Behind the spectacle of entertainment, sport is a subject with political issues at every level. These issues range from the social, with divisions created along gender and class lines, to the use of sport to pursue diplomatic and statecraft goals. In addition, some sports are positioned and promoted as national events both in public opinion and in the media. This book seeks to explore some aspects of the notion of power in sport in south Asia and among south Asians abroad. The first two chapters deal with the internal societal dimensions of the politics of sport; the next three relate to the...

The ongoing political turmoil in the Middle East as a whole would seem to be essentially a contest between the minimalist and maximalist positions on popular sovereignty: should power merely come from, and be exercised in the name of, the people? Or, should those in power be fully accountable to the people? The dilemma warrants a closer look. The present volume comes out of an international conference held in Calcutta, India organised by the Institute of Foreign Policy Studies and the Centre for Pakistan and West Asian Studies, University of Calcutta in March 2013. This volume aims not at a...

The literature on domestic politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran generally argues that that politically centrist ideologies are altogether absent in a political milieu characterised by extreme positions. Some observers emphasise the institutional peculiarities of the Islamic Republic, which tends to facilitate rampant factionalism and polarisation of ideological positions, thereby impeding the emergence of a political middle. Others argue that the doctrinaire Islamist character of the revolutionary generation makes them averse to pragmatic positions in the centre, promoting an opposition...