Abstract
More than 50 years after independence, the economic and political record of South Asian countries offers an ambivalent picture. According to international statistics compiled by the World Bank and the United Nation Development Program (UNDP), South Asia is still the poorest and one of the least developed regions of the world. A per capita income of only US$350 in 1995 and insufficient social development puts all countries of the region, except for Sri Lanka and the Maldives, in the lowest category of UNDP's Human Development Index (HDI).1 Furthermore, a recent study conducted by the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) illuminated the still significant amount of deprivation in the region. Up to 70% of the population in some countries lives in poverty.2 Given the social and economic problems there, it is surprising that, based on population, South Asia constitutes the largest democratic region in the
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