The authors of this book, who all teach courses in the politics of South Asia and in political development in the Third World, have been concerned that there is no textbook that contains information on the major countries of South Asia. Such a book, we believe, would be valuable for use both in courses specifically about the region and those broader in scope. To fill this gap, we have joined forces to write a book that should be useful to our students and to students of others in the field of political development. The book is a combined effort. In the initial draft, however, the sections were assigned to individual writers. Malik was responsible for India and the three smaller countries, Kennedy for Pakistan, and Oberst for Sri Lanka. Baxter was responsible for Bangladesh, the historical introduction and conclusion and also served as coordinator. The chapters were circulated among all the other writers, each of whom made contributions to each section. The result is, therefore, the combined work of all four of us.