Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents: Introduction: The politics of violence: modalities, frames and functions / Meredith L. Weiss, Edward Newman, and Itty Abraham -- Comparative assassinations: the changing moral economy of political killing in South Asia / Sankaran Krishna -- Forms of collective and state violence in South Asia / Paul R. Brass -- Mass violence in Southeast Asia / Geoffrey Robinson -- On the borderlines : politics, religion, and violence in Bangladesh / Naureen Chowdhury Fink -- External influences on political violence in Southeast Asia / Natasha Hamilton-Hart -- Recruitment and attack in Southeast Asian collective violence / Vince Boudreau -- Subversion, secession, and the state in South Asia : varieties of violence / Varun Sahni and Shamuel Tharu --

This volume explores the sources and manifestations of political violence in South and Southeast Asia and the roles that it plays in everyday life and as part of historical narrative. It considers and critiques the manner in which political violence is understood and constructed, and the common assumptions that prevail regarding the causes, victims and perpetrators of this violence. By focusing on the social and political context of these regions, the volume presents a critical understanding of the nature of political violence and provides an alternative narrative to that found in mainstream analysis of 'terrorism'. The publication presents perspectives on topics including assassinations, riots, state violence, the significance of geographic borders, external influences and intervention, and patterns of recruitment and rebellion.--Publisher's description.