The deadly attack on Kabul's airport in August 2021 shocked the world and brought concentrated attention to the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISK). New questions quickly arose: How did this ISIS affiliate become such a force in Afghanistan and Pakistan? And why is it now a lethal threat to the Taliban? Addressing these questions, Amira Jadoon and Andrew Mines draw on original data and newly    More >

Winner of the Andrew Price-Smith Book Award! Despite a century of advances in modern medicine, as well as the rapid development of Covid vaccines, the global pharmaceutical industry has largely failed to bring to market drugs that actually cure disease. Why? And looking further ... How can government policies stimulate investment in the development of curative drugs? Is there an untapped    More >

Even stronger than its outstanding predecessor, the third edition of Understanding Contemporary India provides context for and evaluates more than a decade of challenges and changes in India. Entirely new chapters on geography, politics, the economy, international relations, religion, and environmental challenges, along with updated material throughout (including the impact of the novel    More >

Why is India's rise on the world stage so controversial? How can a state that is losing authority to its regions at the same time grow in international importance? Exploring an apparent paradox, Maya Chadda shows how culture, politics, wealth, and policy have combined to forge a distinctive Indian path to power, both nationally and in the international arena.    More >

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are widely heralded as an opportunity for the poor to have greater access to information that can help them escape poverty, as well as an important tool for development agencies. But as Tanya Jakimow shows, the consequences of the "information age" often deviate greatly from our image of an interconnected, modern world. Peddlers of    More >

Despite burgeoning trade and cultural links, China and India remain fierce competitors in a world of global economic rebalancing, power shifts, resource scarcity, environmental degradation, and other transnational security threats. Mohan Malik explores this increasingly important and complex relationship, grounding his analysis in the history of the two countries. Malik describes a geopolitical    More >

What happens when a humanitarian crisis with political roots interacts with a humanitarian crisis induced by environmental disaster? That is the question at the core of Dual Disasters. Focusing on Sri Lanka and Indonesia, countries that were dealing with complex upheavals long before the 2004 tsunami struck, Jennifer Hyndman shows how the storm shifted the goals of international aid, altered    More >

Nandini Deo and Duncan McDuie-Ra explore India's vibrant civil society sector, focusing on the ways that it actually operates "on the ground." Offering an insightful analysis, they identify what influences the relative success or failure of various movements; and the tools that activists use to overcome obstacles; the traps that often derail efforts to frame, politicize, and    More >

After agriculture and tourism, artisan work provides the next most significant source of income in many developing countries. Yet, there is strong disagreement among both politicians and development professionals as to whether the handicraft sector is worthy of investment—and the debate has been hampered by a lack of industry data. Mary Littrell and Marsha Dickson draw on their eight    More >

Living Our Religions sheds important light on the lives of Hindu and Muslim American women of South Asian origin. As the authors reveal their diverse and culturally dynamic religious practices, describe the race, gender, and ethnic boundaries that they encounter, and document how they resist and challenge these boundaries, they cut through the myths and ethnocentrism of popular portrayals to    More >

Uniquely representing all sides in the conflict over Kashmir, this innovative new book provides a forum for discussion not only of existing proposals for ending the conflict, but also of possible new paths toward settlement.   Contributors from India, Pakistan, and Kashmir explore the national and subnational dimensions of the ongoing hostilities, the role of the international community,    More >

  Ending a two-decade-long armed insurgency, the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) Peace Accord was signed in December 1997 by the government of Bangladesh and the PCJSS, the political representative of the Hill people. However, because of ambiguities within the accord and the failure to implement many of its crucial elements, the situation in the CHT today is far from peaceful. Amena Mohsin    More >

The hardline view of Sino-Indian relations found in the published reports of Indian and Chinese security analysts is often at considerable odds with the more tempered opinions those same analysts express in private interviews and conversations. What is the reality of the increasingly important security relationship between the two countries? The authors of this new study address that question in    More >

What makes a national community out of a state? Addressing this fundamental question, Rajagopalan studies national integration from the perspective of three South Asian communities—Tamilians in India, Sindhis in Pakistan, and Tamils in Sri Lanka—that have a history of secessionism in common, but with vastly different outcomes. Rajagopalan investigates why integration is relatively    More >

This original analysis of South Asia's political experience with democracy in the 1990s assumes that, if democratic norms are to be universalized, they must first absorb the interpretations and experiences of the non-Western countries. Chadda contends that any discussion of democratization must be founded on mapping its course amid the constraints of state consolidation, national integration,    More >

The nuclear weapons and ballistic missile tests conducted by India and Pakistan in the late 1990s have substantially altered the security environment, both in the region and globally. Examining the complexities, controversies, and dynamics of this new strategic context, India's Nuclear Security explores India's motivations for becoming a nuclear weapons state, its proposed nuclear and    More >

Exploring the enduring legacy of untouchability in India, this book challenges the ways in which the Indian experience has been represented in Western scholarship. The authors introduce the long tradition of Dalit emancipatory struggle and present a sustained critique of academic discourse on the dynamics of caste in Indian society. Case studies complement these arguments, underscoring the perils    More >

This broad, historically grounded study examines the relationship between democratic governance and economic development in postindependence India (1947-1998). Sharma addresses the fundamental paradox of India’s political economy: why have five decades of democratically guided strategies failed to reconcile economic growth with redistribution or to mitigate the condition of extreme poverty    More >

Few people are aware that, throughout the British raj, France managed to retain a foothold in parts of India. French India survived for a full fifteen years after the Union Jack was lowered in Delhi, and as a result of French colonization, there remain today, scattered throughout the Union Territory of Pondicherry, thousands of ethnic Indians who still possess French citizenship. The ensuing    More >

This study of thirteen of India's leading industrial families pays particular attention to the key decisions, cultural traditions, and personality issues that have contributed to their success. Based on interviews with scholars, journalists, government officials, and the business leaders themselves, the book covers each family business from its founding through its expansion into a large-scale,    More >