Almost one-quarter of humanity lives on the Indian subcontinent. That fact is easily forgotten elsewhere, as world leaders focus on combating outbreaks of COVID-19 and its new variants within their own countries.
But when our descendants pass judgment on this moment in history, they won’t remember just the lockdowns, face masks and vaccination programs. They will also remember India and its neighbors.
They will remember how human remains have been found bloated and decomposing on the banks of the sacred Ganges River; how bodies had to be left in the heat outside crematoria, owing to a lack of wood for funerary pyres. They will remember how hospitals ran low on oxygen, medication and hospital beds, while people lined up outside emergency departments and clinics begging for someone to save their loved ones.
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