The South Asian security complex refers to security interdependencies between the states in the region, and also includes the effect that powerful external actors, such as China, the US and Russia, and geopolitical interests have on regional dynamics. This book focuses on the national securities of a number of South Asian countries in order to discuss a range of issues related to South Asian security. The book makes a distinction between traditional and non-traditional security. While state-centric approaches such as bilateral relations between India and Pakistan are considered to be...

This critical study presents an overview of a wide selection of Pakistani novels in English contextualised in salient historical moments or developments, including pre-20th century Islamic history, the 1947 partition, the 1971 Pakistani war, the Zia years, and post-9/11 Pakistan, as well as in pervasive themes, including ethnonationalist tensions, diaspora, and corruption.

In order to understand the Pakistani state and government's treatment of non-dominant ethnic groups after the failure of the military operations in East Pakistan and the independence of Bangladesh, this book looks at the ethnic movements that were subject to a military operation after 1971.

The absence of water supply infrastructure is a critical issue that affects the sustainability of cities in the developing world and the quality of life of millions of people living in these cities. This book is a study of the politics of water supply infrastructures in three metropolitan cities in contemporary India.

This book is the first study to qualitatively explore the concepts of higher education in Muslim contexts. It examines the different concepts of 'a university' and the way they shape practice in Muslim contexts, with a particular focus on the Islamic republic of Pakistan. Contributing to theoretical debates and discussing practical challenges that universities in Muslim countries face, the author analyses seven higher education institutions in Pakistan. She argues that there is a need for institutions to constantly review their mission and aims and objectives in light of the wider economic,...

Following over twenty years of war, Sri Lanka's longest cease-fire (2002-2006) provided a final opportunity for an inclusive peace settlement between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). However, hostilities resumed with ever increasing desperation and ferocity on both sides, until the LTTE were overcome and largely eradicated in 2009. This book provides a contextualised analysis of the effects of war on a small Tamil community living in northern Sri Lanka during the cease-fire period. It examines how the society changed and adapted in order to...

Focusing on notions of diaspora, identity and agency, this book examines ethnicity in war-torn Sri Lanka. It focuses on the historical development and negotiation of a new identification of up-country Tamil amidst Sri Lanka's violent ethnic politics.

Pakistan, sixth most populous country in the world, has not gone through systematic and effective land or agrarian reforms in sixty-three years of its existence. Almost 67 per cent of its 167 million inhabitants still live in rural areas and directly or indirectly rely on agriculture for their livelihood. In spite of centrality of the village in the country s political-economy there is little by way of theory informed rigorous village studies. As a result, there is abundance of myths about economic, political, and cultural aspects of the life in rural Pakistan

The main...

This book addresses the question of conversion in India and its relationship to religious freedom by examining how this relationship is expressed in the discourses of law (Freedom of Religion Acts), anti-conversion campaigns, popular cultural texts, in the language of those who convert, and in secularist and human rights statements. Some key questions that the book raises are: Are the discourses of religious freedom as they have been currently formulated internationally adequate to the task of protecting it in the Indian context? Is there a different way of thinking about religious freedom...