Non-State Armed Groups in South Asia : A Preliminary Structured Focused Comparison

Contents: Foreword. 1. Introduction/Arpita Anant. I. The nature of the challenge: 2. The persistence of identity conflicts in South Asia: new dynamics and the search for new explanations/Ajay Darshan Behera. 3. Some socio-economic aspects of the Maoist insurgency in India/Sudeep Chakravarti. 4. The threat of nuclear terrorism in Asia/Reshmi Kazi. II. The case studies groups based on ethnic motivations: 5. Armed conflict in Manipur: the case of UNLF/Amarjeet Singh. 6. Dima Halam Daogah: fire in the abandoned hills/Jaideep Saikia. 7. In Guerrilla zone: the national socialist council of Nagalim--Isak-Muivah/Namrata Goswami. 8. The United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA): liberating force or to be liberated?/Nani Gopal Mahanta. 9. National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB): continuing stalemate/Shubhrajeet Konwer. 10. Liberation tigers of Tamil Eelam: crouching violence, hidden peace/N. Manoharan. Groups based on left-wing motivations: 11. Profiling India's Maoists: an overview/P.V. Ramana. 12. Naxalism in Chhattisgarh/Medha Bisht. 13. Maoist insurgency in East Indian states: issues and mobilization/Nihar Nayak. Groups based on religious motivations: 14. Hizb-ul-Mujahideen: an indigenous armed group/Arpita Anant. 15. Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (movement of holy warriors)/Kanchan Lakshman. 16. Jaish-e-Mohammed/Priyanka Singh. 17. Lashkar-e-Toiba/D. Suba Chandran and Rekha Chakravarthi. 18. Harkat-ul Jihad-al Islami: organization, dynamics and the potential for subversion/Bibhu Prasad Routray. 19. Radical Islamic groups in Bangladesh: the case of Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh/Smruti S. Pattanaik. 20. The Taliban/Shanthie Mariet D'Souza. III. Countering non-state violence in India: 21. The rise, fall and rise of insurgencies in India's north-east/Bibhu Prasad Routray. 22. Lessons from India's counterinsurgency experience in the north east/Vivek Chadha. 23. Rise of Naxalism and its implications for national security: a political, security and socio-economic campaign/E.N. Rammohan. 24. The rise and decline of armed non-state actors: the Kashmir experience/D. Suba Chandran. 25. Changing dynamics of terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir/S.K. Saini. IV. Conclusion: 26. Non-state armed groups in South Asia: a preliminary structured focused comparison/Arpita Anant. Index.

This book is a comprehensive survey of a large number of non-state armed groups in South Asia. It brings together rich and rigorous contributions by scholars in India and reflects their deep understanding not only of the groups, but also the socio-economic and political environs in which they sustain themselves. More importantly, the book is a contribution to the field of research on terrorism. Going beyond a mere profiling of groups, the method of structured focused comparison provides an opportunity to make some contingent generalizations regarding non-state armed groups in the region. The book will be useful for further research on non-state armed violence, including- but not limited to-testing the validity of these generalisations, providing a comparative perspective on select groups and studying more cases to enrich the generalisations. (jacket)