The Sexual Violence and Impunity in South Asia research project (coordinated by Zubaan and supported by the International Development Research Centre) brings together, for the first time in the region, a vast body of knowledge on this important - yet silenced - subject. Six country volumes (one each on Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and two on India, as well as two standalone volumes) comprising over fifty research papers and two book-length studies, detail the histories of sexual violence and look at the systemic, institutional, societal, individual and community structures that work together to perpetuate impunity for perpetrators. The essays in this volume examine history and contemporary politics to understand the root causes of sexual violence in Sri Lanka. They look at the polarization created around ethnic and linguistic identities during the three-decades of ethnic conflict, but also scrutinize the routine violence of communities towards their own women in daily life. The authors argue that in this transitional post-war phase, Sri Lankan women must not only be treated as victims, but as agents of change. The writers highlight a hitherto unaddressed aspect of sexual violence: that of the structures that enable impunity on the part of perpetrators, be they security personnel and paramilitary forces, members of armed rebel groups, gangs, local politicians and police or ordinary citizens including close family members. They demonstrate how impunity for perpetrators is both a failure of the formal justice process and a product of individual, community and social conditions and indeed the choices that victims and families make that promote silence over truth. At the end of more than a quarter century of conflict that has left some 100,000 dead, 50,000 women-headed households struggling to survive, as well as countless victims and survivors of sexual violence, the calls for justice can no longer be ignored.

In 2009, after decades of conflict, the Sri Lankan government proclaimed the decisive defeat of the Liberation Tamil Tigers of Elam. Subsequently, the state proved resistant to attempts by the UN and other international bodies to promote post-war reconciliation or reform. In this incisive new work, Judith Large investigates the ways in which the Rajapaksa government was able to subvert international diplomatic efforts, as well as exploring the wider context of rising Sinhalese nationalism, the attendant growth of discrimination against minorities, and efforts by both the diaspora and citizens within Sri Lanka to work towards a positive peace. Push Back is vital reading not only for those interested in Sri Lanka, but also for those concerned about the wider implications of the conflict for human rights, peace-making, and geopolitics.

The world's most comprehensive, well documented, and well illustrated book on this subject. With extensive index. 372 photographs and illustrations. Free of charge in digital format on Google Books.

The essays in this volume, written by well-known economists and social scientists, shed light on the intense national debates that accompanied the making of policy decisions in Sri Lanka. Studying the country's economy under six main headings: the ideology and strategy of economic development; macro-economic policy; the development of agriculture, industry and technology; employment and labour; institutional issues and governance; and social welfare, the book presents a comprehensive picture of contemporary Sri Lanka's economy.

Covers Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sikkim, and Sri Lanka.