South Asia is home to a range of extremist groups from the jihadists of Pakistan to the Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka. In the popular mind, extremism and terrorism are invariably linked to ethnic and religious factors. Yet the dominant history of South Asia is notable for tolerance and co-existence, despite highly plural societies. Deepa Ollapally examines extremist groups in Kashmir, Afghanistan, Northeast India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka to offer a fresh perspective on the causes of extremism. What accounts for its rise in societies not historically predisposed to extremism? What determines the winners and losers in the identity struggles in South Asia? What tips the balance between more moderate versus extremist outcomes? The book argues that politics, inter-state and international relations often play a more important role in the rise of extremism in South Asia than religious identity, poverty, and state repression.

This book sheds light on religiously motivated extremism and violence in South Asia, a phenomenon which ostensibly poses critical and unique challenges to the peace, security and governance not only of the region, but also of the world at large. The book is distinctive in-so-far as it reexamines conventional wisdom held about religious extremism in South Asia and departs from the literature which centres its analyses on Islamic militancy based on the questions and assumptions of the West’s ‘war on terror’. This volume also offers a comprehensive analysis of new extremist movements and how their emergence and success places existing theoretical frameworks in the study of religious extremism into question. It further examines topical issues including the study of social media and its impact on the evolution and operation of violent extremism. The book also analyses grassroots and innovative non-state initiatives aimed to counter extremist ideologies. Through case studies focusing on Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, this collection examines extremist materials, methods of political mobilisation and recruitment processes and maps the interconnected nature of sociological change with the ideological transformations of extremist movements.

This book sheds light on religiously motivated extremism and violence in South Asia, a phenomenon which ostensibly poses critical and unique challenges to the peace, security and governance not only of the region, but also of the world at large. The book is distinctive in-so-far as it reexamines conventional wisdom held about religious extremism in South Asia and departs from the literature which centres its analyses on Islamic militancy based on the questions and assumptions of the West’s ‘war on terror’. This volume also offers a comprehensive analysis of new extremist movements and how their emergence and success places existing theoretical frameworks in the study of religious extremism into question. It further examines topical issues including the study of social media and its impact on the evolution and operation of violent extremism. The book also analyses grassroots and innovative non-state initiatives aimed to counter extremist ideologies. Through case studies focusing on Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, this collection examines extremist materials, methods of political mobilisation and recruitment processes and maps the interconnected nature of sociological change with the ideological transformations of extremist movements.

This volume of case studies examines the rise in violent extremism, terrorism and insurgency in South and South East Asia, and subsequent state responses. The South and South East of Asia has experienced various forms of extremism and violence for years, with a growing demand for academic or policy-relevant work that will enhance understanding of the reasons behind this. The violent challenges in this area have taken a variety of forms and are often exacerbated by lack of governance, tie-ins to existing regional criminal networks, colonial legacies and a presence of international terrorist movements. Written by experts with field experience, this volume analyzes the key element of successful response as the appropriate application of doctrine following nuanced assessment of threat. In practice, this often means counterinsurgency doctrine. The essays also analyze the need for irregular war practitioners to systematically examine the changing character of intrastate violent irregular challenges. The volume fills a gap in the understanding of patterns, drivers, organizations and ideologies of various insurgent and terrorist groups, and state responses. It also provides a set of recommendations for addressing the unfolding situation. This book will be of much interest to students of terrorism and political violence, counterinsurgency and counterterrorism, Asian politics and security studies in general.

This book offers a comprehensive analysis of the multifaceted dimensions of violent extremist groups in South Asia, attending especially to the relationships between the local and regional forces influencing their emergence and activities. In addition, research in the book shows how political, security-sensitive events and processes are framed, and the factors responsible for such framing. Similarly, it discusses prevalent discourses on anti-violent extremism policy and the on-the-ground militarized preventive/reactive interventions they guide, which are inspired by ideologies that increasingly reflect controversial understandings of the experiences of people within conditions of state fragility. In doing so, the book balances attention to local conditions that frame the rise and fall, or persistency, of incidences of violent extremism. The systems-based ecological framing of issues in the book is influenced by a concern for the broader questions of securitization, global governance, poverty, (under)development, and armed conflicts in South Asia.

Political violence has remained an integral part of South Asian society for decades. The region has witnessed and continued to encounter violence for achieving political objectives from above and from below. Violence is perpetrated by the state, by non-state actors, and used by the citizens as a form of resistance. Ethnic insurgency, religion-inspired extremism, and ideology-driven hostility are examples of violent acts that have emerged as challenges to the states which have responded with violence in the form of civil war and through violations of human rights disregarding international norms. This book explores various dimensions of political violence in South Asia, namely in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Each chapter either speaks to an important aspect of the political violence or provides an overall picture of the nature and scope of political violence in the respective country. Political violence is understood in the larger sense of political, that is, above and beyond institutions, and also as an integral part of social relationships where social norms and the role of individual agency play seminal roles. The contributions in this book incorporate both institutional and non-institutional dimensions of political violence. Exploring how everyday life in South Asian states and societies is transformed by the engagement with violence through direct and indirect methods, this book adopts an interdisciplinary framework; diverse methods are employed – from ethnographic readings to more macro level analyses. The phenomenon is explored from historical, sociological, and political perspectives. This book will be useful as a supplementary text in courses on South Asian Studies in general and South Asian Politics in particular.

Revised and substantially updated, The new international politics of South Asia argues that the politics of the individual states of South Asia cannot be understood without reference to the regional and international context. The author emphasises the need to consider rapid political, social and economic change in the context of debates over ethnic identity and changes within the international system following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Recent changes have opened up new opportunities for the region, but have also exposed specific weaknesses. The author discusses India’s evolving relationship with the international economic system, economic reforms in Pakistan and Sri Lanka, as well as key issues such as the regional position on the NPT treaty, the Comprehensive Test Ban treaty, environmental issues, and the post-Cold War world order.

South Asia in World Politics offers a comprehensive introduction to the politics and international relations of South Asia, a key area encompassing the states of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. While U.S. interest has long been sporadic and reactive, 9/11 alerted Washington that paying only fitful attention to one of the world's most volatile and populous regions was a recipe for everyday instability, repeated international crises, major and minor wars, and conditions so chronically unsettled that they continue to provide a fertile breeding ground for transnational Islamic terrorism. Exploring the many facets of this dynamic region, the book also assesses U.S. policy toward Afghanistan and explains the importance of Bangladesh and Pakistan, two of only a handful of Islamic states with significant track records as democracies.