Introduction

The states of the South Asian region are often thought to have shared a common colonial experience through British rule and/or dominance, which has since profoundly influenced their political trajectories. Most notably, from a political standpoint, is the adherence, at least in form, and in some measure in actuality as well, of the leaders and the public in India and Sri Lanka to the basic principles of parliamentary rule through competitive elections, and the repeated striving, less successfully in the other states, towards the same end.Yet, it should be obvious by now that the differences in these respects are profound. First of all, of the five independent states in the South Asian region, only three-India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka-arrived at Independence through a transfer of power from the British. A fourth, Bangladesh, achieved its Independence only a quarter century later after a traumatic civil war that left countless numbers of its citizens dead. As for Nepal, it never experienced direct British rule and has followed a quite different trajectory in the 55 years since its termination. Bhutan, touched on only very briefly

in this volume, has remained an independent protectorate of India.