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<p>IndiaSouth Asia Interface raises the fundamental question: How does one make sense of South Asia? Conventional wisdom defines it primarily in terms of regional and international politics. The failures of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) are emblematic of that wisdom. Marking a departure from such approaches Partha Ghosh makes the case that more than merely a political construct South Asia must be understood as a shared social consciousness. Through chapters that explore topics such as threats to democracy religion and politics the place of Kashmir different conceptions of regionalism the roles of America and China and the issue of refugees and migrants he demonstrates that there is no escape from reinventing the region from a people’s perspective. Only this way can South Asia retrieve its soul and replace its cynicism and despair with expectation and hope. Based primarily on Ghosh’s research articles and newspaper columns written over the last five years the volume can be viewed as an intimate statement of his understanding of the region an understanding that has matured through decadeslong interactions with the region’s academics politicians and the socalled ‘man on the street’. In some sense the volume is also a semiautobiographical treatise which spells out Ghosh’s systematic evolution as a confirmed South Asianist. The region’s destiny ought to be wrested he therefore argues from the hands of its political leaders and returned to the common men and women of the region. This underlying theme populates every chapter and page of the volume. About the Author Partha S. Ghosh (b. 1947) is currently a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Social Sciences New Delhi. Formerly he was Professor at JNU Visiting Professor at Heidelberg and Victoria University (Wellington) and a Ford Scholar at the University of Illinois. Between 2008 and 2016 he was the editor of India Quarterly. His latest book is The Politics of Personal Law in South Asia (Routledge 2018).</p>
