1st Edition
Ethnic Subnationalist Insurgencies in South Asia Identities, Interests and Challenges to State Authority
This book provides a micro-historical analysis of the emergence and contemporary dynamics of recent ethnic sub-nationalist insurgencies in South Asia. Using comparative case studies, it discusses the causes of each insurgency, analyses the trajectory and dynamics of each including attempts at resolution, and highlights the wider theories of ethno-nationalist insurgency and mobilization.
Bringing together an international group of contributors, the book covers insurgencies in India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, and Bangladesh. It questions why ethnic sub-nationalist insurgencies occurred at particular points in time and not at others, and explores the comparative trajectories of these movements. The book goes on to discern reappearing patterns of conflict escalation/de-escalation through the method of comparative process-tracing. It argues that while identity is a necessary factor for insurgency, it is not a sufficient one. Instead, ethnic mobilization and insurgency only emerge when it is activated by tension emerging from political competition between ethnic and central state elites. These elite-led dynamics, when combined with favourable socio-economic and political conditions, make the ethnic masses primed to accept the often symbolically-rich appeals from their leaders to mobilize against the central state.
Providing an important study on ethno-nationalist insurgencies in South Asia, the book will be of interest to those working in the fields of South Asian Politics, Security Studies and Ethnic Conflict.
1. Ethnic Subnationalist Insurgencies in Contemporary South Asia: An Introduction Jugdep S. Chima 2. The Kashmir Insurgency: Multiple Actors, Divergent Interests, Institutionalized Conflict Deepti Sharma 3. The Political Economy and Changing Organizational Dynamics of the ULFA Insurgency in Assam Pahi Saikia 4. The Khalistan Movement in Punjab, India and the Post-Militancy Era: Structural Change and New Political Compulsions Virginia Van Dyke 5. Insurgencies of Northeast India: Ethnic/Tribal Competition, State Responses, and Underdevelopment Lawrence E. Cline 6. The LTTE and Tamil Insurgency in Sri Lanka: Political/Cultural Grievance, Unsuccessful Negotiations, and Organizational Evolution Jayadeva Uyangoda 7. Renewed Ethnonationalist Insurgency in Balochistan, Pakistan: The Militarized State and Continuing Economic Deprivation Adeel Khan 8. Conflict in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh: An Unimplemented Accord and Continued Violence Pranab Kumar Panday & Ishtiaq Jamil 9. The Naxalites of India, Maoists of Nepal, and Taliban of Pakistan: Ideological Insurgencies in South Asia Vasundhara Sirnate 10. Ethnic Subnationalist Insurgencies in Contemporary South Asia: A Conclusion Jugdep S. Chima
Biography
Jugdep S. Chima is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Hiram College, Ohio, USA. He was previously a Lecturer of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley, USA, and Associate Editor for South Asia at Asian Survey at the same institution. He is author of The Sikh Separatist Insurgency in India: Political Leadership & Ethnonationalist Movements (2010).
