Minorities and their nationalism(s): the terms of a discourse in South Asia (original) (raw)

Introduction South Asian Nationalisms

Introduction: South Asian nationalisms, 2021

This article intends to raise questions related to nationalism in South Asia, while also addressing the rationale for this special issue. Is nationalism a monolithic construct based on a European precedent or is it something much larger that is developed pluralistically in a variety of contexts around the world? If the latter is true, which is our position, then how do we go about studying the various versions of global nationalism? We argue that good comparison is based on both similarity and difference. To make a case for multiple versions of nationalism, the articles included herein focus on the Indian Subcontinent. Each article looks at a particular country belonging to the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), the intergovernmental group representing the geopolitical union of states in South Asia, which was founded in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 1985. The overall purpose of this collection of articles is to highlight the varieties of nationalism found in the region, with the goal of interrogating the idea of a singular form of nationalism inherited by postcolonial societies from their European colonizers.

Majorities , Minorities and Separatist Movements in India

2007

Once a paper with this title could have started with a summary of India’s linguistic and religious diversity backed up by a table or two of official population statistics showing various majority-minority configurations. Today many readers would find that unsatisfactory. Most contemporary students of the subject subscribe to some kind of a constructivist position vis-à-vis identities: that they are ‘ultimately fluid, chosen, instrumentalizable, responsive to change in relevant incentive structures, and susceptible to manipulation by cultural or political entrepreneurs’ (Lustick et al. 2004: 213). Accounts that do not ask how particular ethnic or national categories come into being and, why and how at certain times and places, people from being indifferent to nationality or ethnicity are suddenly ‘overcome by nationhood’ (Slavenka Drakulic cited in Brubaker, 1996: 20) or by some form of identity-centric politics are no longer convincing.

A move to Majoritarian Nationalism? Challenges of Representation in South Asia

Despite India's status as the world's largest democracy and increasing turnouts in many of the countries of South Asia, recent elections raise concerns about the threat to democracy in the form of majoritarianism. Many of the countries of South Asia are extremely diverse and (mainly) informal mechanisms of accommodation of minorities have been deployed. At the same time concerns about the threat to minority rights in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have been strongly articulated. It is notable that those countries of South Asia, such as Sri Lanka and Pakistan, which have not accommodated their non-dominant groups, have witnessed high levels of conflict. India has been more accommodative, of both linguistic and religious minorities. However, it is precisely this process of accommodation that many in India now worry will be undermined by Hindu majoritarianism.

Introduction. Ethnic minorities in Asia: Inclusion or Exclusion?

Ethnic and Racial Studies, vol.35, no.4, 2011

This special issue, devoted to ethnic minorities in Asia, originated with the International Symposium on Ethnic Minorities in Asia: Subjects or Citizens, held at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore. As one of the most ethnically-diverse regions in the world, Asia is the site of large indigenous minority populations as well as non-indigenous minorities through ever-growing legal and illegal migrant flows. This article maps out some of the key themes explored by the contributors to this special issue in the processes and structures of accommodation for Asia’s minorities. These themes revolve around the changing meaning of citizenship in Asian contexts, state models of accommodation, constructions and representations of identity and belonging, post-colonial legacies and nation-building, the legitimacy of minority rights claims, and questions of human security. This article provides an overview of the theoretical and empirical contributions that the essays in this special issue bring to the study of ethnic minority issues in increasingly heterogeneous and divided Asian societies.

Minority rights and the nationalist doctrine in India: contestation and coalescence in the public sphere

South Asian History and Culture, 2012

In India the genealogy of the concept of minority rights is drawn from its pre-independent past and is intrinsic to the nationalist doctrine that emerged. Indeed minority groups were endowed with certain self-preservation rights, albeit extremely limited, in the new Constitution. This single fact has driven theorists to laud the commitment of the Indian polity towards minority entitlements. Amidst such

Instituting Diversity: Official Nationalism in Post-independence India

Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: ethnic group relations presents itself as one of paramount importance to the post-independence Indian polity. India has for the most part been conceptualised as a constellation of discrete groups defined along varied axes of ethnic identity, such as region, religion, language, and caste. 1 How can the different religious groups coexist? How can regional identities proliferate without undermining Indian unity? How can the problem of choosing a single official language be solved when the Indian Constitution recognises sixteen national languages, each with its own distinctive script? These are the questions that have structured discussions in and on India throughout the fifty years of its republican history; questions which bear witness to the structuring effect of the ethnicity and ethnic conflict paradigm on theoretical explorations and practical articulations of Indianness. It is with the intention of challenging the hegemony of this paradigm -one that assumes the 'givenness' of ethnicity and ethnic conflict in India -that I write this paper.

"Introduction", Minorities and Populism: Critical Perspectives from South Asia and Europe

2020

Despite the very different and to some extent opposite historical and political trajectories, there is today a convergence on nationalist affirmation and on majoritarian politics between South Asia and Europe. In India, the Hindu majority rebels against wide-ranging minority rights anchored in the Constitution. In Europe, the refugee crisis and Islamic radicalization bring to the forefront the postcolonial legacy. This introductory article to our edited volume Minorities and Populism-Critical Perspectives form South Asia and Europe is answering two fundamental questions. First, what precisely is the nexus between minorities and populism in South Asia, particularly in India, and Europe? Secondly, given the dangers of populism for minorities, which are the most adequate and feasible policy proposals that address the resentment of the majority? On the basis of the different contributions to this volume, the article draws four major conclusions: (1) Populism has its roots in growing inequalities rather than in the presence of minorities, although the danger of real identity conflicts persists. (2) The integration of Muslim communities and scheduled castes in India requires next to classical multicultural rights also affirmative action programs and quotas. (3) In Muslim-majority countries, such as Pakistan, major political, social but also theological efforts have to be made to render Islam compatible with democracy. (4) Immigration and minorities might currently sow the seeds for greater openness and tolerance of national majorities in Europe, even though processes of mutual learning and recognition might take their time to become properly rooted.