Hridbina Chatterjee

As the Indus Waters Treaty collapses under the weight of arbitral boycotts and upstream infrastructure competition, South Asia’s river basins are fast becoming the region’s defining geopolitical flashpoint. For over six decades, the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 stood as a singular, almost miraculous anomaly in the turbulent geopolitical landscape of South Asia. Brokered by the World Bank after nine years of painstaking diplomacy, the treaty successfully withstood three major wars, sharp...

Violence and retaliatory blockades on the Assam–Meghalaya corridor show how quickly local grievances can become a regional economic crisis The equilibrium of Northeast India is frequently tested along its inter-state boundaries, but flashpoints that erupt on the streets of Shillong resonate far beyond mere physical lines on a map. When public demonstrations organized by local pressure groups deteriorate into targeted vandalism against out-of-state commercial vehicles, a localized...

For decades, the geopolitical narrative between India and Nepal was dominated by a traditional, friction-ridden pattern of interactions. Diplomatic discourse frequently hit roadblocks over sensitive issues, such as complex border disputes, revisions to historical treaties, and Kathmandu’s anxieties regarding economic overdependence on New Delhi. These disputes regularly fuelled political rhetoric and stalled deeper bilateral integration. However, beneath the radar of standard diplomatic...