India

To which results will the elections in India lead? Will the regional vote decide or the urban vote? Rainer Hörig travelled to the countryside and asked farmers and workers about their opinions.

The new Aam Aadmi Party is spreading hope for many people. The manifestos published before the elections are usually overrun with generalities because they want to please everyone and not alienate any voter group. For the poor, inflation and corruption are the main concerns. The youth wants better education and career opportunities, and an end to corruption.

In three short articles, German journalist Rainer Hörig, who has been living in Pune since 1989, reports on the election campaign in India. He visited a village in Maharashtra, accompanied young campaign aids from the Aam Aadmi Party on a canvassing mission in Pune, and interviewed urban slum dwellers on what they expect from the election. These reports provide a vivid impression of how the election campaign is carried out there and what moves the people politically.

A decade of UPA-Congress rule in India ends with limited progress on the Indo-Pak relations.The fact that outgoing Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, despite his good intentions, could not visit the country of his birth even once sums up the structural constraints of this troubled relationship.

It is election season in India, and there are few places like Uttar Pradesh to get a feel which way the wind is blowing. Photo journalist Nikhil Roshan has captured some impressive scenes on his travels.

Since its unexpected victory in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress party has led two coalition governments. Now, ten years later, the party finds itself in deep crisis. If nothing else, then at least the heavy defeats in the last assembly elections 2013 mean that the Congress enters the Lok Sabha elections with a considerable handicap.

Narendra Modi of the hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is the most conspicuous contender for prime minister in the Indian general elections. Sebastian Schwecke analyses his party's chances to win sufficient seats in India's lower house of parliament.

Indian "middle classes" had for long been spectators in electoral politics. However, as the country prepares for the 16th general elections, this time around, they seem to be audible and visible everywhere. Who are the middle class in India and what are their role in the election?

Despite economic liberalization since 1991, the promotion of exports and increasing foreign direct investment, India is still not a heavy weight in the global economy. However, foreign policy issues have increasingly triggered domestic controversies and government crises in recent years.

Especially the 120 million young first voters could have extraordinary impact on the outcome of the elections. It is no surprise then that some political parties started chalking out strategies to attract the young voters of India, by putting forward young candidates and reaching out to the youth in colleges and universities.

After it was sworn in as the ruling party at Delhi's Legislative Assembly in December, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has had nothing short of a roller coaster ride. This photo essay offers a few glimpses of its rocky ride through their 49 days in office in the first two months of 2014.

Global climate change and its possible impact on water availability in the Indus river system are matters of vital concern, on which India and Pakistan must work on together. However the ongoing cooperation between them must go beyond the limited issue of emission reductions.

India is driving a nuclear and missiles arms race in one of the world’s most volatile and poorest regions, marked by persistent strategic hostility and a hot-cold war between India and Pakistan since 1947. There is very little clarity about India’s nuclear deterrence doctrine. This is likely to add to regional insecurity and instability.

How successful is India in its struggle against poverty? India's national Planning Commission recently claimed that within 7 years, the number of poor in India has declined by 22 per cent. These numbers are being challenged by many experts, according whom India's economic growth has left behind many more people.

For more than a decade, fast-growing India appeared to be well on the path to become another superpower. However, a considerable part of India’s population has remained poor; India’s growth lacks social inclusion. The debate is not new, but it is gaining increased attention in the current economic downturn, with elections pending for spring 2014.

Since India's economic liberalisation in 1991, the country has experienced impressive growth figures. Two decades after the reforms, social and ecologic costs of India's economy are surfacing. In an interview, environmentalist Ashish Kothari draws a picture of the Indian growth story and its deficits.

The 21st century has inherited the unfinished agenda of globalising democracy in a more vibrant form. In many instances there is a feeling of unease about the achievement of representative democracy because of the ongoing tendency of democratic nations to exclude or marginalise large sections of society. After 65 years of freedom and democracy India’s democratic structures continue to be restricted by their patriarchal foundations and women still fail to enjoy full and equal citizenship right across the country.

India will be witnessing a revival of communalism in the 2014 general elections, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP, the Hindu nationalists party) making a decided pitch for power with their prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. The so called Hindutva agenda seeking to establish a theocratic state is being given a decisive push with the BJP hoping to divide the electorate along religious lines, and thereby consolidating the majority Hindu vote in its favour.