Political Governance and Minority Rights The South and South-East Asian Scenario

This volume brings together a collection of essays analysing the current scenario in South and Southeast Asia with respect to the position of minority groups. Based on an in-depth investigation of some of the lasting minority–majority conflicts of the post-colonial period in countries that often escape comparison, the articles are a rich and critical exposition of the social, economic, cultural and political dimensions of these struggles. The central question being addressed is that of community rights in the modern nation-state and how these are being understood by the two concerned parties and, where and when, thereof, a situation of conflict arose.

Tables, Figures and Map. Foreword Mushirul Hasan. Preface and Acknowledgments. Introduction: Alchemy of Community Divides: A Historical Overview. Governance, Insurgency, Crime and Separatism 1. Politics of Competing Ethnicity and Violence: The Experience of India’s North-East Partha S. Ghosh 2. Ethnic Minority and Political Governance: The Tai-Ahoms in Colonial and Post-Colonial Assam Lipi Ghosh3. Violence, Victimhood and Minority Women: The Gujarat Violence of 2002 Anasua Basu Ray Chaudhury 4. Negotiations with a Difference: Minority Women in the Borderlands of Sri Lanka and India Paula Banerjee. State Governance and Community Rights 5. Inclusive Democracy and Governance in ‘New’ Nepal Lok Raj Baral 6. Fighting Exclusion: Towards Understanding the Predicament of Adivasis in Bangladesh Atiur Rahman 7. Non-Muslims in an Islamic Republic: Religious Minorities in Pakistan Maneesha Tikekar 8. Minorities and Political Governance: The Myanmar Situation Mandy Sadan 9. Mapping Discourses of Community Rights in Northern Thailand, from the First National Economic and Social Development Plan to the Thaksin Era Amnuayvit Thitibordin 10. Governing Minority Rights? The South and South-East Asian Scenario Samir Kumar Das. Governance, Culture and the Aspirations of Minorities 11. Contested Identity, Negotiated Rights: The Muslim Minority of South Thailand Mala Rajo Sathian 12. Minorities and Cultural Dominance in Malaysia: A Legacy of Co-optation and Capitulation Sunil Kukreja 13. Wong Cilik and Wong Gede: Contesting over Nationalist Imaginations Aris Arif Mundayat 14. The Politics of Perception and Chinese–Philippine Writings Lily Rose Tope. AfterwordAsghar Ali Engineer. Index

Lipi Ghosh is Professorat Department of South & Southeast Asian Studies, University of Calcutta, India.