18 Feb, 2009   ·    D.Suba Chandran, ed.

The publication is based on an extensive study on Armed Conflicts and Peace Processes in South Asia which was commissioned by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.

While the armed conflicts in the recent years have become bloodier in South Asia, the peace processes could not be sustained for various factors. Initiating a peace process is easier than to sustain it. In the las few years, a series of peace processes have been initiated in South Asia in Pakistan, Kashmir, Nepal, India's Northeast and Sri Lanka. The presence of numerous actors, role of civil society, space and rules of bargaining, lack of bargaining tools, independent inputs or the lack of it, level of external support, all these factors play an important role in sustaining the peace processes.

The above two factors continuing armed conflicts and failing peace processes, make it imperative to initiate an organized, long term but independent study of the armed conflicts and peace processes in South Asia. A database on armed conflicts in South Asia is essential for such a study. The Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies (IPCS) propose to create such a database on armed conflicts and peace processes in South Asia.

This book is a primary part of this endeavor and is published as an annual on the various conflicts in Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. The following case studies would form the core essays of the annual Waziristan, Balochistan, Jammu & Kashmir. India's Northeast, Naxalities in India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. In future, the study would also cover the armed conflict in Afghanistan.

Table of Contents

1. Armed conflicts in South Asia: An overview
P.R. Chari

2. Bangladesh: a slow beginning?
B. Rajeshwari

3. J and K: infiltration declines, violence persists
D. Suba Chandran

4. Left extremism in India: from Red Corridor to Red Land
Mallika Joseph

5. Nepal: continuing violence
P.G. Rajamohan

6. North-East: failure of peace processes
Bibhu Prasad Routray

7. Pakistan: tribal troubles in Balochistan and Waziristan
D. Suba Chandran

8. Sri Lanka: negative peace, positive violence
N. Manoharan

9. Promoting peace in South Asia
Maj Gen Dipankar Banerjee

10. Chronology of events in 2005.

About the Editor

D. Suba Chandran is Deputy Director, Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, New Delhi and is currently a Visiting Fellow at the CSRS, University of Jammu. His primary area of research includes Pakistan’s internal security, in particular Balochistan, FATA and Northern Areas. He also works on Kashmir, terrorism, particularly Suicide Terrorism. Since January 2007, he is under taking field research in Kashmir on a study titled – People, State and Violence: Conflict Transformation in Jammu and Kashmir. He also edits an annual titled Armed Conflicts and Peace Processes in South Asia. D. Suba Chandran is the author of "Limited War".

D.Suba Chandran, ed.
New Delhi: Samskriti, 2006

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