotherapies, RNA vaccines and numerous developments in all medical specialties — antibiotic resistance is threatening these achievements.

The WHO states that organ transplantations, chemotherapy and surgeries such as caesarean sections become much more risky and dangerous without effective antibiotics for the prevention and treatment of infections that arise from such procedures.

Re-imagined Awareness Platform 

People from all walks of life are affected by antibiotic resistance but cancer patients are on the frontlines and are one of the most vulnerable populations.

Bacterial infections are the second leading cause of death in cancer patients. Unfortunately, many people are not strangers to the painful treatments and strenuous fights against cancer. Globally, it was estimated by the Worldwide Cancer Research Fund in 2020 that there are 18.1 million cancer patients. Cancer patients endure treatments that kill both cancerous cells and healthy cells, compromising their immune system. Furthermore, much of their care is provided in hospitals, where hospital-acquired infections (HAI’s) are a significant concern. Constant invasive visits that require puncturing skin for IV lines or the use of IV ports, surgery recovery, wound redressing and being present in an environment that treats some of the harshest multi-drug resistant infections makes cancer patients highly susceptible to HAIs. 

Kevin Outterson is the Executive Director at CARB-X, Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator, a global nonprofit partnership and his research focuses on global antibacterial innovation. He is also a professor of Health and Disability Law at Boston University. He published a review with other scientists that addressed the issue of HAIs and antibiotic resistance in the Clinical Journal of the American Cancer Society. In a podcast interview with the Union for International Cancer Control, Outterson discussed the increased dangers of AMR to cancer patients. 

“Data shows that while antimicrobial resistant superbugs are a problem for everyone, for people with cancer, the risks are really three times higher that they’ll get a fatal infection from these superbugs,” Outterson said. He highlights that innovative cancer treatments have advanced so far that we can’t have the progress “undermined by the old foe of infection. ”

This point can be extended to how society has come so far in medical science that there is no time to be defeated by pan-resistant superbugs. 

Cancer patient communities have developed many awareness groups that have contributed to the demand for new treatments. Money is being pipelined into research funds and cancer institutes. There is a lot of awareness surrounding the cancer community, which is why there is a demand for new drugs. 

Cancer patient communities and advocacy groups work hard to spread awareness. Every month on the calendar is attributed to the awareness of different cancer types. The assortment of colorful ribbons divides cancers by where it was initially localized. However, that very ribbon no matter what color, symbolizes a plethora of support and unity for cancer patients.

There isn’t the same caliber of support and awareness for antibiotic resistance. The silent pandemic cannot remain quiet. 

AMR poses a threat to cancer treatments and many people are unaware of this. The Union for International Cancer Control is striving to “sensitize” and educate the cancer community to the AMR threat. Cancer patients and supporters could become the global ambassadors for antibiotic resistance advocacy. They have a strong base to instill action and awareness for antibiotic resistance. 

If health advocacy groups could implement AMR awareness in their programs and platforms, the impact would be monumental. Currently, there are some movements to spread awareness such as the global campaign, such as World AMR Awareness Week. However, AMR awareness requires a larger approach because it affects everyone. Imagine if every medical condition organization embedded AMR awareness in its mission. Kevin Outterson comments that not many patients identify as “I’m a survivor from a drug-resistant infection,” however, a wide range of patients would fall under this category. Countless patient groups rely on antibiotics, to unite those groups with the cancer community could change the fate of antibiotic resistance through awareness. 

There needs to be a public outcry, just as the cancer community has fought for preventative measures to ensure others avoid cancer, such as HPV vaccinations, wearing sunscreen and laws surrounding cigarette usage. The mobilization of these patient groups that already have an established platform could make a significant difference in both raising awareness and mobilizing funding for antibiotic research and solutions. 

Antibiotic Resistance Research Pipeline and Economy 

The antibiotic research communities are described by Outterson as looking “over longingly at the pipeline and the money going into cancer, ” Outterson said. Compared to the revolutionary research being done in the cancer industry, the antibiotic industry has fallen short. The predominant cause for this discrepancy is lack of funding. 

The science behind both cancer research and antibiotic research is remarkable. Science is not a limiting factor for research in the antibiotic field, it is that society does not expend money or resources for antibiotic development as if they are valuable. 

Antibiotics are relatively cheap in comparison to cancer treatments as common antibiotics are mass-produced. However, the WHO states that, “just 27 new antibiotics for the most threatening infections are in the clinical trial stage of drug development. In contrast, there were more than 1,300 cancer drug trials in 2020.” To further extend this alarming condition, the WHO only recognized two antibiotics to be effective for surviving antimicrobial-resistant bacteria. 

The underlying issue is that there is not enough research going into the solution for antibiotic resistance. Internationally, there was only one antibiotic, “cefiderocol, that was approved to treat the superbugs on WHO’s most critical list.” The recently published urgent threat multi-resistant bacteria and fungi include Carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter, Candida auris, Clostridioides difficile, Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae and Drug-resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter, which cause pneumonia, bloodstream infections, urinary tract infections and wound infections, especially in patients receiving care in intensive care units. It is also one of the many resistant strains cancer patients are susceptible to. The Carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter carries “mobile genetic material” that can produce enzymes that inhibit the effect of antibiotics.

There are limited incentives to produce new innovative antibiotic drugs to combat these threats. The cancer research industry has fantastic reimbursement through selling cancer treatment drugs. The economic model for pharmaceutical companies is to invest upfront and reap the rewards from sales once approved. This model is not applicable for antibiotics and it stems from its market nature. Negative externalities arise as the production of new antibiotics results in a cost to a third party. Antibiotics may help a group of patients but then create resistant bacteria for the rest of the population.

It is an unusual market condition because companies invest time and money to produce antibiotics that are then used sparingly to reduce antibiotic resistance. 

Antimicrobial resistance escalates when there is an increased use of antibiotics; it creates a cycle of developing smarter microbial infections. That is atypical for the general medicines used today. For example, anticoagulants, antihistamines and antiepileptics will not lose their efficacy over time and only affect the individual patient prescribed. 

According to Doctor Venkatasubramanian Ramasubramanian, president of the Clinical Infectious Diseases Society of India,  “with a new antibiotic, we say, ‘don’t use it,’ or ‘use it sparingly so it lasts longer… It is not an attractive proposition for anyone in the industry,” Ramasubramanian said. 

Antibiotics need to be conserved to prevent the evolution of more antibiotic resistant bacteria. This is why newly developed antibiotics are typically used sparingly for five to fifteen years to ensure its efficacy. 

The flipside to this situation is that companies “developing one new antibiotic can take up to two decades and usually costs $568 million to $700,” according to Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America’s, Medicines in Development for Antimicrobial Resistance 2021 report. After all, the resources and money is put into approving a new antibiotic drug; it is then not used for as long as possible until necessary. Therefore, a large majority of antibiotic companies have gone bankrupt or abandoned the antibiotic field. Big Pharmaceutical companies are fleeing, such as Melinta Therapeutics, a large antibiotic developer warned the regulators they were running short of funds. Achaogen, a biotech company, went bankrupt after dedicating 15 years to develop a new antibiotic that was then added to the WHOs list of essential new medications. This market exit is a terrible trend as antibiotic resistance becomes more exacerbated.

Antibiotic resistance is a massive global financial burden worldwide and the highest burden is for low-resource countries. The United Kingdom’s AMR policy paper mentions that the World Bank predicts that “28 million people will be forced into extreme poverty by 2050 unless AMR is contained.” The World Bank also highlighted that there will be a global cumulative cost of $100 trillion by 2050 if the issue of antibiotic resistance remains under the radar for most people. 

There is a need for new global initiatives to stimulate more money into researching not only new antibiotics, but innovative solutions targeting antimicrobial resistance. 

The United Kingdom has pioneered an incentive payment model that could be emulated globally. In 2019, the United Kingdom’s Department of Health and Social Care launched an AMR project titled “UK 5-year action plan for antimicrobial resistance 2019-2024” that aims to contain AMR in the UK by 2024. 

The UK is the first country to create a subscription-based payment model for antimicrobial pharmaceutical companies where the government pays a fixed fee upfront to companies developing new antibiotic drugs. Since this model makes profits independent of prescription volume, it could dis-incentivise part of the reasons for antibiotics overuse . 

In 2022, Shiongi, a Japanese discovery-based pharmaceutical company signed an agreement with the National Health Service to begin a “subscription payment model for reimbursement of cefiderocol in England,” and Shionogi commented the company welcomed the “introduction of pull incentives to help bring urgently needed new antibiotics to market.” Although the UK’s initiatives have been attracting international pharmaceutical companies, they recognize that their actions to combat AMR need to be coupled with a global response where countries implement this model or their own variation of incentives into their domestic markets.

In the United States, the Pioneering Antimicrobial Subscriptions To End Upsurging Resistance (PASTEUR) Act introduced in 2023 follows a similar suit where companies would be paid contractually. The PASTEUR Act begins to address the broken marketplace for developing antibiotics and would authorize the Department of Health and Human Services to “enter into subscription contracts for critical-need antimicrobial drugs, providing $6 billion in appropriations for activities under the bill”. 

The PASTEUR Act is being debated, and if passed, it would fund vital antimicrobial stewardship programs as well. The UK serves as a role model for the rest of the world by taking a step in the right direction to solving the interdisciplinary issue of antimicrobial resistance. 

COVID 19’s Impact on Antimicrobial Resistance 

In the CDC’s 2022 Special Report on COVID-19’s impact on antimicrobial resistance, they state that Antimicrobial resistance was the “greatest public health concern prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, and it remains so.” The CDC also released that antimicrobial resistance is a leading cause of death globally. 

COVID-19 taught the world that viruses are a threat to human vitality, and preventative measures were crucial to combat the contagious spread of COVID-19 as it continued to mutate and create new strains. Even countries with strong healthcare infrastructures suffered from the fatal virus. 

The pandemic overshadowed the antimicrobial resistance pandemic. During COVID-19, patients upon admittance to the hospital would be prescribed antibiotics. This was an overuse of antibiotics when patients frequently did not have bacterial infections. This was due to the fact that healthcare professionals did not have any cure for COVID-19 and had to be greatly cautious. Patients that had weakened immune systems from COVID-19 were more susceptible to bacterial infections. In the US, “from March 2020 to October 2020, almost 80% of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 received an antibiotic.” 

COVID-19 should serve as a lesson that the international community must invest in the preparedness to fight the next pandemic. Antimicrobial-resistant will have severe, long-term consequences and it is our “silent” pandemic. The best way to fight this pandemic is to be preventative. This is why funding in antimicrobial resistance research is crucial and should be at the forefront for the scientific community. For example, there is a need for specialized laboratory tests to efficiently identify bacterial infections and new effective stewardship programs for infection prevention measures. 

The COVID-19 pandemic created a race to find curative measures against the virus. The novel vaccine restored the world. However, it is important to note that antibiotics are a “shared resource” drug, one person’s use of antibiotics impacts the efficacy of the drug. This is why global cooperation is so important to combat AMR. The WHO created the Global Antimicrobial Resistance and Use Surveillance System (GLASS) to inform, collect data and connect global actors on solution strategies. This is a representation of global cooperative measures that are needed. 

Vaccine development is at the forefront of antibiotic resistance research fields and serves as a new hope to decrease antibiotic use. Drug-resistant S. pneumoniae is the only bacterial pathogen that has an effective vaccine, pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs) listed in the CDC’s special report. This vaccine “prevented more than 30,000 cases of invasive pneumococcal disease and 3,000 deaths from 2010 to 2013 alone.” Vaccines such as this help safeguard antibiotics from overuse that creates resistance. 

COVID-19 required an international response, and collective action was taken to combat it. COVID-19 taught the world that we are not immune to viruses or infections. The virus evolved into new strains which required global action to combat its rapid evolution into more contagious strains, such as Omicron.

 The CDC’s 2022 report stated that much of the progress was lost in regard to antimicrobial resistance in the US due to the impacts of COVID-19. They stated that the “pandemic pushed healthcare facilities, health departments, and communities near their breaking points in 2020, making it very hard to maintain the progress in combating antimicrobial resistance.” Now that the COVID-19 pandemic is more controlled, the world must face and focus on the pandemic of antimicrobial resistance here and on the horizon. 

Valeria Gigante, a member of the WHO’s antimicrobial resistance division states that people who die from antibiotic resistance outnumber the deaths from HIV, tuberculosis and malaria combined. There has been great mobilization for all three and similar mobilization occurred during COVID-19. 

It is time to see the same call for action for antibiotic resistance because we live in an age with an upsurge of pandemics and superbugs. 

We are no longer strangers to superbugs; we must reimagine a world where our priority is to combat antibiotic-resistant microbes because if we don’t they will always be evolving one step ahead of us. 

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China’s gaokao is an exam students take which tests them on Chinese, mathematics, a foreign language of their choice (usually English), and other subjects related to science or arts, also depending on their choice. In 2023, CNN reported that nearly 13 million students took the exam. In comparison, a combined 3.4 million American high school students took either the SAT or ACT. 

However, even though the gaokao and China’s education system are successful, the gaokao has still been the subject of widespread negative commentary due to the rigorousness of the studying process. According to Business Insider, “Students spend almost every waking hour studying in the 100 days before the Gao Kao.” This has led to the rise in preference of forgoing the typical Chinese education system in favor of international education systems within China and then going abroad for college. Both the gaokao and international education systems have clear benefits, but what is the reasoning behind these choices? 

Choosing China’s Education System 

Even though China regularly produces some of the highest test scores in the world, the level of happiness in people below 30 is still very low compared to the rest of the world. According to the 2024 World Happiness Report, China’s level of happiness among people under 30 is ranked 79th in the world. Although this low level of happiness is not entirely related to the gaokao, many of the issues affecting happiness in China can be traced back to it. For example, the youth unemployment rate in China was up to 20.4% in April 2023. Students know that if they want to get a job in the future, then it will be important for them to do better than other students on the gaokao. This creates high stress and anxiety levels as well as concerns over their futures. 

Despite these concerns, the majority of students will still choose to continue in the Chinese education system. I had the opportunity to interview a current college student in China and asked him about some of the reasons why he stuck with the Chinese education system. Zhang Haoran is a 24-year-old college student training to become a teacher at the Zhuhai Branch of Beijing Normal University. He has lived in China for his entire life and spent his childhood in the suburbs of Shangqiu, a city in Henan province, growing up in a farming village. He told me that the Chinese education system allows for equal opportunities in ways that the American system does not. To get into a good college, all you need is a good test score. No recommendations, no extracurriculars, and not a lot of money being spent, so all he needed to do was work hard on his own. Especially for him living in a rural community, he didn’t have the money for an international school or the requirements for extracurricular activities, so the Chinese education system was his best option. However, he did say that since the time spent studying is very high, there is not much free time for leisure activities.

I also asked him if he thought the gaokao and the Chinese education system prepared him well for college, as well as life beyond. He replied that preparing for the gaokao allowed him to enhance skills such as reading, general comprehension, and memory. Additionally, the fact that the gaokao was extremely hard gives him hope for his future because he doesn’t think anything else will reach that level of difficulty. Clearly, despite the rigor of preparing for gaokao, there are still many positives that can be taken from the Chinese education system.

Choosing International Education Systems

Even though the Chinese education system has benefits and consistently produces high test scores, many families still choose to bypass it and instead go with international systems. According to Voa News, in the fiscal year of 2023, the U.S. State Department issued nearly 300,000 international student visas to Chinese students. This would be half of the total international student visas that they issued in 2023. 

Are more and more Chinese students choosing international education systems because they believe that it will help lead them to better job opportunities, or are they choosing them for other reasons? I had the opportunity to interview a current USC student. The student, Guo Qianwei (also known as David), is a current Freshman at USC, studying Applied and Computational Math. He spent 13 years of his childhood in China, while also having brief stays in Mexico City and New Mexico through his late elementary to middle school years. However, when he returned to China for high school, instead of going back to the Chinese education system, he decided to continue with the international education system and eventually took the ACT instead of the gaokao. 

When asked what he felt international education could offer that was different from the Chinese education system, he emphasized the opportunities for a student to figure out who they are. One of the main factors in his choice was that in international education, he was able to choose his classes. This way he was able to discover his love for computer science and math in ways that he wouldn’t be able to in China. He also says that in the Chinese education system, students are given more general education courses. However, he also named some downsides to choosing an international education over a Chinese education. Even though the international system is very personalized, he still feels that he is not as strong in subjects such as math and some sciences compared to his peers in China. But then again, they didn’t have the same freedom in education that he did. 

The Final Choice 

Both the Chinese education system and international education systems have positives and negatives attributed to them. The choice between the two is simply down to personal preference for those involved in the decision. For structure and skills such as work ethic, comprehension and memory, the Chinese education system is the way to go. For freedom of choice and the opportunity to develop your interests, the international education system is the better option. But the decision could also be even easier. Suppose a student and their parents feel that the student is the best fit for a Chinese university. In that case, the best option is to choose the Chinese education system because it is set up to directly prepare students for Chinese universities. The same goes for the international education system and international universities. The successes of both can be attributed to the fact that David currently has a 3.97 GPA at USC and plans to continue pursuing his interests through doing research at USC and various internships. On the other side, Zhang Haoran is finding success at Beijing Normal University in his quest to become a Chinese teacher, holding job offers in the U.S. through university connections. 

The post Choosing Paths: Exploring China’s Education System vs. International Education Systems appeared first on Glimpse from the Globe.

However, new dunes are forming deep within the desert, and they’re not made of sand. Immense amounts of unsold and discarded clothing have polluted the desert, creating “the great fashion garbage patch.” Mountainous piles of discarded clothing stretch as far as the eye can see, and nestled in ravines are garments with their price tag still attached mixed with other bags, bottles and garbage. Up to 39,000 tons of unwanted clothing gets dumped in the desert each year, and that number is only on the rise. 

There are two key reasons for the growing clothing landfill in Atacama. The first is the combination of fast fashion and an increase in the global population’s consumption habits. Between 2000 and 2014, clothing production doubled, and consumers began buying 60% more clothes but only wearing them for half as long as they once did. The severe increase in consumption is caused by easy access to major fast fashion retailers, low prices and an increase in social media marketing. As individuals continue to buy more and more clothes, the overall quality of clothing has also decreased with the rise of fast fashion. Second, while the fast fashion industry holds a piece of the responsibility for the garment graveyard in Chile, globalization and trade are as much to blame. 

It seems improbable that an isolated desert nearly a thousand miles from the nearest settlement would be the “dream destination” for fast fashion rejects. However, the country is also home to one of South America’s largest duty-free ports, located in the coastal city of Iquique near Atacama’s western edge. Free ports or free zones are designated areas where national laws or regulations are relaxed, such as the tax code. The activity within the area is conducted “freely,” or outside the normal activities of that nation under specifically-created rules and regulations. Duty-free ports encourage economic activity because goods are usually imported and re-exported without the usual taxes and fees. Chile’s duty-free port in Iquique was established in 1975 to generate jobs and support their debilitated local economy. Soon, Chile became one of the world’s largest second-hand clothing importers, transforming the city of Iquique. Then, the popularity surrounding fast fashion soared, and in turn, so did their imports. 

Duty-free imports can do wonders for a community, and it truly revolutionized the city of Iquique. Around 2,000 businesses of all types now operate in the duty-free zone, and within the free zone, a sorting depot for textile waste has emerged. 

The sorting process starts with one of the clothing import businesses that operates in the free zone importing clothing from developed countries, such as the United States or Europe. These clothes could come from companies with unsold inventory or thrift stores like Goodwill. Once the garments arrive in Iquique, workers focus on separating them into categories based on their ranging quality. The premium quality clothes are then re-exported to other countries like the Dominican Republic, Panama, Asia, Africa and sometimes back to the United States for resale. 

Clothing rendered not useful by importers then travels a few miles to the dump outside Alto Hospicio, where it goes through another cycle of sorting and resale among small shops and street markets. Finally, clothing that does not sell at these markets ends up in the desert; many items are made of synthetic fibers, meaning it is nearly impossible for them to biodegrade. Scavengers search for what goods they can use and take the best pieces back to markets in the hope that they will collect a few coins. 

Resale markets have been helpful in the past; however, with the mounting discards, areas like Iquique are becoming overwhelmed. Waste is continuing to pile up in the desert because sellers are unable to salvage more of the clothing that is imported due to its decreasing quality. It seems to be all linked to fast fashion, although there is one more culprit — the Chilean government. 

The World Bank predicts that 3.4 billion tons of garbage will be created annually by 2050; currently, the world produces 2.12 billion tons annually. With the influx of waste produced globally, countries have adopted policies that require manufacturers to take responsibility for their products when they are no longer useful. These extended producer responsibility policies have been adopted in countries such as India, Australia, Japan, Canada and some U.S. states. 

In 2016, Chile passed its version of the law called Extended Liability of the Producer, or LeyREP for short. This law makes producers and importers responsible for six categories of waste: lubricant oils, electronics, batteries, containers, small batteries, packaging and tires. A category not present on this list is textiles. Actions have been taken to add the textile category to the policy, but currently, it is not a category listed on LeyREP. 

Without the proper regulations for the importation of used clothing, duty-free ports like the one in Iquique will continue to import immense amounts that sellers cannot resell. The fast fashion garbage patch will threaten the desert’s unique biodiversity and will impact the health of hundreds of citizens living nearby. As the situation worsens, several of the clothes will be burned to remove the waste and populations will be at risk of inhaling the toxic fumes. Fast fashion is on the rise, the quality of clothing is decreasing and consumption is at an all-time high. As a result, a garment’s destiny to rot in the desert graveyard among the red sands in Atacama will remain. 

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For decades, Indian Americans from diverse religious backgrounds have peacefully coexisted in the United States. However recent occurrences, like the divergent responses to Prime Minister Modi’s visit, serve as a microcosm of the deep-seated division within the Indian community and raise concerns that the extreme political and religious division in India is slowly seeping into diaspora communities. 

Hindu nationalism, in India, surged under Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party, which rose to power in 2014 and was empowered by their landslide election win in 2019. 

The ruling party faced significant criticism for the increasing attacks on Muslims and other religious minorities, as well as from some Hindus who argue that Modi’s lack of action empowers right-wing groups and puts national unity at risk. Such conversations are also occurring in the United States but to a different tune.

“All of the mainstream Hindu American organizations were either very vocal and openly supportive of this political ideology and its vision of Hindu identity, ” said Nikhil Mandalaparthy, deputy executive director of the Hindus for Human Rights. “Or they were just silent about what was happening in the name of the Hindu tradition and Hindu community.”

It was under this period of rising tensions that Hindus for Human Rights, a non-profit organization based in Washington D.C., was formed to counteract what Mandalaparthy calls “the American monopoly on the Hindu voice.” 

The goal was to inject an inclusive, progressive Hindu voice in policy and advocacy spaces and to establish connections within the Hindu American diaspora in the United States, which wields substantial influence on Indian politics. 

“Diaspora money funds a lot of the work of groups like the RSS or the BJP that have a very clear ideological agenda and is really key to a lot of their operations in India,” Mandalaparthy explains. “There’s a very long documented history of money going from Hindu Americans to nonprofits, charities and different organizations that are connected to networks of the Hindu right in India.”

In early 2023, South Asia Citizens Web released a report exposing 24 U.S.-based organizations with links to the Sangh Parivar, an India-based global network of Hindu nationalist organizations. 

The report implicates that Sewa International and India Development and Relief Fund, among seven other groups, funded Sangh Parivar-associated initiatives with tens of millions of dollars. The report also names two sponsors, the HSS and VHPA, as having documented ties to extremist Hindu organizations in India. 

Despite these links, both the HSS and VHPA are deeply embedded in Hindu American cultural life and “present themselves as authorities on Hinduism” through “identity-based youth programs, cultural events and disseminating Sangh-approved forms of Hindu culture to the diaspora.”

Redefining Hinduism 

Hindus for Human Rights seeks to challenge the influence of organizations like HSS and VHPA on how Hinduism is perceived in the diaspora community. 

“We have to start by recognizing that today the dominant expression of Hindu identity, whether you’re in India or the diaspora, has really been taken over by Hindu nationalism” explained Nikhil. “There are other ways to be Hindu in a more progressive and inclusive way”. 

As an advocate for pluralism, civil and human rights in South Asia and North America, Hindu for Human Rights’ work is rooted in the values of the Hindu faith: shanti (peace), nyaya (justice) and satya (truth). Their vision is a world defined by lokasangraha (the universal common good) — where there is peace among all people. 

The organization is committed to the elimination of caste and achieving the right to equality for all the communities that have been marginalized in the name of Hinduism by providing a Hindu voice of resistance. 

Their work is infused with these values, spanning from advocacy and community building to countering the disinformation that fuels the propagation of Hindu nationalism in the United States.

Combating Disinformation Campaigns

The digital epidemic that’s taken root in India and the diaspora community is the rapid spread of misinformation and fake news through messaging platforms, particularly WhatsApp. 

WhatsApp chat groups are a breeding ground for misinformation, which is particularly damaging during periods of communal tension and violence. They pose a threat to diaspora communities, which have turned to WhatsApp and other messaging apps for the trust and intimacy they afford.

“In Modi’s India, educated young individuals are so polarized and are spreading [false information]on social media against Muslims,” said Ishani Dutta Roy, an editor at ABP News in Kolkata. 

Government data show a nearly threefold rise in India of instances of “fake news” and “rumors” from 2019 to 2020, even as social media companies take steps to curb the spread of misinformation. 

In a survey conducted in the report Experiences of Muslims in India on Digital Platforms With Anti-Muslim Hate, at least 60% of participants in a survey said they had come across content on digital platforms that incited violence against Muslims. 

Because these platforms have shrunk the distance between South Asia and the United States, they are contributing to the spread and amplification of anti-Muslim sentiments between the two communities.

Anti-Muslim disinformation has become even more readily available and persuasive, especially for anyone seeking confirmation of their hatred and deep-seated prejudice.

“The rise of Hindu nationalism has been accompanied by a really strong effort on the part of Hindu nationalist organizations and political parties to dominate the media landscape, particularly social media,” explained Nikhil while describing the type of content they are finding on platforms like WhatsApp, Instagram or Facebook. “In many cases, the messages that are sent on these platforms can sometimes be the trigger for actual on the ground violence.”

In response, the organization launched Voices of Peace and Ulti Pulti Baat — programs that aim at the influence of religious extremism and hate speech on vulnerable communities and seek to debunk misinformation. 

Activists, scholars and community leaders come together through webinars, panel discussions and other events to discuss issues related to human rights and social justice. They promote dialogue as a method to foster a culture of peace and nonviolence in South Asia and beyond. 

The goal of these initiatives is to target everyday Hindus through WhatsApp groups and the social media ecosystem to inject a different perspective. 

“It’s all about getting into the same places where right now, the only Hindu voices are from the Hindu right and offering an inclusive, progressive alternative,” said Nikhil.

Speaking Across the Divide

Although countering disinformation can be a useful approach to reducing communal tensions in the United States and abroad, it is equally important to engage in on-the-ground efforts to facilitate civil dialogue on challenging issues that impact the Indian community. 

Hindus for Human Rights is doing exactly that through their Desh Videsh series. 

“We go into communities where there [are]high concentrations of South Asians and create opportunities for Hindus and Muslims to be able to talk about issues that are dividing the community, that are leading to more and more polarization,” explained Nikhil. 

The debut event took place in Jan 2023 at the Indian Community Center in Milpitas, California — the heart of the Bay Area and home to a large Indian population. The conversation delved into the history and severe clauses of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, along with the persecution of minority groups in India. 

By facilitating dialogue and featuring expert opinions, the initiative aims to bridge gaps between people with differing perspectives. 

While these dialogues often include both civil and uncivil disagreements, progress stems from the exposure and willingness to have these conversations. Hindus for Human Rights’ attempts at outreach and bridge-building are one-of-a-kind and happen in collaboration with many other forces. 

“All of our work is done in coalition, in partnership with Muslim groups and secular organizations. We’re coming in as a united front representing the whole diversity of the Indian diaspora” said Nikhil. The Desh Videsh series is the beginning of bridges being built between these two communities and creating a safe space for individuals to interact with those across the aisle. 

It also provides Hindus for Human Rights an opportunity to show members of the diaspora community the literal consequences of nationalism and anti-muslim sentiment, focusing specifically on cases of persecuted individuals in India.

Advocacy 

The National Crime Records Bureau in 2021 reported that over 30% of all detainees in Indian prisons were Muslims, despite the community only making up 14.2% of the total population. 

A combination of factors has kept the statistic consistent, including police bias resulting in baseless charges, inadequate representation of Muslims in law enforcement and insufficient or non-existent legal assistance. 

Faisal Khan, a victim of the Indian justice system, was associated with both Khudai Kidmatgar, a non-violent freedom movement, and the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) for the past 15 years. As an activist, he pushed for communal harmony between Hindus and Muslims. 

Khan and his group Khudai Khidmatgar conducted a journey in Brij, Uttar Pradesh, where they visited the Nand Baba Temple and were invited to pray by the priest. 

Four days later, Khan was arrested and charged with conducting Muslim prayers in a Hindu temple without permission and creating disharmony, as well as using Khudai Kidmatgar to raise funds for malicious purposes from foreign sources. The charges were filed by the same priest who had invited Faisal to pray.

Hindus for Human Rights organized numerous press conferences and met with US House of Representative officials and individuals in the State Department to voice their apprehensions regarding the events taking place in India.

“For the last several years, whenever [government agencies]have been looking for the Hindu community perspective, the only groups that are out there responding or reaching out to them are coming from the Hindu right, from the Hindu nationalist perspective,” stated Nikhil. 

The organization summoned human rights defenders and interfaith activists to speak up on Khan’s behalf. Eventually, Khan was released. 

Media coverage and international attention can be crucial in cases like these. Authoritarian governments are particularly sensitive about being publicly shamed on the global platform and don’t want these issues to be discussed beyond its borders. 

Hindus for Human Rights takes advantage of this and utilizes its influence and scope to raise awareness regarding instances such as Kahn’s and the numerous others in India who are being unjustly persecuted.

By advocating for persecuted individuals in India, spearheading campaigns against the dissemination of misinformation among the diaspora, and fostering a sense of a unified community, Hindus for Human Rights hopes to change the political climate.

“If we win the culture and politics in the states, if we increase our voice here, then our political influence becomes stronger in India,” said David Kalal, communications director for the organization, “That’s the vision, that’s what we are working towards and why I joined this organization. ”

The post Challenging Hindu Nationalism: The Work of Indian Americans for Human Rights appeared first on Glimpse from the Globe.

Guatemala’s 36-year-long civil war ended with the singing of the 1996 Peace Accords. However, while the first two election cycles appeared like promising steps forwards, this did not mean that Guatemalan democracy would have an easy, perfect transition. The young democracy experienced several challenges, and today, corruption continues to deeply affect the Guatemalan government.

The most famous corruption scandal in Guatemala is known as “La Línea” or “the line.” The scandal involved the disgraceful resignation of President Otto Fernandez Perez Molina, a retired Army General who was elected in 2012 on a platform of fighting drug-related crime. La Línea was the name given to this scandal, which accused former President Molina of defrauding the state of millions of dollars and led to his eventual resignation in September 2015. The uncovered scheme allowed companies to evade import taxes entirely or at a reduced cost through bribes. The term “La Linea” was coined in reference to the telephone number that businesses could call in order to bribe the former President. Molina actively denied these charges, claiming them to be lies. He said “Nobody has ever said I gave an illegal order, and I never gave any. They never said I was given money.” However, despite his denials, in December 2022, Molina was found guilty of crimes associated with “La Linea” and was sentenced to 16 years in prison along with his Vice President Roxana Baldetti. 

Unfortunately, corruption has not only plagued the executive branch of Guatemala’s government, but the judicial branch as well. The Humans Rights Watch 2020 World Report states that Guatemala’s judiciary system “suffers from high levels of impunity,” along with long delays taken advantage of by defendants to escape justice.  A clear example of the effects of corruption on the judiciary system involved Judge Erika Aifan. Aifan served on Guatemala’s high risk court, which deals with high profile cases of corruption and criminal cases, sometimes involving politicians. Aifan was known as an anti-corruption judge, with The U.S. Department of State recognizing “Judge Aifan as a 2021 International Woman of Courage (IWOC) for her efforts to strengthen the rule of law in Guatemala.” Yet, after harassment and threats to judicial independence persisted, Judge Aifan felt threatened that she would be arrested by corrupt government officials trying to escape her convictions. This rising threat eventually led to her resigning and fleeing the country, citing “particular pressure from Guatemalan Attorney General Consuelo Porras.”. 

Fortunately for Guatemalan citizens, there have recently been calls for progress in ending widespread corruption. In 2017, Guatemala’s Attorney General, Thelma Aldana, and Ivan Velasquez, a human rights lawyer, made accusations against President Morales of stealing up to $800,000 of campaign funds. In response, Morales called for Velasquez’s resignation and gave a police memo stating that all previously approved leave for the country’s elite special forces had been canceled, essentially putting these special forces on high alert if push comes to shove, ready to use for his own protection from the law. Outraged, thousands of Guatemalan citizens rose up in protest against corruption in the government and the lack of action to combat this issue. From these protests, the Semilla or “seed” political party was born. The party’s name references seeds of change and anti-corruption. In its young history, the Semilla party has been very successful. In its first election in 2019, the party won seven seats in the Congress of the Republic, Guatemala’s unicameral legislative structure. In the most recent, 2023 presidential election, Bernardo Arévalo of the Semilla Party, campaigning on anti-corruption, won in a landslide victory receiving 58% of the votes. This trumped the 36 percent former first lady and establishment politician Sandra Torres received. Arévalo’s victory illustrates a clear call from Guatemalan voters for change as Arévalo campaigned on a strong anti-corruption platform. However, establishment politicians did not take this loss lying down. 

Guatemala’s Attorney General, Consuelo Porras, launched a campaign against Arévalo. This concentrated effort led by Porras, dubbed a ‘coup in slow motion’ by Arévalo, aimed to undermine the legitimacy of his election victory in order to prevent him from taking office. Porras first tried to call the election victory illegitimate, citing “ballot falsification [and]computer manipulation.” Following the court’s upholding of the election outcome, Porras had the Semilla party suspended due to unproven claims that the signatures necessary to the legality of the party were falsified at its conception. Prosecutors even went so far as to illegally seize documents from Semilla headquarters. Porras’s efforts to prevent an anti-corruption candidate from taking office led to widespread protests from Guatemalan citizens calling for his resignation. 
Due to his perseverance, public support and lack of base for claims against his party, Arévalo was formally sworn into office on the morning of Jan. 15, 2024. This marked a triumph for Arévalo and the Semilla party, but even more so for the citizens of Guatemala as their unity in support of Arévalo has persevered through multiple attempts of stopping his assumption of office. Arévalo, standing for anti-corruption, promising to strengthen democratic institutions and being another of few examples of a peaceful transition of power, all represent a glimpse of hope for the democracy of Central America’s largest country.

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In his eight years in power, Modi has been widely successful in his promotion of a Hindu nationalist agenda, threatening the secular fabric of the nation. His party’s blatant and open expression of Islamophobia is extremely alarming.

“There is [definitely]anti-Muslim sentiment from the BJP, there has to be,” claimed Mohit Roy, a local BJP leader. “We are seeing the demographic and cultural infiltration of Muslims in India. If I was to say I don’t have [anti-Muslim sentiment], I would be lying.”

Mohit Roy’s statements are deeply troubling and indicative of where Muslims in India stand: as scapegoats for the country’s troubles. The prime minister and his party exploit anxieties related to the perceived Muslim takeover of the Hindu population, facilitated through acts like ‘love jihad,’ to advance their agenda.

‘Love jihad,’ a term coined by the political and religious right, describes a phenomenon in which Muslim men forcefully convert and marry Hindu women. Nationalist groups claim that these conversions have become a tool utilized by Muslims to alter the demographics of the country and to establish an Islamic state. 

Kolkata native Shan Ghoshal owns ProjectHinduKush, a website that propagates the idea of an ongoing genocide of Hindus both in India and overseas. He considers involuntary religious conversions to be one of the most widespread instances of violence in the nation.

According to individuals like Shan Ghoshal, monetary incentives are provided by religious leaders in the Muslim community to their adherents who successfully commit acts of ‘love jihad.’  

“There’s a price tag for it,” said Ghoshal, explaining the motives behind ‘love jihad.’ “The cash reward is better for victims of higher caste and [Muslims] believe that if they convert Hindu women, they’ll go to heaven.” 

However, despite assertions like these, India’s National Investigation Agency has found no proof to support the existence of such a phenomenon. The Minister of State for Home Affairs, G. Krishna Reddy, told the Parliament in February 2020 that “no case of ‘love jihad’ has been reported by any of the central agencies.” 

Furthermore, documents provided in response to an Rights to Information request by Article 14 show that the Kerala Police too found no evidence of ‘love jihad’ when asked to investigate complaints by the National Commission for Minorities. 

According to police, sporadic cases of deceitful behavior by unscrupulous men are not evidence of a broader conspiracy or a larger plot. It seems that accounts of ‘love jihad’ are merely misrepresentations of regular consensual relationships.

For example, Muskan, a 22-year-old who was born into a Hindu family, and her Muslim husband Rashid went to register their marriage in the Uttar Pradesh town of Moradabad in December 2021. 

Her husband was accused of violating the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Ordinance, better known as the ‘love jihad’ law that outlaws conversions and calls into question inter-religious marriages. He was subsequently thrown in jail and the young woman was put in a state-run shelter home. 

“In most cases we found that a Hindu girl and Muslim boy were in love and had married against their parents’ will,” said state police chief A.L. Banerjee. “These are cases of love marriages and not ‘love jihad.’”

Even though there is substantial evidence refuting the existence of ‘love jihad,’ this “fringe extremist theory” has been brought into the political mainstream by far-right Hindutva groups in India. 

‘Love jihad’ is an example of disinformation slowly and steadily spreading hate against Muslims, tainting the Hindu majority’s perceptions. Anti-Muslim disinformation is persuasive, especially for anyone seeking confirmation of their hatred and deep-seated prejudice. 

The implementation of these laws encroaches upon an individual’s freedom of religion and right to interreligious marriage. It serves as a blatant example of government overreach driven by the administration’s prejudices and animosity towards a marginalized population. This law is motivated by the notion that through conversions, Muslims will gradually overpower the Hindu population in India.

However, the plausibility of this occurring is unclear, as Hindus have consistently accounted for 85% of the population over the past 40 years. The BJP under Modi’s leadership has cultivated a deep sense of Hindu victimhood by taking advantage of apprehensions surrounding ‘love jihad’ and the growing presence of Muslims in the nation.  

The propagation of baseless beliefs and unfounded fears by Hindu nationalist organizations reduces any likelihood of peaceful coexistence between the two faiths. 

But perhaps that’s the point. That there is no desire or intent to coexist. 

“[Hindus and Muslims] have been trying for 1,400 years and it hasn’t worked,” said Ghoshal. “India becoming a Hindu Rashtra guarantees peace for everyone and the right to practice religion [as one]sees it.”

This raises concerns about the fate of the more than 172 million Muslims currently residing in India and their ability to freely exercise their religion. Due to accusations of ‘love jihad’ and the fabricated fear of Muslims overpowering the Hindu population, Muslims are encountering significant challenges.

Since the Modi government came into power, there has been a significant surge in hate crimes motivated by religion, measured by an overall increase of 30%. The situation is even more alarming when observing that Muslims have been the main target in over 78% of these incidents, according to India Spend Initiative’s Hate Crime Tracker. 

Although the Indian Constitution enshrines principles of secularism and religious freedom, it seems that they are not being implemented fairly in the case of the Muslim population. 

But singing to the tune of the BJP, Shane Ghoshal explains that the current government’s actions are very much intentional and thought through. 

“A state can never be secular. In the preamble of our constitution, the secular word was added in a non-democratic manner by [previous prime minister]Indira Gandhi. It was a dark day for Indian democracy,” says Ghoshal. “Secularism just isn’t the flavor of India.” 

Shan Ghoshal’s perspective on the subject sheds light on the delicate state of India’s secular fabric. In the face of rising Islamophobia and divisive narratives like ‘love jihad,’ the future of religious freedom and co-existence in the nation hangs in the balance. 

The post Unraveling Secularism: The Rise of Islamophobia and ‘Love Jihad’ in Modi’s India appeared first on Glimpse from the Globe.

Regarding the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a set of 17 goals intended to provide quantitative data on each country’s development progress, Syria ranks 130th of 166 countries and territories. Syria particularly lags behind its regional counterparts in SDG 9 — “Industry, innovation and infrastructure” — and SDG 11 — “Sustainable cities and communities.” Overall, Syria’s progress is stagnant or worsening, with only 28.3% of the goals achieved or on track — however, even this figure is misleadingly positive, as the only improving indicators are misrepresentative of the country’s development as a whole.

Indicators dependent on economic prosperity inappropriately paint a success story; while decreases in import-related water consumption, fatalities and environmental hazards seem like progress, they are results of economic hardship. According to the WTO, Syria exported $12.2 billion a year before the war; in 2021, exports amounted to $739 million.

The only goals considered “achieved” or “on track” are SDGs 12 and 13, which relate to climate change. In 2021, Syria emitted carbon dioxide at a rate less than half of pre-war rates. Solid waste, sulfur dioxide emissions and nitrogen emissions have also decreased. While the UN describes SDG 13 as taking “​​urgent action to combat climate change,” this decrease is due to the war’s hindrance of industrial production rather than progressive policymaking. 

The most critical areas for Syrian development are SDG 8, “Decent work and economic growth;” SDG 9, “Industry, innovation and infrastructure;” and SDG 17, “Partnerships for the goals.” While other SDGs remain important, SDGs 8, 9 and 17 are more feasible to achieve while the war is still ongoing and develop symbiotically to achieve economic revitalization via regional reintegration – renormalizing relations with other Arab nations.  

While many indicators of SDG 8 lack data, it is noted that less than a fourth of Syrians have a bank account and unemployment has risen to 13.8%. Syria has yet to achieve any progress with SDG 9, with only 36% of the population accessing the internet and a mere 0.02% of GDP spent on research and development. Quality of transport and trade-related infrastructure is slightly better, ranking 2.51 on a scale of one to five, yet still behind the UN’s goal of 3.8. SDG 17 lacks data, with the only reported indicator being government spending on health and education which was 6.5% of GDP as of 2012, significantly lower than the UN’s goal of 15%.

Syria Today: Conflict, Weak Institutions and Economic Decline

The situation in Syria has been deteriorating, with the UN special envoy for Syria stating that the “needs of the Syrian people have reached the worst levels since the conflict began” due to sanctions, COVID-19, the Ukraine-Russia war, destroyed infrastructure, earthquakes and losing control of oil fields. 

Syria remains engrossed in a war of attrition amongst over a dozen militant groups and international actors. While violence has considerably reduced, a formal conclusion has yet to be reached and sporadic fighting remains. The government is highly fragmented as the official Syrian government only controls 70% of Syrian territory, with extremist groups commanding regions in the northwestern region of Idlib.

The war has destroyed nearly all of Syria’s infrastructure — roughly 90%. Since the beginning of the Assad regime, Syria has been dependent on oil, relying upon the state-owned Syrian Petroleum Company for much of its revenue. Because of the civil war, Syria has lost its oil fields to U.S.-backed Kurdish militants and now must import oil from Iran, imposing an extreme financial burden. 

While technically a presidential republic, the Syrian government operates as a highly authoritarian regime. The single ruling party, the Ba’ath Party, dominates Syrian politics with President Bashar al-Assad as chief of state and Prime Minister Hussein Arnous as head of government. According to Transparency International, Syria is the second most corrupt nation in the world. The civil war has presented opportunities for low-level corruption, as humanitarian aid is often misappropriated or used as leverage to manipulate recipients. 

Freedom House considers Syria “not free” and “one of the world’s most repressive regimes” due to corruption, forced disappearances, torture, arbitrary detainment and a near complete lack of civil society. There are neither fair elections nor legitimate opposition parties, and the government maintains a strong surveillance apparatus to punish dissenters. 

Syrian political institutions are weak, corrupt and secretive, neither conducive to democracy nor development and reflect a low quality of government that deploys systemic deprivation of human rights. The national legislative branch, the People’s Council, consists only of Ba’ath Party members. Legally, women hold the same political rights as men; however, they only fill 11.2% of the People’s Council seats and are excluded from actual decision-making. 

The judicial system is not impartial as both judges and prosecutors are required to belong to the Ba’ath Party. There is no due process, as military officers can try citizens in field courts outside the realm of legal standards, and many men, women and children are detained arbitrarily and in secrecy. There is no enforcement of equal treatment under the law as party members and affiliates receive preferential treatment.

The government maintains a centrally-planned economy, controlling key sectors such as energy, telecommunications and transportation. The banking system consists of state-owned and private banks led by the Central Bank of Syria, currently sanctioned by the United States. In July 2023, the central bank devalued the Syrian pound from 4,522 pounds to the dollar at the beginning of the year to 9,900. On the black market, the rate is now 15,000 pounds to the dollar, an acute increase from the pre-war rate of 47 pounds to the dollar. 

Syria’s currency has completely collapsed with inflation reaching 800% since the beginning of the war, leading many regions to use the Turkish lira instead. Because there are no minting facilities in rebel-controlled regions of Syria, the bills in circulation are physically falling apart and each merchant decides their value based on how intact they are.

In 2018, the World Bank (WB) reclassified Syria as a low-income country as its GDP shrunk to only 4.4% of its pre-war figures. Before the war, extreme poverty was “virtually nonexistent.” Now, 90% of Syrians live below the poverty line. The WB attributes this decline to mass deaths, destruction of physical capital, sanctions, the dissolution of economic networks and the rise of a black market – Syria exports illegal weapons and drugs, which have reportedly become Syria’s most valuable products. 

The International Community’s Response

The UN demands the Assad regime take accountability for its war crimes, allow humanitarian aid to reach vulnerable populations and institute reforms in the criminal justice system. This includes releasing unlawfully detained individuals, implementing due process, disclosing information on forcibly disappeared persons, holding those responsible for abuses accountable, ensuring legal protections for the internally displaced and halting the use of lethal force on dissenters. The ICC recommends other nations continue suspending relations with Syria until these requirements are met, while HRW calls on the UNSC to investigate and prosecute those responsible for war crimes and to sanction high-level Syrian officials. 

Syria addressed these recommendations at the 2020 UN High-Level Political Forum with a series of demands, most significantly the lifting of all economic and diplomatic sanctions, which, according to Syria, obstruct its legal “right to choose development paths” and are “preventing Syrian institutions from fulfilling its [sic] role in providing citizens with the necessities of living.” In response to its lagging SDG progress, Syria blamed “terrorism and external military interventions.” In return, Syria promised to uphold international law and encourage private sector, academic, civil society and media freedom. However, the OHCHR’s July 2023 findings of systemic rape, torture and forced disappearances discredit Syria’s pledged commitment, with the Human Rights Council declaring there is “no end in sight” to Syria’s international law violations.

At its core, the crisis in Syria is so deeply connected to systemic corruption, international meddling and a flawed economic system that approaches such as naming and shaming, financial aid and international ostracization do not address the systemic nature of the issue at hand. While violence has drastically decreased, the situation has worsened, which substantiates the idea that the war has revealed and exacerbated pre-existing structural issues, not created them. 

Echoing the UN, “the only sustainable solution” is a regime change. However, it is unlikely the Assads’ dynastic rule will be challenged anytime soon due to financial support from powerful nations like Russia and Iran, concession-free reentry into the Arab League and a lack of any political opposition.   

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