One fifth of the world’s people live in India and Pakistan. Looking back on their first fifty years of independence, leading specialists on South Asia assess their progress and problems, their foreign and defense policies and their relations with the United States. The three coeditors, who compare the achievements of India and Pakistan in a perceptive introductory overview, combine journalistic, diplomatic and academic experience

In addition to these explorations and comparisons of internal issues, the final chapter reviews U.S. relations with India and Pakistan.

Selig S. Harrison served as South Asia Bureau Chief of the Washington Post. Paul H. Kreisberg is a former Deputy Chairman of the State Department’s Policy Planning Council. Dennis Kux is a former Director of the India Desk in the State Department.

Introduction
Selig S. Harrison, Paul H. Kreisberg, and Dennis Kux

Part I. India
1. Politics: Democratic Progress and Problems
Paul Brass
2. Economics: Much Achieved, Much to Achieve
John Adams
3. Society: Growth and Inequity
Sonalde Desai and Katharine Sreedhar

Part II. Pakistan
4. Politics: A Nation Still in the Making
Robert LaPorte Jr.
5. Economics: Misplaced Priorities, Missed Opportunities
Marvin Weinbaum
6. Society: Progress and Challenges
Anita Weiss

Part III. Foreign and Security Policy
7. India: Policies Past and Future
Sumit Ganguly
8. Pakistan: Fifty Years of Insecurity
Thomas Thornton
9. The US, India, and Pakistan: Retrospect and Prospect
Stephen Philip Cohen

“This book is essential reading for anyone interested in international relations of South Asia.”—The International History Review

“The contributors present a literate, useful, and challenging book for students and scholars interested in international politics and in the first 50 years of India and Pakistan’s existence.”—Choice