The scars of August in South Asia

Another August in 2024, another uprising, and yet another regime change in Dhaka.

The ancient civilisational region beyond the Indus River was variously known as the Indos , the I ndian land and al-Hind to the Persians and Greeks. By the time of the Mughal Empire, the subcontinent had become India for the Europeans. When the British subjugated the land, they retained the English name. The political unit that Article 1 of the Indian Constitution calls “ India, that is Bharat ”, was carved out of a civilisational entity almost as old as human history.