Subnational movements in South Asia

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Subnational movements in South Asia

edited by Subrata K. Mitra and R. Alison Lewis

Westview Press, 1996

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Includes bibliographical references and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

Beseiged by ethnic movements seeking the right of self-determination, South Asia is facing increasing instabilty and fragmentation. Drawing on detailed case studies of the most explosive areas in the region, this book moves beyond sociological and economic explanations of the origins of South Asian subnationalism to formulate a political explanation based on theories of cultural nationalism and collective action. South Asian politics have been increasingly dominated by ethnic movements seeking control over parts of existing national states, each in the name of their own distinct identity. The leaders of these movements justify their claims by asserting the moral right of their nation to its homeland. Although the government usually treats these separatist movements as divisive threats to domestic stability, the movements express their legitimacy with the rhetoric of cultural nationalism.However, this book presents subnationalism not as a culturally specific phenomenon but as a politically convenient self-classification, used as an instrument of identity, mobilization, power, and counter-hegemony by political actors. Drawing on detailed analyses of seven South Asian casesKashmir, Punjab, Sindh, Baluchistan, Assam, Tamilnadu, and Sri Lankathe contributors move beyond sociological and economic explanations of the origin and evolution of South Asian subnationalism to formulate a political explanation based on theories of cultural nationalism and collective action.

Table of Contents

  • Subnationalist movements in South Asia - the rational politics of cultural nationalism in comparative perspective, Subrata K. Mitra
  • subnationalist movements in Northeast India in the 1980s - review of the Assam experience, M.P. Bezbaruah
  • charisma and power in Davidian politics - Tamilnadu since 1967, James Chiriyandkandath
  • India's Kashmir crisis, Sumit Ganguly and Kanti Bajpai
  • ethnic construction, provincial and subnationalist movements in Pakistan - the case of Baluchistan, Vernon Hewitt
  • ethnic politics in Sindh - a case study of conflictive pluralism, Iftikhar Malik
  • youth militancy and the rise of Sri Lankan Tamil nationalism, Robert Oberst
  • the Punjab crisis - a post-1989 evaluation, Gurharpal Singh
  • epilogue, Marie Therese O'Toole.

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