Minorities in South Asia & Europe

This book studies minorities of South Asia and Europe in a comparative and transnational perspective. While country-specific studies in minorities are not rare, their comparisons within a region (like South Asia and Europe) or across them are almost non-existent. This is so because the history of the formation of minorities in many ways coincides with that of the formation of nation-states. As modern states emerge and their boundaries are drawn precisely, minorities are created -- if not 'trapped' and 'colonised' -- within them. Comparisons among minorities are often regarded as to politically volatile a subject to be encouraged by nation-states. Today it is imperative to undertake this task as the forces and processes of globalisation flush the minorities out of their respective state boundaries. Caught in the whirlpool of global politics, minorities sometimes do not know how to retain the autonomy of their social and political agendas. Modern minorities are the product of nationalist discourse. It suggests a new agenda in minority discourse.