Academic and Reference Books

Bangladesh: A Study of the Democratic Regimes is the author’s fifth book on the politics of Bangladesh. It essentially covers the period from 1991 to 2006 and focuses on a number of important issues including constitutional amendments and legislative reforms which have had considerable impact on the political process of the country. It encompasses with depth and precision all the developments in politics, economy, decentralization and politicization of administration that help in understanding the historical process of the concepts underscored here.

‘Transition to Democracy’ is a compilation of articles published in newspapers ad magazines at home and abroad. The author writes on such developments which impinge on public policy issues and on strategic policies pursued by successive governments of Bangladesh. Tow major political parties, the Awami League (AL) and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), elected by the people one after the other, ruled the country with the pledge to promote democracy and the rule of law.

Some two dozen countries are already classified as water-scarce, and this-as areas as diverse as Israel, southern California and even the Netherlands know - is not a problem confined to the South. Already, as this book shows, fresh-water shortages are becoming a major cause of conflict both domestically and between states. In the future, the growing world population, further spread of irrigated agriculture and industrialization will all make increasing demands on scarce water resources. Conflict resolution capabilities in many parts of the world will be sorely stretched.

Although the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty alone has hogged the worlds ---‘attention so far — because of its uniquely dazzling dominance and durability — it is not the only one within India, leave alone the neighbouring countries of South Asia and beyond. Indeed, the number of clans striding the political stage in the region is rather large. The Senanayakes and the Bandarnaikes were entrenched in SriLanka well before Indira Gandhi first became India’s prime minister in 1966.