South Asia in Transition

Robert Parkin is emeritus fellow in the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography at the University of Oxford.

This book is a momentous addition to the analytics of South Asia, a region that is at the crossroads of history, experiencing great turmoil, and is going through significant environmental, social and cultural crises. Through the lens of anthropology, emeritus professor Robert Parkin remarkably weaves together the intersecting threads of religion, caste, gender, and other markers of identity along with the complex topics of informality in the economy and precarity of the labouring masses, modernity, and politics, as well as the politicisation of Islam, and the diaspora. A comprehensive volume of this nature and coverage has been lacking in the shelves for some time, and this book will fill that gap. Readers will enjoy the book for the timeliness of its topic, its scope, and the mastery of its style. I can guarantee the readers they will never see South Asia the same way again.

• Introduction: Anthropology and South Asia, Anthropology of South Asia1.Caste: The South Asian Social Group2.Caste and Class in Modern South Asia3.The Tribe in South Asia: Like Caste or Unlike?4.Religions in South Asia: Of Indian Soil and Imported5.Kinship and Marriage in India: Traditional Practices and Modern Changes6.Gender, the Body and Personhood: Patriarchy and Resistance7.Politics in Modern India: Policy versus Faction8.Political Economy of Modern India: From Formality to Precarity9.Pakistan, Bangladesh and South Asian Islam10.Sri Lanka: Buddhist Nationalism and Tamil Separatism11.Nepal: From Hindu Kingdom to RepublicBibliographyIndexAbout the Author