Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 1d

"If India is poorly governed, economically fragile, geopolitically unmoored or socially divided, the diaspora cannot compensate for those weaknesses. Perhaps it is not even interested in doing so and it should not be expected to." [N/N]

2

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 1d

Israel’s narrative—a small democracy surrounded by enemies, with Holocaust memory as its moral reference—resonates in US political culture. India’s narrative is murkier: a rising power with internal contradictions, communal tensions, democratic backsliding, high unemployment and authoritarianism.

1 3

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 1d

"Comparing Indian-American influence to Jewish American political power reveals not just a gap but a chasm. It exposes uncomfortable truths about race, money, the evolution of institutions and diaspora politics itself."

1 2

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 1d

Hindu Right has an Israel envy. It is reflected in the desire to copy Israel's lobbying model in the US. That has failed miserably in the past few months.

In @themorningcontext.bsky.social I look at the reasons for this failure, where Modi wasted a decade of India's foreign policy energies.

When it comes to lobbying in the US, Indian-Americans are not Jewish Americans

India tried to build an Israel-style lobby in Washington, DC. But money, race and ideology have kept Indian-Americans from becoming a political force.

themorningcontext.com

1 4 6

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 3d

"Ultimately, the operational impact of the Saudi Arabia-Pakistan defense pact may prove more modest than initial assessments suggest. Pakistan has a well-documented history of overplaying a strong hand, from its relationship with the United States to its early partnership with China."

1

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 3d

"Even if the partnership with Saudi Arabia fails to deliver in full operational terms, its signaling effect alters the deterrence landscape. India is now up against a Pakistan wholly backed by China, strategically supported by Saudi Arabia, and benefiting from newfound US benevolence under Trump."

India Faces Down New Security Calculus

The Saudi Arabia-Pakistan defense pact has a signaling effect on deterrence.

foreignpolicy.com

1 2 3

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 11d

"This systematic complicity isn’t accidental. Research by
Joyojeet Pal et al demonstrates how Indian sportspeople systematically align with ruling party initiatives, unlike their American counterparts who engage critically with political issues." [N/N]

1

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 11d

"It is no surprise that every major cricket decision in India now serves BJP interests. What we witnessed during the Asia Cup was thus inevitable. It was sport subordinated entirely to political propaganda. This raises profound questions about Indian cricket’s moral leadership."

1 2

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 11d

PM Modi's tweet on Asia Cup "wasn’t merely tone-deaf celebration. It represented something far more sinister; the deliberate equation of sporting triumph with military conflict, treating cricket victory as an extension of actual warfare where people die."

I write for Gideon and Pete's Cricket et al

Cricket weaponised: Modi’s dangerous trivialisation of war

Sushant Singh is a lecturer in South Asian studies at Yale University and consulting editor with The Caravan magazine in India. He served in the Indian Army for more than two decades.

www.cricketetal.com

1 1 2

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 16d

“Indian-Americans are successful, wealthy and visible, but not willing to be mobilised as a real political force for India. Modi’s noisy rallies and community events may have led to asset-building headlines but they have not built anything of substance.”

www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/poor...

Poor returns

What India has seen on the Hill is a growing impatience with its slide towards illiberalism. The kind of support Modi and Jaishankar boasted of has melted into indifference and opposition

www.telegraphindia.com

1 1

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 16d

“For a foreign policy premised on diaspora and bipartisan bonds, this is a very public reckoning. The assets Modi so loudly counted on were never tested before. When the time came, they failed.”

I write in The Telegraph (Kolkata) on how all those Modi has hailed in the US didn’t speak for India.

1 1 4

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 26d

"The matches against Pakistan serve Modi's political needs perfectly - providing hyper-nationalist theatre that drip-feeds hatred and enmity against the neighbour. This calculated cynicism represents the death of sport and the triumph of performative politics. ...This is not cricket. It never was."

1 1 3

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 26d

"What unfolds in Dubai over the next few days will not be sport. It will be another episode in the ongoing theatre of toxic Hindu nationalism, where the primary audience is domestic and the primary purpose is political."

1 2

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 26d

At cricket et al, I write on the tragedy and farce of India-Pakistan cricket. It goes well beyond the saga of the missing handshakes. "Instead of building fraternal ties and people-to-people contact, the cricket field becomes the site of playing out their nationalist fantasies."

The tragedy and farce of India-Pakistan cricket

Sushant Singh is a lecturer in South Asian studies at Yale University and consulting editor with The Caravan magazine in India. He served in the Indian Army for more than two decades.

www.cricketetal.com

1 3

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 28d

India is not inevitably destined for state collapse, but current trends are concerning. The Modi govt’s response to growing vulnerabilities—further centralisation, institutional capture & digital shutdowns—appears to be exacerbating underlying problems...explosive conditions a small spark can kindle

3

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 28d

The pattern across South Asia is clear: economic frustration + digital coordination + weakened institutions = government collapse. From Sri Lanka to Bangladesh to Nepal, it's the same playbook. India exhibits all these conditions, potentially at greater scale and intensity than its neighhbours.

1 3

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 28d

India's youth unemployment has hit 44.5% (ages 20-24)—higher than Bangladesh, Nepal or Sri Lanka before their governments fell. Over 600,000 Indians emigrated in 2024 alone. Yet Modi's supporters dismiss regional upheavals as "foreign conspiracies." A dangerous blind spot.

I write in The Caravan

India cannot afford to ignore lessons from the recent upheavals in South Asia

India exhibits many of the conditions that preceded the upheavals in Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, though at potentially greater scale and intensity.

caravanmagazine.in

1 4 6

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 28d

Who after Modi? Is Amit Shah the eternal bridesmaid? Who else are the contenders to succeed Modi?

Where Hartosh and I discuss what this reveals about power, succession and democracy in today's India. In The Caravan Long View

Beyond Modi: Is Amit Shah the eternal bridesmaid? | The Caravan Long View Ep 4

YouTube video by The Caravan Magazine

www.youtube.com

2 6

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 29d

"Nepal's burning parliament should serve as a wake-up call. If India cannot maintain influence with its closest neighbour, one with which it shares open borders and deep cultural ties, its claims to regional leadership ring hollow."

3

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 29d

"With 1,751 km of open border, every tremor in Kathmandu reverberates through India's border states. Yet this acknowledgment of vulnerability comes without any clear strategy to address the underlying causes of regional discontent."

1 3

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 29d

The Modi government's response to this crisis in Nepal will signal whether India can adapt to the new realities of South Asian politics or whether it will continue to be surprised by events it should have seen coming.

My column in @themorningcontext.bsky.social themorningcontext.com/chaos/from-k...

From Kathmandu's ashes: A blueprint for India's regional renaissance

Nepal's democratic uprising offers India a choice to either continue with its failed transactional diplomacy or embrace the patient institution-building that South Asia desperately needs.

themorningcontext.com

2 2

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · Sep 11

मोदी के 11 साल के बाद भारत की विदेश नीति का हाल - अंदरूनी कमज़ोरी का नतीजा, हरकारा online पर निधीश से मेरी थोड़ी लम्बी बातचीत

I truly enjoyed this conversation on India's strategic outlook and global standing after 11 years of Modi as PM (in Hindustani)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChPo...

Trump की दोस्ती, China की दादागिरी: क्या मोदी की विदेश नीति फेल हो गई? | सुशांत सिंह | #Harkara

YouTube video by Harkara हरकारा

www.youtube.com

1 3

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · Sep 8

Sankarshan Thakur, an unparalleled chronicler of our times. RIP.

(Yale hosted him last October as a Poynter Fellow. I was in the discussion on the state of Indian journalism.)

1 3

Reposted by Sushant Singh

Omair Ahmad @omairahmad.bsky.social · Sep 6

"Modi was on page two [of the People's Daily]. The president or the premier of the Maldives is on page one"

Tells you something of how the Chinese side saw Modi's trip to Tianjin.

@sushantsingh.bsky.social

sinocism.com/p/sharp-chin...

Sharp China: Xi Welcomes Putin and Modi at the SCO Summit; Perspective on the India and China Buzz; World War II and a 'Memory War'

Listen now | This episode of Sharp China is outside the paywall.

sinocism.com

1

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · Sep 6

Modi’s theatrics with China delivered zilch: on Ladakh, border issues, water data sharing, trade deficit, supply chain blocks, CPEC to Afghanistan, terror, military support to Pak. Chasing optics, Modi lets Xi call the shots

My essay in The Caravan enumerates them caravanmagazine.in/politics/mod...

In Tianjin, Modi again succumbed to Beijing’s preferred terms

What Prime Minister Narendra Modi friendliness with the Russian president Vladimir Putin and the Chinese president Xi Jinping, during the SCO meeting in Tianjin means.

caravanmagazine.in

1 2 4