States in Conflict with Their Minorities: Challenges to Minority Rights in South Asia

Description

Going beyond the mere mapping of the minority situation in South Asia, the essays in this volume explore the modern minority problematique in a democracy as integral to modern state-making processes, recognizing Nation and State as majoritarian concepts. Focusing on the South Asian context, they emphasize minority as a political category. Further, they move away from isolated national frames and explore the minority question as a foreign policy question. Contents List of Tables and Boxes List of Abbreviations Acknowledgements 1 - Introduction 2 - Violence, Cultural Diversities and the Fantasies of a Monolithic Nation-State 3 - A Long-term View of Contemporary Muslim Situation in India 4 - Media, Modernity and Minorities 5 - Hindus in a Polarized Political Environment: Bangladesh’s Minority 6 - Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh: Justice Denied 7 - Discrimination in Pakistan against Religious Minorities: Constitutional Aspects 8 - Religious Minorities in Pakistan: Mapping Sind and Baluchistan 9 - Strangers in the House: Minorities in Pakistani Textbooks 10 - Sri Lanka: Recent Shifts in the Minority Rights Debate 11 - Muslims in Sri Lanka: Political Choices of a Minority 12 - Inclusion and Accountability in a ‘New’ Democratic Nepal About the Editor and Contributors Index