Cultural Cooperation in South Asia

Cultural Cooperation in South Asia is an anthology of papers from the fifth South Asian Regional Dialogue, held in Dhaka in February 1997. This series of dialogues, which began in 1991, was created to foster a stronger sense of community across the region. The Dhaka meeting brought together leading cultural figures from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka to examine how different art forms—literature, drama, plastic arts, music, and dance—address pressing social issues like social justice, human rights, the role of women, and the challenges of fundamentalism and communalism. The dialogue sought to understand whether a shared cultural identity exists within South Asia, one that could provide a more substantive basis for cooperation between governments and, more importantly, between the peoples themselves. Edited by Jamil Choudhury, this volume captures the rich exchange of ideas from that gathering, exploring the extent to which the creative imagination of the region engages with these critical themes.