Sikh Ethnonationalism and the Political Economy of Punjab by Shinder Purewal:Sikh Ethnonationalism and the Political Economy of Punjab (original) (raw)
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Sikh ethnonationalism and the political economy of Punjab
2000
This book explains how the Sikh separatist movement for Khalistan developed in the Punjab and why it turned violent. In a style which is narrative, the author shows how internal power blocs within Sikhism shaped an exclusionary Sikh identity over the past 300 years. The ...
How Religion Became Ethnonationalism: Reflections on Sikh Calls for Statehood and Identity.
It is difficult to disentangle religion from politics in the troubled history of intercommunal relationships in Punjab. This entanglement is most apparent in the Sikh call for statehood and identity. This dissertation seeks to identify the processes by which religion became ethnonationalism in the Sikh context. It argues that the call for self-determination and statehood, sometimes expressed by the idea of ‘Khalistan’ is rooted in religion but expressed as a political aspiration shaped by the context of the rise of Hindu nationalism through Hindutva politics. Punjab has a long history of rule by external powers, most notably the Mughal Empire and the British Raj. The Sikh community experienced both flourishing and oppression at different points in these Empires, but this dissertation argues that the last act of the British Empire; namely, Partition; was catastrophic for the identity of the Sikh community. It argues that the rise of Hindu nationalism post-Partition, though an understandable reaction to Colonialism, has had significant negative consequences for the Sikh community; a minority in India, which now finds itself in many ways disenfranchised in what is left of its homeland. These and associated events have combined to generate the shift from the apolitical religious practice of the past to identity politics and ethnonationalism for contemporary Punjabi Sikhs.
CHAPTER_IX_DERAILED_MODERNIZATION_THE_ETHNONATIONALIST_PHASE
The last chapter concluded with the generalized expectation that the fall of the Derg would set in motion some form of democratization dismantling the wide-ranging restrictions of the existing socialist system, even if there was uncertainty about the real political program of the victorious Tigrean insurgents. Despite promises of democratization, it did not take long for people to realize that Ethiopia was heading for yet another version of hegemonic rule, this one replacing the class ideology of the previous regime with ethnonationalism. As though a curse were on it, Ethiopia's modernization will once more stumble over an ideology and a political system framed for the implementation of a different brand of exclusionary politics.
Crisis of Identity in 20th Century: The Case of the Sikhs in India
PERENNIAL JOURNAL OF HISTORY
Punjab has been in turmoil since the partition of British India and now its predicament is the outcome of blend of factors. These factors may include mixing of religion with politics, central machination, vote-bank polities and obvious economic grievances. In the post-partition period, the Sikhs demanded affirmative discrimination largely based on colonial heritage job and regional autonomy. They started using ethnic symbols like history, geography, culture and land to gain sympathies of the masses and to attain greater political autonomy and economic benefits. Unfortunately, the Congress considered their struggle for identity disturbing for the secular outlook of India and put this social issue into the conceptual framework of communal politics and aligned it with Sikh tradition. The situation was politically engineered by Congress through mixing religion with politics and it took decisive actions following the divide and rule policy and extracted electoral benefits out of it. The ...
Punjab: when a community assails and conquers the state
Punjab: When a " community " assails and conquers the " State " A glimpse into " national community " formation in South Asia " Democracy " and " National Community " are theoretical concepts and mechanisms that mutually strengthen each other. A strong devotion to establishing a national community should inevitably pave the way forward to the building of democracy as a process whereby sub‐national communities are harnessed together, and as an institutional set‐up to entrench the viability of the national community. This basic theoretical framework is elaborately embraced notably by Jürgen Habermas and Benedict Anderson. What I propose to do in the current study is try to transpose the above mentioned theoretical structures to historical evolutions in South Asia and more particularly the Indo‐Pakistani border region – the Punjab. The last sixty years have shown that the cohabitation of Punjab inside the national structure, on the one side of the border or the other, has been extremely difficult and deeply contested. How has democracy fared in the Subcontinent? How has it contributed to forming the respective " national communities " in this troublesome region? How strongly has Punjab integrated into the Indian national community? These are some of the questions to which I would like to bring a historical assessment. The study will mainly concentrate on the specific strategies adopted by this divided nation and make a comparative evaluation. We also focus on how the " territorial, communal and ethnic " entities used democracy to dock themselves to the wider " national community ". On a theoretical side we will go on to seeing how ethnic communities become the real movers behind conceptual and " imagined communities ". All of this will of course be preceded by a brief historical review of Punjab before its eventual division and bifurcation. Added to this, weight will be given to the demonstration of how a community gaining power in one area of state‐ structure moves to other areas, in the hope of controlling the whole system. As I have done in my earlier studies I would like to express the customary cautionary note on the methodology of historical analysis in this part of the world. It is often assumed that analytical concepts developed in the Western world have difficulties fitting into the South Asian context. There are many reasons to disagree with this belief. Discounting for cultural specificities universal concepts should maintain their analytical substance; they continue to be powerful tools of historical investigation. If we encounter difficulties it is because of other reasons: because there is a big divide between the supposed and the real, because there is a gulf between the nominal and the real. Making a slight shift towards the actual elements moving historic dialectic will help us gain an informed understanding of history of the Subcontinent. A brief historical review of Punjab (up to partition in 1947) Punjab as a nation might have had ups and downs in its historical development but what is interesting to notice is a linier ascendance of the Sikh community at