The Weekend Fix: Why India will need to resurrect its image in 2020, plus the best New Year pieces

Weekend Reads

The new year comes with lots of commentary that either looks back at the year that has gone or the one that is just beginning. This year, we have the added complexity of turning the page on the 2010s (unless you’re one of those who believe that the decade will only begin at the start of 2021).

So here’s a selection of end-of-year, end-of-decade and new year pieces so you don’t have to go looking.

First four pieces from Scroll.in

• Shoaib Daniyal reminds us that Indians were convinced into believe their country would become a superpower by 2020, a completely ridiculous idea: Tracing the brief history of a spectacularly incorrect prediction.
  
• Supriya Sharma has a warning about what is happening in Uttar Pradesh: We knew Adityanath was hostile to Muslims. But did we expect his regime to be so savage?
• Nithya Subramanian drew out how often India turned off the internet in 2019: India shut down the internet more than 100 times in 2019.
• And the Political Fix, our weekly newsletter on Indian politics and policy, brought you 19 things we learnt about Indian politics in 2019.
• Bonus: If you haven’t been following Scroll Food, which brings you the best recipes from around India, you should check it out now.

Looking beyond Scroll.in

• Puja Mehra in Outlook traces with some animal metaphors) just how bad 2019 was for the Indian economy, which saw its expected Gross Domestic Product growth fall from more than 7% to potentially under 5% in the span of the same year.
• Another way of looking at what is wrong with the Indian economy: Vivek Kaul in Mint examines the financial activity of Ranchi, Jharkhand and draws some conclusions.
• Nistula Hebbar in the Hindu has a prescription for the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2020: “It will have to be kinder and gentler, despite the 303-seat majority, and not allow its own numbers to drown out warning signs of a turmoil within.”
• Is the BJP government seeking to create a Hindu rashtra – by jugaad, asks Neelanjan Sircar in the Hindustan Times.
  
• “What constellation of political forces will be up to reversing a tide of communalisation, authoritarianism, economic stagnation, environmental depredation, institutional decay with which we end the decade?” asks Pratap Bhanu Mehta in the Indian Express, (insisting that this is not a “counsel of despair”).
• The year 2019 altered Kashmir radically, writes Shakir Mir in the Wire, and though India’s leaders may think the changes were positive, the true picture will prove to be different.
• The Constitution of India doesn’t just belong to the judiciary and the courts, writes Gautam Bhatia in the Hindu as we enter a year in which that document is likely to come up many times. The Constitution belongs to everyone.
• “India’s image took a beating this year,” writes Seema Sirohi for ORF. “The willingness to believe New Delhi’s version of events diminished in direct proportion to the ineptness and heavy handedness on display across the country. Official versions simply don’t stand up after a point.”

And now for something completely different

• Here is Buzzfeed’s list of the most viral animals of the decade.
• NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour picks the 50 “happiest” (America-centric) things from pop culture in 2019.
• Lots of space missions sent back some amazing pictures in 2019. BBC has a selection.
• Brian Chen in the New York Times tells you what technology is likely to invade your life in 2020.
• And the Guardian has a literary calendar for 2020.