Perspectives on modern South Asia
Subtitle: a reader in culture, history, and representation
By: edited and introduced by Kamala Visweswaran
Series: Global perspectives -- 4
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Malden
Language: eng
Number of pages: 383
ISBN-13: 9781405100625; 9781405100632
Subjects: Social conditions; Civilization; Group identity; Ethnicity
Description: "Perspectives on Modern South Asia presents an exciting core collection of essays drawn from anthropology, literary and cultural studies, history, sociology, economics, and political science to reveal the complexities of a region that is home to a fifth of humanity. Presents an interdisciplinary overview of the origins and development of the eight nations comprising modern South Asia: Afghanistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, India, the Maldives, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Explores South Asia's common cultures, languages and religions and their relationship to its ethnic and national differences. Features essays that provide understandings of the central dynamics of South Asia as an important cultural, political, and economic region of the world."--

"While the eight South Asian countries of Afghanistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, India, the Maldives, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka continue to be divided by deep national differences, they also share common cultures, languages, and religions. Perspectives on Modern South Asia is an interdisciplinary collection of readings drawn from anthropology, literary and cultural studies, history, sociology, economics, and political science that will shape a fuller understanding of the complexities of contemporary South Asia. Featuring selections from an international group of experts, this volume explores the tension between the lived experience of cultural or religious tolerance and the deployment of culture or religion for nationalist purposes. Visweswaran offers a wealth of thought-provoking insights into the origins and development of the shifting politics, cultures, economies, and national identities of a region of the world that is home to a fifth of humanity"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note: Introduction: Reconceptualizing Region and Nation in Modern South Asia.; title: Part I: Debates about Origins: Pre/Modern Religious Pluralities in South Asia.; title: 1. Shail Mayaram. 2004. "Beyond Ethnicity: Being Hindu and Muslim in South Asia".; title: 2. Syed Akbar Hyder. "Towards a Composite Reading of South Asian Religious Cultures: The Case of Islam".; title: 3. Vasudha Narayanan. 2006. "Shared Ritual Spaces; title: Hindus and Muslims at the Shrine of Shahul Hamid".; title: 4. Kancha Iliah. 1996. "Hindu Gods and Us: Our Goddesses and the Hindus".; title: Part II: The Study of South Asian Society and the Emergence of Modern Forms of Social Classification.; title: 5. Bernard Cohn. 1987. "Notes on the History of the Study of Indian Society and Culture".; title: 6. M.N. Srinivas. 1962. "A Note on Sanskritization and Westernization".; title: 7. Arjun Guneratne. 2002. "What's in a Name? Aryans and Dravidians in the Making of Sri Lankan Identities".; title: 8. Hamza Alavi. 1989. "The Politics of Ethnicity in India and Pakistan".; title: 9. Rajendra Pradhan. 2002. "Ethnicity, Caste, and a Pluralist society.; title: Part III: Partition, Nationalism, and the Formation of South Asian National States.; title: 10. Ritu Menon and Kamla Bhasin. 1997. "Abducted Women, the State and Questions of Honour: Three Perspectives on the Recovery Operation in Post-Partition India.; title: 11. Nighat Said Khan. 1994. "Identity, Violence, and Women: A Reflection on the Partition of India 1947".; title: 12. Naila Kabeer. 1987. "The Quest for National Identity: Women, Islam, and the State in Bangladesh".; title: 13. Val Moghadam. 1997. "Nationalist Agendas and Women's Rights: Conflicts in Afghanistan in the 20th Century".; title: 14. Rizwan Ahmed. 2001. "The State and National Foundation in the Maldives".; title: Part IV: States and Communal Conflict in South Asia.; title: 15. Tambiah, Stanley J. / Presidential address: reflections on communal violence in South Asia..; title: 16. Pankaj Mishra, "Ayodhya: the Modernity of Hinduism".; title: 17. Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake. 2002. "Identity on the Borderline: Modernity, New Ethnicities, and the Unmaking of Multiculturalism in Sri Lanka.".; title: 18. Nazif M. Shahrani. 2002. "War, Factionalism, and the State in Afghanistan".; title: Part V: Development and Liberalization.; title: 19. David Ludden. 2005. Development Regimes in South Asia.".; title: 20. Amartya Sen and Jean Dreze. 1996. "Radical Needs and Moderate Reforms".; title: 21. Gopal Guru and Anuradha Chakravarty. 2004. "Who Are the Country's Poor?" Social Movement Politics and Dalit Poverty.".; title: 22. Lamia Karim, " Politics of the Poor? NGOs and Grass-roots Political Mobilization in Bangladesh".; title: 23. Seira Tamang. 2002 ."The Politics of 'Developing Nepali Women".; title: 24. Sandya Hewamanne "City of Whores".; title: 25. Tashi Choden. 2002. "Indo-Bhutan Relations: Recent Trends".; title: Part VI: Social Movements.; title: 26. Achin Vanaik. 2001. "Developing the Anti-Nuclear Movement".; title: 27. Zia Mian. "Pakistan's Fateful Nuclear Option".; title: 28. Chitraroopa Palit.2003 "Monsoon Risings: Mega-Dam Resistance in The Narmada Valley.".; title: 29. Radha Kumar. 1999. "From Chipko to Sati: The Contemporary Women's Movement in India".; title: 30. Shahnaz Rouse. 1986. "Women's Movement in Pakistan: State, Class and Gender".; title: 31. Shobha Gautam, Amrita Banskota and Rita Manchanda. 2001. "Where There are no Men: Women in the Maoist Insurgency in Nepal".