Federalism in Asia

This comprehensive book analyzes the successes and failures of federalism in India, Pakistan, Malaysia, Nepal and Myanmar for the political accommodation of ethno-regional diversity, and assesses their comparative significance for other countries in Asia. This revised new edition incorporates updated demographic, religious and linguistic data for the case study countries, and examines some of the major changes that have taken place in formally federal states since 2010, including: the 18th Amendment of the Constitution in Pakistan, in 2010, which gave a major turn to decentralization by empowering the provinces; the new federal democratic Constitution that was introduced in Nepal in 2015; and the abolition of the Planning Commission, the National Development Council, and the Special Category States status, in India. The author examines growing tensions between nation and state-building in ethnically plural societies; modes of federation-building in Asia; persistent ethnic tensions in federations, and the relationship between federalism and democracy; and federalism and decentralization. The book will be of use to advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students of Asian politics, comparative federalism, and modern Asian political history and institutions, as well as policymakers on ethnic conflict regulation and peace studies, and stakeholders in ethnic power sharing and political order--