Polity, Political Process and Social Control in South Asia

The South Asian Tribal and rural societies are characterized by traditional, hereditary political structure. But a new political system is emerging with the new leadership. The upsurge of socio-political movements have varying magnitude and objectives as reflected in the articles of the volume. But it is like an old wine with a new label as it is observed that the authority in the emerging political system is occupied by the ‘old guys’ (leaders) of the traditional political system. The problem of polity, political process and social control is used in this context to focus on the existence of different forms of government or administrative set up and the machinery or social control in different tribal and rural Societies of South Asia. The book also reflects the type of controlling factors prevailing in the “South World”, it is mode of functioning and likeness, differences and uniqueness of the systems. The book provides us a few more empirical varieties and shows a trend in the emerging pattern of leadership, political process, function, cleavage, etc. common to all South Asian countries under study. So the book is expected to serve the future students of anthropology, sociology, political science and other allied disciplines, particularly those of political anthropology in the new voyages of discovery to add to the summum bonum of knowledge that is basic to theory and practice.