BOOK REVIEW-GROUP INTERESTS AND POLITICAL CHANGES-STUDIES OF PAKISTAN AND BANGLADESH

This comprehensive book review critically examines the scholarly literature on group interests and political changes in Pakistan and Bangladesh, analyzing how different academic works explain the relationship between social groups, political mobilization, and regime transformations. The review assesses the methodological approaches used in studying South Asian politics and evaluates their effectiveness in capturing the complex dynamics of group politics. The analysis examines how various scholarly perspectives interpret the role of ethnic, religious, class, and regional groups in political changes in both Pakistan and Bangladesh. The article also considers comparative frameworks that illuminate similarities and differences in group politics across the two South Asian countries. Furthermore, the review identifies theoretical and empirical gaps in the existing literature and suggests directions for future research on group interests and political change in South Asia.

This book review provides a critical examination of the scholarly literature on group interests and political changes in Pakistan and Bangladesh during the early 1980s, analyzing how academic works explain the complex relationship between social mobilization and political transformation. The review begins by contextualizing the study of group politics within the broader historical development of Pakistan and Bangladesh, considering the legacy of colonial administration, partition trauma, and post-independence state-building challenges. The analysis examines how different scholarly works conceptualize group interests in South Asian contexts, investigating theoretical frameworks based on primordialism, instrumentalism, and constructivism in understanding ethnic, religious, and regional identities. The review evaluates methodological approaches used in the literature, including historical analysis, comparative politics, political sociology, and area studies perspectives, examining their respective contributions to understanding group politics. The article assesses how various works interpret major political changes in both countries—including military interventions, democratic transitions, and constitutional developments—through the lens of group interests and conflicts. Based on the comprehensive assessment, the review identifies theoretical and empirical gaps in the existing literature and suggests directions for future research on group politics in South Asia. The analysis contributes to academic discourse by providing a systematic evaluation of how group interests and political changes were being studied and understood in the specific context of Pakistan and Bangladesh during a period of significant political transformation.