Time USA - December 11, 2017

13

COMING TO

AMERICA

Nearly 364,

foreign students

on F-1 visas

were newly

enrolled at an

American college

or university in

2016, according

to Pew Research

Center’s analysis

of government

data. Here, a

sample of the

top countries of

citizenship of

foreign students

in the U.S.:

108,

China

66,

India

21,

South Korea

18,

Saudi Arabia

6,

Nigeria

DATA

◁ Padukone was put under

police protection after receiving

death threats

RED ALERT Mount Agung spews hot volcanic ash on Nov. 27 on the Indonesian island of Bali. Officials raised the alert

to the highest level on the same day, fearing a major eruption is imminent. Up to 100,000 people were told to evacuate

the surrounding area, and thousands of tourists remain stranded as a result of the three-day closure of the island’s

international airport. Flights resumed on Nov. 29.Photograph by Made Nagi—EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

A POLITICIAN FROM INDIA’S RULING HINDU

nationalist party shocked the country by offering a

100 million rupee ($1.6 million) bounty to anyone

who beheads actor Deepika Padukone, star of the

controversial new moviePadmavati, along with the

film’s director, Sanjay Leela Bhansali. The threat to

the Bollywood figures is just the latest evidence

of an escalating culture war in India.

SCENE SPECULATIONHindu nationa s

have become obsessed by rumors th t

Padmavatifeatures a romantic dream

sequence between a 14th century M m

sultan and the eponymous Hindu qu

Although Bhansali denies that a lov

scene exists, Suraj Pal Amu, an

official with the ruling Bharatiya

Janata Party of Prime Minister

Narendra Modi, repeated a call for

their beheadings on Nov. 19.

NO-SHOWThe film’s Dec. 1 release in India has now

been put on hold, and an extremist group, Karni

Sena, threatened to burn down British cinemas

that screen the film. Amu resigned on Nov. 29, but

critics say the scandal is an attempt by the party

to play to its nationalist base and erode freedom

of speech.

NATIONALIST CLASHES Under Modi, Hindu

nationalists have stoked cultural conflicts. So-called

cow vigilantism has surged as mobs target mainly

Muslims in the name of protecting cattle,

w sacred to Hindus. In June, a chief

of the BJP said the Taj Mahal, built

y slim emperor, did not “represent

ulture.” And on Nov. 24, a hanging

was linked to the controversy over

movie—perhaps a grim harbinger of

hings to come in India’s new era of

intolerance. —TARA JOHN

WORLD

India’s culture war stirs up

trouble in Bollywood

.

alists

hat

am

Muslim

ueen.

ve

Muslims in

which are

minister

by a Mus

Indian cu

in Jaipur

the m

th

KIM: KCNA/KNS/AFP/GETTY IMAGES; PADUKONE: STR/AFP/GETTY IMAGES