Search

This paper investigates the relationship between conflict trajectories and years of schooling in India for girls and boys. It adopts propensity score matching methods on panel data from the India Human Development Survey (2004/05-2011/12) merged with conflict data from the South Asia Terrorism Portal. Conflict is measured according to the dynamic trajectory of Naxal violence-related fatalities at the district level, distinguishing areas of chronic conflict with those experiencing dynamism in conflict intensity over time. ATT estimates indicate that conflict is associated with a reduction in years of schooling for both genders, though relatively high for girls (by a quarter of a year for girls and by 0.16 of a year for boys), driven by large reductions in school accumulation for girls living in areas of chronic conflict. Results are consistent when adopting different methods, alternative measures of conflict fatalities, and accounting for other conflicts and selective migration. Examining transmission mechanisms suggest that household spending on girls' education may be de-prioritised amidst conflict, while conflict may also weaken or destroy school infrastructure. Results suggest that policy responses should prioritise girls' education in areas of chronic conflict, not only in 'fragile states' but in countries where conflict remains a subnational concern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nuclear ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) are traditionally believed to provide assured second-strike capability and stabilize deterrence. This paper contests this classical assumption in South Asia's context and argues that SSBN capability to become secure and credible deterrent depends upon doctrinal issues, command and communication systems, and operational readiness of SSBN force. In a dyad, if both countries have invulnerable second strike capability, there is less incentive to strike first. Whereas invulnerability of one country incentivizes first strike. In South Asian strategic situation, an assured sea-based second-strike capability may contribute to India's aggressive nuclear posture. This paper evaluates New Delhi's induction of SSBNs in light of its stated notion of minimalism, as declared in its nuclear doctrine, and discusses in the context of traditional stability theory associated with the development of SSBN force. This paper primarily considers deterrence stability and crisis stability as two dependent variables to study how India's sea-based nuclear capability affects strategic stability in South Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using India as a theory building case, this paper puts forward a theoretical framework for understanding countries' responses to global rules and implementation effects across diverse global governance regimes and contexts. The initial premise for this paper is that the strategic structure of implementation dilemmas faced by states and actors within countries need to be understood in addition to design dilemmas. Successful global regimes must not only solve cooperation and uncertainty problems at the initial stages in choosing the right institutional matrix, but also 'require changes in domestic institutions.' The need to change domestic institutions creates certain implementation dilemmas. These dilemmas are a joint product of the institutional design, specific policy issue and the domestic logic of responses after international agreements have been signed. This broader idea helps understand a wide variety of India's interactions across global governance institutions. I also suggest a novel empirical strategy of cross-institutional analysis to assess implementation dilemmas. While we have numerous cross-national studies of how compliance occurs in a wide variety of countries, we lack theory-driven, empirically grounded, comparative studies of a single country or a group of countries across diverse global regimes. Such a framework can help us better understand how countries interact with a variety of global institutions and the reciprocal effects. This framework is then used to understand India's interactions with diverse global regimes in an illustrative manner in this article, and in greater detail by other authors in the section published in this issue of Contemporary South Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The independence from the British rule was accompanied with partition of the Indian subcontinent on religious lines. Since partition in 1947, the two nation-states India and Pakistan have been hostile toward each other. Communalism has also been a major challenge in both these countries. The current study locates this continued hostility or the "enemy" narrative that the countries harbor not just of each other, but which also shapes the experience of a religious community within their territory. Limiting the inquiry to the Indian side, this paper explores the production of the "enemy" narrative through the discursive knowledge around partition and how it locates Muslims. The paper analyzes textbooks of two education boards in India and argues that the narrative excludes the contribution of Muslims in the nationalist movement, charts out an uncritical history of the demand for partition, and stigmatizes the Muslim community as "communal" and "unpatriotic." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction of the underground cistern in South Asia, through Western India, offers a fascinating case study of knowledge migration and technological transfers between West and South Asia. It addresses the question of past hydraulic technologies used in the Western Indian cities and the modalities of a fundamental shift in the relationship to water during the 16th century. The present paper is based on my surveys and architectural studies of underground cisterns (tānkā) in Ahmedabad, urbs prima of Gujarat from 1411 onwards. It describes the tānkā system and its archaeological characteristics, with a special focus on the early reservoir of the Shāh Vajihudin Alvi khānqāh. This study, compared with evidences in other urban centres of Western India, brings to light the emergence of underground cisterns in the urban context from the late 16th century onwards. It also shows the pioneering role played by the large cistern built in the Shāh Vajihudin Alvi khānqāh. Beyond this archaeological work, the paper discusses the causes of this radical technological change, and addresses the issue of cultural and religious continuity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special section is dedicated to the BASAS conference 2021. The conference coincided with the devastating second wave of Covid-19 in India, which started in March and peaked in May 2021. Case numbers and mortality in South Asian countries were very high and their health systems too struggled to keep up with these unprecedented times. As governments across South Asia appeared to fail their populations, a sense of crisis was shared by conference participants, many of whom were personally affected by this wave. This conference was unique in that it took place after a two-year gap due to the Covid-19 pandemic and in that it was the first fully online BASAS conference. The papers in the special section draw attention to significant areas of research in South Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I propose a different classificatory lens to analyse the collective action of civil rights groups in India. To date, this collective action has been variously classified as 'non-party groups,' 'macro initiatives' for grassroots groups, 'action groups or support groups,' as part of an emergent new left citizen's initiatives, but mostly as a 'social movement' or 'human rights movement.' These differences in classification are not due to a considered disagreement; but because this activism is acutely understudied. Examining the history of such groups and the activist interviews I conducted, I argue for a re-classification of civil rights activism as ally activism i.e. they are allies of several, rather than a party to any particular social movement. Ally activism needs to be understood on its own terms to reveal their role in democratic deepening within South Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The South Asian countries formed the regional trade bloc namely South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) with the aim to promote regional economic cooperation through multilateral engagements. India which comes to be the largest economy in the SAARC has posted impressive economic growth in the last decades. As of now India stands major contributor to the exports and imports to/from South Asia, having trade surplus with all other countries from the region. In this backdrop, this paper presents the facts on India's role in the economic development of South Asia region while testing the potential spillovers of India's trade and economic growth. We utilize Autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bound test procedure for short and long run causal relations during the period 1990–2016, hence raising the quality of statistical inference. The results highlight that the economic growth and regional trade of India are found significant short and long run spillovers on the economic growth of Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan. The results are highly insightful for policy implication which raises the attention towards the greater degree of trade openness for balanced economic development in the region. India can act as engine of growth, and thus requires to play key role in pushing forward the SAARC objectives through political and diplomatic engagements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue of Contemporary South Asia comprises a selection of six papers presented at the 27th Annual Conference of the British Association for South Asian Studies (BASAS) held at the University of Leeds, 3–5 April 2013. The papers in this special issue represent a fraction of what was presented at the 27th BASAS conference. However, they reflect well the diversity within BASAS in terms of the career stage of members, the breadth of contexts studied and the range of disciplinary approaches to the study of South Asia. While there was no explicit theme driving the selection of papers for this edition, an emphasis did emerge upon thinking about the reproduction, embodiment and resistance of authority and marginalization through examining the specific role that location and space play. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrated river basin management (IRBM) emphasizes the need for managing the river as a system irrespective of administrative boundaries. Although IRBM is being adopted for many trans-boundary rivers, progress can be slow, particularly where there is a history of dispute. The Ganges basin in South Asia is one such case that experienced numerous conflicts over water between the riparian states, notably between India and Bangladesh. The power imbalance between states, mistrust and antagonism, prevailing national interest over the regional benefit, and most importantly lack of an effective institutional mechanism contributed to the complexity of implementing IRBM in the Ganges context. Despite these challenges, there is a consensus about the significant benefits that could be gained through multilateral regional cooperation over water. This paper analyses the challenges of multilateral cooperation towards IRBM in the Ganges context and examines the scope for overcoming these challenges. The paper argues that IRBM in the Ganges context depends on cooperation towards a basin-wide management approach, and a basin organization is a prerequisite to that. It suggests creation of a basin organization in the Ganges context by sharing experiences from other parts of the world and concludes with a framework for adopting IRBM in the Ganges basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historically, the development of cooperation among Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan with respect to the Indus and the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna river basins, South Asia's major transboundary rivers, has been a cause of tension, apprehension and ongoing disputes. This paper draws attention to the hydro-politics on transference and allocation, along with the diverging positions and unique concerns of the riparians on bilateral, multilateral, national as well as regional fronts. While examining the official water discourses and the evolution of different international legal instruments applicable to the governance of water relations among the riparians, the paper also sketches the emerging concerns in their relationships, as well as their efforts to cooperate and collaborate to avert disputes and manage water sharing and governance. Citation Uprety, K. & Salman, S. M. A. (2011) Legal aspects of sharing and management of transboundary waters in South Asia: preventing conflicts and promoting cooperation. Hydrol. Sci. J. 56(4), 641-661. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trafficking in women and children is one of the worst abuses of human rights. But it is very difficult to estimate the scale of the phenomenon as trafficking is closely related to child labour, bonded labour, child marriage, kidnapping and abduction and prostitution even though these phenomena can exist also independent of trafficking. This paper has attempted to analyse the nature, causes, modes and volume of trafficking in a country that has recently become a soft target in the South Asian region for trafficking in persons. India has failed to comply with certain international standards to combat the crime. The paper highlights the need to develop a multidimensional approach and focuses attention on structural factors of trafficking for recommending meaningful stratagems to counter the social evil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reform of the traditional madrassah system of Islamic education in South Asia is a much talked about and hotly debated subject today. It is often linked to discussions about ‘terrorism’ and allegations of madrassahs being involved in training ‘terrorists’. In this way the voices of the ‘ ulama associated with the madrassahs , as well as the voices of Muslims who are engaged in promoting reform within the madrassah system, are often marginalized or completely silenced. This article seeks to highlight the views of key individuals associated with a range of madrassahs which are associated with different schools of thought in India. This paper looks at the different ways in which the agendas of reform of the madrassahs are imagined and presented by a number of Indian Muslim ‘ ulama as well as Islamist ideologues and modernist Muslim social activists. The paper further examines the various rationales that are offered for reform as well as the particular areas of reform that are stressed. These include the modernization of the madrassah curriculum, reform in methods of teaching, relations between teachers and students, and coordination between different madrassahs . The article also looks at various suggestions that are offered for promoting better and closer interaction between the madrassahs and the wider community, including other Muslim sects, non-Muslims, and the Indian state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

irscholarship in India has focused on the borders, territory and sovereignty of the Indian state, overlooking the rich complexity of interior border formation between colonial and independent India. The paper argues that the study of the princely states under the British paramountcy (1858–1947), neglected so far, is valuable toirscholarship on three grounds. First, in mapping colonial India’s engagement with the outside world, the focus has been solely on British India. The princes were equally participative and perceptive of the outside world. Second, the princely states represent yet another challenge to the Westphalian notion of sovereignty, demonstrating the limited capacity of European categories to understand the ‘non-West’. Third, incorporating the paramountcy system in the genealogy of sovereignty of the Indian subcontinent offers a fresh account of border construction inside the state. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article examines the emergence of so-called "New Wars" in contemporary South Asia during the post-Cold War period. According to the author, the post-Cold War era has witnessed the emergence of a new group of conflicts in different parts of Asia. The author notes that a set of case studies related to the concept of "New Wars" has become available to both students and the academic community in Pakistan and the Afghanistan-Pakistan (AF-PAK) region, Indian Kashmir, and the Indian northeast. The author focuses on India as the primary case study subject of the paper because it is one of the emerging economic giants in Asia.

In the aftermath of the 1971 war, nearly 250,000 people found themselves stranded in various parts of the subcontinent. These 'trapped minorities' became hostages in a complex negotiation process that highlighted how questions of citizenship and belonging remained unresolved in post-Partition South Asia. By studying three groups - the non-Bengalis, the Bengalis and the prisoners of war in a comparative perspective, this paper re-visits the question of who was welcome within certain borders and on what terms. It argues that these decisions depended not just on the state's policies towards 'outsiders' but also upon its own relationship with its minority communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the contributions of key diasporic South Asian writers and intellectuals, such as Mulk Raj Anand, to the BBC's broadcasts to India during the Second World War (1941-1943) when the tensions between nationalism, anti-fascism and anti-imperialism were intense. It explores how diasporic South Asian writers in Britain dealt with these tensions. It analyses how their different responses to these tensions found literary expression, and how media and cultural critics responded to these literary texts. It argues that the BBC did not speak with a unitary voice but provided a transcultural contact zone in metropolitan London and in doing so fostered intellectual networks in which diasporic Indian nationalism could be debated and critiqued. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Aga Khan Case of 1866, the Bombay High Court's redefinition of a caste group of khojas as 'Ismaili' resulted in the institution of a uniform religious identity that undermined the pluralistic character of Islamic practices in South Asia. The colonial court's monolithic understanding of khoja identity as 'Ismaili' has continued to influence the community's self-understanding to the present day. In this paper, I question this dominant narrative in which khojas were identified as 'Ismaili'. I argue that the early modern Gujarati poem of the ginān genre, Dasavatār, became essential to the making of Ismaili Muslim identity in the nineteenth century. I read the Dasavatār ginān as a conduit of khojas' religious beliefs to produce an alternative history of Ismaili community formation. This discussion of Dasavatār explores the workings of global Islam in microcosm. It shows that the 'borrowings' which transpire within the Indo-Islamic ecumene cannot be conceptualized through notions of 'sect' or as an addendum to a Middle East-centered Islamic grand narrative, which is how the Ismailis continue to be described in authoritative accounts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the British Association for South Asian Studies (BASAS), its 2006 annual conference marked an auspicious juncture in the history of the association. One of the conference's central themes was to highlight several important shifts, both imminent and long term, in the pace and direction of South Asian studies in the United Kingdom. The unprecedented large international turnout at the conference provided concrete proof that the interdisciplinarity and global reach of the academic community working on this region remains as strong as ever. Growing recognition within the media, government and business of the significance of South Asia in international affairs, particularly the emergence of India as a global economic and political power, has given a much-needed impetus to the spirit and purpose of BASAS. The ambition to maintain and build on the capacity of British and European universities to produce linguistically and culturally skilled South Asianists, both for furthering knowledge as well as meeting the requirements of industry and the diplomatic services, has never before been so crucial. There are promising signs that the role of BASAS in fostering an intellectually vibrant environment for South Asianists is winning broader institutional support. This article surveys the key themes covered during the conference, some of which are well reflected in the diverse range of papers selected for this special edition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first phase of India's Look East Policy in 1991 was exploratory in nature and tinged with more idealism and optimism to break out of the South Asian region which was stagnating in economic growth. The second phase of India's Look East policy took stock of the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997 to 1998 and China's growing linkages with the Southeast Asian region. In 1997, mainly through the diligence of Thailand, a new grouping that could act as a bridge between Southeast and South Asia was established called BIMSTEC. The objective of the paper will be to argue that BIMSTEC balances India's engagement with Southeast and South Asia but it also counters China's growing influence among ASEAN members, in particular Myanmar. Thailand is the driving force behind BIMSTEC activities as this would enhance its trade hub status and engagement policy with Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam (CMLV) states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The idea of the nation-state continues to dominate the way in which political collective identities are conceptualised in South Asia. One of the challenges the nation-state faces is the situation in which large sections of its population are located outside state boundaries. This paper reflects on the way in which the displacement of peoples can lead to the displacement of a conventional understanding of the nation-state as combining the idea of one government, one land and one people. It explores the impact of displacement, both empirically and conceptually, on the notions of collective identity, illustrating the argument by reference to the Kashmiri narratives of identity being articulated in Britain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents abstracts of papers on international relations. "International Relations Theory and the India-Pakistan Conflict," by E. Sridhara; "International Relations Theory and Minimum Deterrence," by Rajesh M. Basrur; "Conceptualizing Nuclear Deterrence: Pakistan's Posture," by Rasul Bakhsh Rais; "South Asia: The Irrelevance of Classical Nuclear Deterrence Theory," by Bharat Karnad.