ABSTRACT
Governance in post-Independence South Asia reflects the scale, cultural diversity, resource base and historical trajectory of each country. In the post-Colonial world of far-ranging social, political and economic change, it is scarcely surprising that the forms of governance in South Asia should have diverged widely. When India and Pakistan entered this new post-Colonial world they themselves experienced great internal upheaval. Internationally, after the Second World War the world was fracturing along the lines of the Cold War, polarising global politics. The South Asian countries were directly affected by the transformation of global politics in ways in which none could ignore.
