South Asia is the theatre of myriad experimentations with nationalisms of various kinds - religious, linguistic, religio-linguistic, composite, plural and exclusivist. In all the region’s major states, officially promulgated nationalism at various times has been fiercely contested by minority groups intent on preserving what they see as the pristine purity of their own cultural inheritance.
This volume examines the perspective of minority identities as they negotiate their terms of co-existence, accommodation and adaptation with several other competing identities within the framework of the ‘nation state’ in South Asia. It examines three different kinds of minority articulations – cultural conclaves with real or fictitious attachments to an imaginary homeland, the identity problems of dispersed minorities with no territorial claims and the aspirations of indigenous communities, tribes or ethnicities.
The essays in this volume offer a rich menu: the evolution of Naga nationalism, the construction of the territory-less Sylheti identity, the debates over Pashtun nationalism in Pakistan, the evolution of Muslim nationalism in Sri Lanka, the politics of religious minorities in Bangladesh and Pakistan, the making of minority politics in India, and questions of Islam and nationalism in colonial India. It is an eclectic mix for students of nationalism, politics, modern history and anyone interested in the evolution of South Asia.
This book was published as a special issue of South Asian History and Culture.
Introduction Tanweer Fazal, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi
Beyond Imagined Community: The theory and Praxis of Naga nation Making Sajal Nag, Professor of History, University of Silchar, Assam, India
‘W
e are with history but without geography’: Understanding Sylheti identity in post-partition India Nabonipa Bhattacharya, Sociologist, University of Delhi, IndiaAmidst the Winds of Change: The Hindu Minority in Bangladesh Meghna Guhathakurta, Professor, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh
The Pakistani State and Religious Minorities: An Overview of Policies and Practices Tariq Rahman, Professor, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan
Between Two Nationalisms: The Politics of Muslim Identity in Sri Lanka Mohd. Numan, Ulama and the National Imagery in India Arshad Alam, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi
The Multiple Self: interfaces between Pakhtoon nationalism and religious conflict in the Frontier Rubina Saigol
Nationalism and the Rights Discourse in India Tanweer Fazal
Biography
Tanweer Fazal is Lecturer at the Nelson Mandela Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.