South Asian Studies

The eight chapters included in this small volume deal with a variety of subjects relating to history and politics, society and social thought as well as the cultural heritage of the South Asian region particularly Bangladesh. The author suggests that, despite the political divisions of 1947 and 1971, the peoples of South Asia belong to one indivisible civilisation, the product of more than a thousand years of common history.

ROAD TO BANGLADESH SERIES is designed to present published accounts of the background to the emergence of Bangladesh. The Series showcases such a collection that, when put together, achieves a well-rounded narrative of the events of 1971. Books in the series should be an invaluable collection for those interested in South Asian affairs, particularly students and scholars of politics, history, development and social transformation.

For two decades, the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh has successfully administered a unique program that lends small sums to poor women for income generation. This is the first empirical study to examine the long-term influence of these loans on the borrowers, and it demonstrates that credit alone can fundamentally change the lives of poor women-even in the absence of other aid programs and in an environment distinctly hostile to women's autonomy. Helen Todd spent a year in two villages in Bangladesh following the lives of women who have been borrowing from the Grameen Bank for a decade.

Throughout South Asia, questions of illegal immigration combined wit those of national security have acquired politically explosive dimensions in recent years. Despite this, migration studies have remained, by and large, confined to the domains of economics and demography. Dealing with transborder migrations from Bangladesh to West Bengal, The Marginal Nation analyzes these issues within a richer perspective which accommodates the historical, cultural and geographic dimensions along with the economic and demographic.