Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding: Ideas, Approaches and Debates
- 2 Changing Perspectives on Peace Studies in South Asia
- 3 Peace Pedagogies in South Asia: Interreligious Understanding
- 4 Responses of Communities to Social Tension
- 5 Plurality of Peace, Non-violence and Peace Works in India
- 6 Education and Culture of Peace: Engaging with Gandhi
- 7 Structural Violence and Human Security: Gandhi's Visions
- 8 Women and the Peace Process in Nepal
- 9 Quest for Peace and Justice in Pakistan: Lawyers' Non-violent Resistance
- 10 Antinomies of Democracy and Peace in Nepal
- 11 Post-armed Conflict Trajectories in Sri Lanka
- 12 Environmental Security and Conflict in Bangladesh: Nature, Complexities and Policies
- Contributors
- Bibliography
- Index
2 - Changing Perspectives on Peace Studies in South Asia
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding: Ideas, Approaches and Debates
- 2 Changing Perspectives on Peace Studies in South Asia
- 3 Peace Pedagogies in South Asia: Interreligious Understanding
- 4 Responses of Communities to Social Tension
- 5 Plurality of Peace, Non-violence and Peace Works in India
- 6 Education and Culture of Peace: Engaging with Gandhi
- 7 Structural Violence and Human Security: Gandhi's Visions
- 8 Women and the Peace Process in Nepal
- 9 Quest for Peace and Justice in Pakistan: Lawyers' Non-violent Resistance
- 10 Antinomies of Democracy and Peace in Nepal
- 11 Post-armed Conflict Trajectories in Sri Lanka
- 12 Environmental Security and Conflict in Bangladesh: Nature, Complexities and Policies
- Contributors
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Three Generations of Peace Studies in South Asia
Peace Studies in South Asia as a discipline continues to be dominated by Security Studies where peace is considered as only an outcome of the balance of power between the parties involved in conflicts. Every such outcome for obvious reasons is contingent, because the balance that is achieved may be disturbed or even set aside once any of the parties has its reasons to do so. A party might in such cases think that it gains by being engaged in conflict or even simply allowing it to continue, instead of working for peace. Peace thus conceived as a strategic balance of power is precarious and constantly threatened by the spectre of conflict and war. A large part of the established academia in South Asia continues to be influenced by studies of this genre.
Since the beginning of the new millennium, a new generation of studies conducted mostly in the conflict areas of South Asia – particularly in India – seems to have marked a paradigmatic shift in the understanding of Peace Studies (Samaddar 2004, Das 2005, Banerjee 2008, Singh 2009). Peace, according to this new paradigm, is sought to be understood independently of its opposite, i.e. conflict – not so much as absence or deferral of conflict by obtaining an albeit contingent balance of power, but its preemption and in cases where complete preemption is not possible, at least their resolution – both preemption and resolution in a way that simultaneously establish such universal principles as rights, justice and democracy. The parties involved in the conflict may not necessarily develop a stake in the resolution of conflicts that at the same time also establishes such universal principles.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Peace and ConflictThe South Asian Experience, pp. 23 - 43Publisher: Foundation BooksPrint publication year: 2014