Twenty-two choice articles of a chronicle. A chronicle of times and spaces—of minds—of one fifth of humanity. A confection on the remarkable journey of a mountain magazine published over the past twenty-five years as a first and foremost regional publication. Intended to mark the 25th anniversary of the magazine, the book argues for a collective regional sensibility when looking at issues, which affect the subcontinent. Issues which are critical to the formation, existence and evolution of the region, its handful of countries aka republics and many national identities both large and small have been seen through prisms which, more often than not, are not the ones generally looked at or through from the respective capitals at the least.
The Reader begins with an apt introduction, which in itself is nothing short of a policy primer on recalibrating the concept of South Asia as a medley of multiple and cross-cutting identities—racial, linguistic, social, cultural, and political.