This important new book critically evaluates the conventional reading of ethnicity and ethnic conflict in contemporary Indian politics. By focusing on India's nation and state-building in the peripheral regions since 1947, in particular Punjab, it argues that there is a case for considering India as an ethnic democracy.
GURHARPAL SINGH is Professor in Politics at the University of Hull. He has previously worked at Birkbeck College and De Montfort University. He is the author of Communism in Punjab and the co-editor of Punjabi Identity and Region and Partition: Bengal, Punjab and the Partition of the Subcontinent.
Recensioner i media
'...this collection of essays is an indispensable source of the modern history of Sikh politics in the Punjab and a valuable contribution to contemporary debates on ethnicity, nationalism and the state.' - Paul R. Brass, Ethnic and Racial Studies 'The essays, written over a period of some ten years, represent a systematic effort on the part of a scholar grappling with the political realities of India and will be of great interest for students of South Asian politics. Singh's familiarity with theoretical debates pertaining to ethnicity and politics prepared him well for a systematic analysis of Indian and Sikh politics. His account of the happenings in the Punjab since the beginning of the 1980s is detailed, accurate, and insightful.' - Gurinder Singh Mann, Journal of Asian Studies '[It's] central argument is compelling...The notion of an 'ethnic democracy' offers a new and compelling conceptual framework in which to analyse the Indian democracy and the ethno-nationalist movements in the periphery that often plague it. It deserves to be read. This book will hopefully stimulate serious debate about the issues it examines.' - Jugdep S. Chima, Journal of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics '...a valuable contribution to political science. Scholars interested in questions of control, 'right-sizing' the state and ethnic democracy will find Singh's analysis insightful, if controversial.' - Katharine Adeney, Political Studies 'Everyone in India should read this book.' - C.P. Bhambhri, The Hindu '...a welcome addition to the growing literature on ethnic conflict in the post-Cold War era...a fine book...I recommend this work highly.' - Amandeep Sandhu, Contemporary South Asia
Innehållsförteckning
List of Tables, Maps and Figures Preface Acknowledgements Abbreviations PART I: ETHNICITY, ETHNIC CONFLICT AND INDIAN POLITICS Introduction Perspectives on Ethnic Conflict in Indian Politics What is Happening to the Political Science of Ethnic Conflict? Reassessing 'Conventional Wisdom': Ethnicity, Ethnic Conflict, and India as an Ethnic Democracy The Partition of India as State Contraction: Some Unspoken Assumptions PART 2: PUNJAB AND THE SIKHS Introduction Sikh Ethnicity and Punjab Hegemonic Control: Punjab Politics, 1947-84 Understanding the 'Punjab Problem' PART 3: MILITANCY AND COUNTERINSURGENCY: RESTRUCTURING SIKH POLITICS Introduction The 'Punjab Problem': A Post-1984 Assessment Punjab Legislative Assembly Elections 1992: Breakthrough or Breakdown? Punjab Since 1984: Disorder, Order and Legitimacy PART 4: HINDUTVA , AKALIS AND THE BJP: The 'PUNJAB PROBLEM' IN A COMPARATIVE INDIAN PERSPECTIVE Introduction India's Akali-BJP Alliance: The 1997 Legislative Assembly Elections Resizing and Reshaping the Indian State: The 'Punjab Problem' in a Comparative Perspective Selected Bibliography Index
