Amalendu MISRA

Collection of declassified documents and memoirs of former Soviet officials examining Soviet policymaking, military operations, and lessons learned from the last war in Afghanistan.

Why is it that men and boys have been and still are violated in conflict: in conventional war, insurgencies or periods of civil and ethnic strife? And, why, throughout history, have victims, perpetrators and society as a whole refused to acknowledge this violation? Why do episodes of male-on-male rape and sexual abuse feature so rarely in accounts of war, be they official histories, eye-witness accounts or popular narratives? Is there more to this elision of memory than simply shame? Is there more to it than the victor's desire to violate the enemy body? Amalendu Misra's startlingly original research into male sexual violence explores the meaning and role of the male body prior to is abuse and how it is altered by violation in wartime. He examines the bio-political contexts of conflict in which primarily men and occasionally women sexually violate men; he details the inadequate legal safeguards for survivors of such events; an in unearthing and analysing an ignored aspect of war, he inquires whether such violence can ever be deterred.--Dust jacket.

"In spite of several hundred years of Muslim presence in India and the close interaction between Hindus and Muslims, the majority of Hindus remain uncomfortable with their Islamic past. As a consequence, most of them seem to have considerable difficulty in integrating the huge contribution of Islam in their historical construction of India's national identity. This book looks at the reasons behind this discomfort and argues that the continuing resentment towards Muslims can be linked to a bias in the Indian nationalist tradition." "This well-researched account of an important but hitherto little understood basis of Hindu-Muslim tension will attract a wide readership among historians, sociologists and political scientists. It will also interest those concerned with the wider issues of ethnicity, religion, communal politics, and the state of India's polity today."--Jacket.