This volume, the second in the Governance, Conflict, and Civic Action series, examines civil society in South Asia through case studies of different kinds of ethnic ('communal') activism. With chapters covering Nepal, Sri Lanka, and India (Darjeeling, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, and Tamil Nadu), it avoids the 'methodological nationalism' so frequent in social science publications on the region. The articles examine Hindu nationalism, Dalit activism in India and Nepal, and the Janajati movement in Nepal, and show how they are animated by common ideals and themes, such as emphasis on the involvemen.