For the Muslims of India, both identity and equity are intensely contested concepts that impinge ... more For the Muslims of India, both identity and equity are intensely contested concepts that impinge upon political mobilization as much as policy initiatives. At the heart of the issue is whether Muslims qua Muslim deserve reservation, in which case the sociologically identified Ashrafs get to be included among the beneficiaries. Or is marginality among Muslims, akin to other communities, primarily a caste/status group experience?
South Asia is the theatre of myriad experimentations with the doctrine of nationalism: religious,... more South Asia is the theatre of myriad experimentations with the doctrine of nationalism: religious, linguistic, religio-linguistic, composite, plural or exclusive – the region stands witness to all. However, officially promulgated nationalism, presented as the finality of one's affiliations and loyalties, comes to be fiercely contested by minority groups resolute on preserving what they see as the pristine purity of their cultural inheritance. A minority's claim to selfhood is consistently called into question through a politics of nomenclature. The nationalism of the minority groups is frequently relegated to either sub-nationalism, proto-nationalism or a pre-modern appellation, ethnicity. This article examines the perspective of minority identities as they negotiate their terms of co-existence, accommodation and adaptation with several other competing identities within the framework of ‘nation state’.
In India the genealogy of the concept of minority rights is drawn from its pre-independent past a... more 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 celebratory euphoria, however, the disquiet, deceit and aversion with which the prevailing nationalist opinion engaged with the concept, is often overlooked. This essay seeks to trace the trajectory of the idea of minority rights as it evolved within the Constituent Assembly as much as outside it in the public domain. In the process, the essay interrogates the constitution of the public sphere as an arena, rational and autonomous of state influences.
For the Muslims of India, both identity and equity are intensely contested concepts that impinge ... more For the Muslims of India, both identity and equity are intensely contested concepts that impinge upon political mobilization as much as policy initiatives. At the heart of the issue is whether Muslims qua Muslim deserve reservation, in which case the sociologically identified Ashrafs get to be included among the beneficiaries. Or is marginality among Muslims, akin to other communities, primarily a caste/status group experience?
South Asia is the theatre of myriad experimentations with the doctrine of nationalism: religious,... more South Asia is the theatre of myriad experimentations with the doctrine of nationalism: religious, linguistic, religio-linguistic, composite, plural or exclusive – the region stands witness to all. However, officially promulgated nationalism, presented as the finality of one's affiliations and loyalties, comes to be fiercely contested by minority groups resolute on preserving what they see as the pristine purity of their cultural inheritance. A minority's claim to selfhood is consistently called into question through a politics of nomenclature. The nationalism of the minority groups is frequently relegated to either sub-nationalism, proto-nationalism or a pre-modern appellation, ethnicity. This article examines the perspective of minority identities as they negotiate their terms of co-existence, accommodation and adaptation with several other competing identities within the framework of ‘nation state’.
In India the genealogy of the concept of minority rights is drawn from its pre-independent past a... more 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 celebratory euphoria, however, the disquiet, deceit and aversion with which the prevailing nationalist opinion engaged with the concept, is often overlooked. This essay seeks to trace the trajectory of the idea of minority rights as it evolved within the Constituent Assembly as much as outside it in the public domain. In the process, the essay interrogates the constitution of the public sphere as an arena, rational and autonomous of state influences.
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