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216 AREAS 14 South Asia gurharpal singh In the theorization and general discussion of democratization South Asia occupies a distinctive space. The region, comprising India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, and the Maldives, is home to 1.4 billion people (almost 22 per cent of the world’s population), of whom around 550 million live below the poverty line. As recent events have demonstrated, in the popular imagination South Asia is commonly characterized as suffering from chronic political instability, protracted ethnic conflicts and the
Resistance and its Discontents in South Asian Women’s Fiction challenges the prevailing misgivings about the relevance of resistance as a concept in postcolonial literary studies and complicates existing debates in the field about the possible meanings and manifestations of ‘resistance’. While clearly situating dissent and subversion at the heart of questions of power and oppression, the book brings to the fore the ways in which the literary texts under discussion compel us to grapple with the emancipatory politics as well as the contradictions and slipperiness of the term ‘resistance’. More broadly, the monograph demonstrates the importance of the notion of resistance when coming to grips with the idea of ‘the political’ today.
While empire in India formally ended in 1947, the migration of South Asians to Britain in the decades that followed continues to be an enduring reminder of Britain’s imperial past. This chapter explores how the legacies of empire became manifest in British attitudes and policies towards South Asians in their midst, as well as South Asian responses to the British and Britain
This book aims to sketch the diversities of south Asian social History, focusing on Orissa. It highlights the problems of colonialism and the way it impacted the lives of the colonised, even as it weaves in the manner in which the internal order of exploitation worked. Based on archival and rare, hitherto untapped sources, including oral evidence, it brings to life diverse aspects of Orissa's social history. These include areas like the environment; health and medicine; conversion (in Hinduism); popular movements; social history of some princely states; and the intricate connections between the marginal social groups and Indian nationalism. It also focuses on decolonisation and its meanings. Alongside, it explores the face of patriarchy and gender-related violence in post-colonial Orissa. While achieving this task, this book follows the track of an inter-disciplinary tradition and draws upon social anthropology and political sociology. The manner in which it engages with and questions the received wisdom of imperialist, nationalist and subaltern historiography would make it attractive to both the specialist and the non-specialist reader. Besides focusing on the history of colonialism and its ruthless progress over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, its concerns include the manner in which the post-colonial ruling classes in decolonised south Asia negotiated a host of problems that were allowed to remain and left unresolved. This book would be of interest to students of history, social anthropology, political sociology and cultural studies. It would also attract those associated with non-governmental organisations and planners of public policy.
This book is the first full-length study of the 1947 drawing of the Indo-Pakistani boundary in Punjab. It uses the Radcliffe commission, headed by Sir Cyril Radcliffe , as a window onto the decolonisation and independence of India and Pakistan. Examining the competing interests that influenced the actions of the various major players, the book highlights British efforts to maintain a grip on India even as the decolonisation process spun out of control. It examines the nature of power relationships within the colonial state, with a focus on the often-veiled exertion of British colonial power. With conflict between Hindus , Muslims and Sikhs reaching unprecedented levels in the mid-1940s , British leaders felt compelled to move towards decolonization. The partition was to be perceived as a South Asian undertaking, with British officials acting only as steady and impartial guides. Radcliffe's use of administrative boundaries reinforced the impact of imperial rule. The boundaries that Radcliffe defined turned out to be restless divisions, and in both the 1965 and 1971 wars India and Pakistan battled over their Punjabi border. After the final boundary, known as the 'Radcliffe award', was announced, all sides complained that Radcliffe had not taken the right 'other factors' into account. Radcliffe's loyalty to British interests is key to understanding his work in 1947. Drawing on extensive archival research in India, Pakistan and Britain, combined with innovative use of cartographic sources, the book paints a vivid picture of both the partition process and the Radcliffe line's impact on Punjab.
goals for both sides, that of balancing China’s growing power in the Indo-Pacific. As Alice Wells, the Acting U.S. Assistant Secretary of State put it in 2018, the U.S. has a distinct South Asia strategy and an Indo-Pacific strategy and the U.S.–India partnership is “dealing with the necessity of ensuring that the Indo-Pacific region remain free and open.” 33 It is clear that where the Indo-Pacific strategy conflicts with the South Asia strategy, the former has precedence, though Ms. Wells herself did not state this in as
. C. ( 2011 ), ‘ NGOs and HIV/AIDS Advocacy in India: Identifying Challenges ’, South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies , 34 : 1 , 65 – 88 . Leeuw , F. L. ( 2012 ), ‘ On the contemporary history of experimental evaluations and its relevance for policy making ’, in O
context challenge confronting humanitarian response organisations is the rapid growth in urbanisation. Population densities are changing from rural to urban living, with estimates that the 54 per cent of the global population currently living in urban areas is projected to increase to 66 per cent by 2050 ( UNDESA, 2014 ). In South Asia, 190.7 million people reside in urban slums, and in Dhaka the proportion of people living in slums is 40 per cent of the total urban population ( BBS, 2014
observe that the age of child marriage is rising ( Koski et al. , 2017 ). Different to South Asia, where most of the research on child marriage has occurred, girls in some African countries have greater autonomy in choosing a spouse ( Petroni et al. , 2017 ). Humanitarian agencies have frequently framed CEFM as a form of gender-based violence (GBV) ( Plan International, 2018 : 1; CARE, 2014 ), and this framework has also been presented by others ( Belhorma, 2016 ). The practice of child marriage is influenced by multiple drivers which vary depending on the context
As India has risen economically and militarily in recent years, its political clout on the global stage has also seen a commensurate increase. From the peripheries of international affairs, India is now at the centre of major power politics. It is viewed as a major balancer in the Asia-Pacific, a major democracy that can be a major ally of the West in countering China even as India continues to challenge the West on a whole range of issues – non-proliferation, global trade and climate change. Indian foreign policy was driven by a sense of idealism since its independence in 1947. India viewed global norms as important as it kept a leash on the interests of great powers and gave New Delhi “strategic autonomy” to pursue its interests. But as India itself has emerged as a major global power, its foreign policy has moved towards greater “strategic realism.” This book is an overview of Indian foreign policy as it has evolved in recent times. The focus of the book is on the 21st century with historical context provided as appropriate. It will be an introductory book on Indian foreign policy and is not intended to be a detailed examination of any of its particular aspects. It examines India’s relationships with major powers, with its neighbours and other regions, as well as India’s stand on major global issues. The central argument of the book is that with a gradual accretion in its powers, India has become more aggressive in the pursuit of its interests, thereby emerging as an important player in the shaping of the global order in the new millennium.