A conventional interstate war has not menaced the Indian subcontinent for more than a decade. Nevertheless, the region has seen its share of terrorism, civil war, military repression, and guerilla violence, in which armed paramilitary militias and insurgents commit terrible crimes against civilians and the state. For those who hope to understand the ideologies driving these groups, as well as their social organizations and strategies, Laurent Gayer and Christophe Jaffrelot assemble leading theorists and experts on the politics of South Asia and Myanmar, creating a comprehensive text for analytical and comparative study.Fundamentalists such as the Hindu nationalist Bajrang Dal, the Khalistanis of Punjab, the Sunni SSP in Pakistan, and the Islamist militias in Bangladesh share something in common with the Maoists and Naxalites operating in Nepal and India: the use of violence to exercise social control, challenge state authority, and impose a particular worldview on vulnerable citizens. Governments are equally adept at exploiting these groups as well, even though their actions undermine the state and disrupt its monopoly on legitimate violence. Fundamentalists, Maoists, and Separatists can in fact help a government in its pursuit of social and moral order. However, granting short-term power to these groups have serious long-term consequences, as demonstrated by Indira Ghandi's patronage of the Sikh militancy, which later engineered her assassination. Shedding light on the deep complexities that underlie these troubling partnerships, Armed Militias of South Asia is a critical collection for understanding conflicts within Kashmir, Punjab, Sri Lanka, and other violent hotspots on the subcontinent.