region: South Asia

Census of India

The Indian Census is the most credible source of information on Demography (Population characteristics), Economic Activity, Literacy and Education, Housing & Household Amenities, Urbanisation, Fertility and Mortality, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, Language, Religion, Migration, Disability and many other socio-cultural and demographic data since 1872. Census 2011 will be the 15th National Census of the […]

Balochistan Archives

The website is an information portal on documents of historical significance for scholars, civil servants, and citizens interested in the history, culture, and politics of Balochistan Province, Pakistan. Currently Balochistan Archives hold more than 27,000 original files, 5,000 rare books and manuscripts, and 300 rare maps pertaining to Balochistan, Afghanistan, Iran, and the Persian Gulf. […]

Asia in Focus

Aiding Afghanistan: The Background and Prospects for Reconstruction in a Fragmented Society

Asger Christensen 1995 Examines how the structure and dynamics of Afghan society shaped not only earlier relations between state and society but also the resistance struggle and civil war, and still affect international efforts towards the country’s reconstruction.

Modernization & Effeminization in India: Kerala Cashew Workers since 1930

Anna Lindberg 2005 The South Indian state of Kerala is well known for its progressive policy, high social indicators, and comparatively high women’s status. Processes of modernization, however, have had an ambiguous impact on women. This study of female cashew factory workers in Kerala combines meticulous historical investigation with anthropological research, including a wealth of […]

Violence and Belonging: Land, Love and Lethal Conflict in the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan

Are Knudsen 2009 Most studies of violence in the Middle East and South Asia come from the perspective of honour or political violence. By contrast, this important study offers a new perspective on its causes in Pakistan’s unruly North-West Frontier Province, challenging stereotyped images of a region and people miscast as extremist and militant. Based […]

Other Landscapes: Colonialism and the Predicament of Authority in Nineteenth-Century South India South India

Deborah Sutton 2009 Due to India’s inhospitable climate and vastness of the native population, European settlement was never seriously considered apart from in selected upland areas with cooler climates and sparse native populations. One such area was the Nilgiri Hills of South India which, from the early 19th century, saw concerted efforts at European colonization […]

Gendered Inequalities in Asia: Configuring, Contesting and Recognizing Women and Men

Helle Rydstrøm 2010 Global processes with flows in money, commodities and people have made it increasingly varied and has blurred what it means to be a female or male in Asia today. Socio-economic and cultural patterns in Asia intersect with one another and, in doing so, they translate into power relations that create both possibilities […]

Folk Tales of the Maldives

Xavier Romero-Frias 2012 The Maldives are mainly known as an equatorial tourist paradise to the south of India but some will know the archipelago risks drowning owing to global warming. Far less is known about the people, who have occupied these islands for millennia but whose deep indigenous culture is today under threat from a […]

All Religions Merge in Tranquebar: religious Coexistence and Social Cohesion South India

Oluf Schönbeck (with Peter B. Andersen) 2012 With globalization helping those who assert incompatible differences between their respective faiths, clashes of faith are increasingly common in different parts of the world. As a result, the study of religious conflict is also increasing. This book reverses that perspective by addressing a case of peaceful religious coexistence […]