From Contemporary Issues and Ideas in Social Sciences, a special issue on India. Huma Baqai (IBA): Secularism: An Option for Pakistan. Can Pakistan become a theocratic state? Khalid Bhatti on religion, politics and the working class. The introduction to Dead Ringers: How Outsourcing is Changing the Way Indians Understand Themselves by Shehzad Nadeem. The man who drew the fatal Durand Line: The British official who fixed the frontier that now divides Afghanistan and Pakistan unwittingly unleashed a century of war. Sweet smell of success: How Arindam Chaudhuri made a fortune off the aspirations and insecurities of India’s middle classes. Money for nothing, and misery for free: Afer a promising start, the microfinance story became one of desperate need on one side and greed and politics on the other. Alarmed by a report on the decline of Punjab, one man walked 45 days, over 1,200 kilometres across 21 districts, to learn the truth. Uneven exposure to trade across the various regions of South Asia has stifled the poverty-alleviating impact of trade liberalisation. The princely state of India: Analyse Parliament, and a disturbing fact emerges — India is going back to monarchy. Letter from Sri Lanka: Michael Hardy is living dangerously. India is fencing off its border with Bangladesh — what will that mean for millions of potential climate refugees? A review of TinderBox: The Past and Future of Pakistan by M.J. Akbar (and more). WikiLeaks disclosures on torture in Kashmir have fuelled fresh demands for repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act — Baba Umar reports on the plight of victims.
