ABSTRACT
Studies and discussions on political violence often start from a minimalist understanding that political violence is 'violence that is committed in the context of a political conflict, or that can be related, either through its cause or through its motive, to political issues. Political violence is ubiquitous in South Asia. Yet, a taxonomy of political violence in South Asia is wanting. There are three kinds of problems regarding data on violence, particularly political violence, in South Asia. The first is availability. The second problem is the absence of disaggregation by categories. The third issue is in part a definitional problem. A key source of the political violence in the region is the long-standing unresolved issue pertaining to ethnicity. Further exploration of the taxonomy of the political violence allows us to make a few observations. The most important among them is the deep involvement of states in the extant political violence in respective countries.
