ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book addresses overarching aspects of political violence in the region, its theoretical implications, and its representation. It offers a taxonomy of the various forms of political violence in five South Asian nations. The book explores how political violence is typically viewed as something out of the usual – 'a failure within a society', based on Western notions of the state's monopoly of violence. It focuses on the representation of violence rather than the causes of or conditions of violence. The book also focuses on how everyday state violence creates an ecology of fear and suspicion among the indigenous population of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT). It provides an anthropological reading of how state power is often exercised 'visibly and invisibly' through fear, suspicion, and distrust of the agents of the state, such as the military, and members of local political groups.
