Minorities and the State

Minorities and the State
Author: Abhijit Dasgupta
Publisher:
Total Pages: 214
Release: 2011
Genre: Bengal (India)
ISBN: 9788132112945

This text discusses the enormity of problems faced by two numerically significant religious minority groups - Hindus in Bangladesh and Muslims in West Bengal, India.

Minority Nationalisms in South Asia

Minority Nationalisms in South Asia
Author: Tanweer Fazal
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 255
Release: 2013-10-18
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1317966465

South Asia is the theatre of myriad experimentations with nationalisms of various kinds - religious, linguistic, religio-linguistic, composite, plural and exclusivist. In all the region’s major states, officially promulgated nationalism at various times has been fiercely contested by minority groups intent on preserving what they see as the pristine purity of their own cultural inheritance. This volume 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 the ‘nation state’ in South Asia. It examines three different kinds of minority articulations – cultural conclaves with real or fictitious attachments to an imaginary homeland, the identity problems of dispersed minorities with no territorial claims and the aspirations of indigenous communities, tribes or ethnicities. The essays in this volume offer a rich menu: the evolution of Naga nationalism, the construction of the territory-less Sylheti identity, the debates over Pashtun nationalism in Pakistan, the evolution of Muslim nationalism in Sri Lanka, the politics of religious minorities in Bangladesh and Pakistan, the making of minority politics in India, and questions of Islam and nationalism in colonial India. It is an eclectic mix for students of nationalism, politics, modern history and anyone interested in the evolution of South Asia. This book was published as a special issue of South Asian History and Culture.

A History of Bangladesh

A History of Bangladesh
Author: Willem van Schendel
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 459
Release: 2020-07-02
Genre: History
ISBN: 1108620337

Bangladesh did not exist as an independent state until 1971. Willem van Schendel's state-of-the-art history navigates the extraordinary twists and turns that created modern Bangladesh through ecological disaster, colonialism, partition, a war of independence and cultural renewal. In this revised and updated edition, Van Schendel offers a fascinating and highly readable account of life in Bangladesh over the last two millennia. Based on the latest academic research and covering the numerous historical developments of the 2010s, he provides an eloquent introduction to a fascinating country and its resilient and inventive people. A perfect survey for travellers, expats, students and scholars alike.

God Willing

God Willing
Author: Ali Riaz
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 246
Release: 2004
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780742530843

Is Bangladesh becoming a Taliban state? The question has become urgent in light of the growing strength of militant groups supposedly aligned with Al Quaida, the landslide victory of the center-right coalition in the general election of October 2001, and the deliberate and planned violence against religious minorities that followed. God Willing explores the explosive issue of Talibanization by analyzing the politics of Islamism in the world's third most populous Muslim country. Ali Riaz helps the reader to understand the emergence of Islamism as a legitimate democratic political in a largely secular state, as opposed to the media's sensational portrayal of Bangladesh as a country overrun by Islamist forces with a supranational agenda. The author compares Bangladesh with Indonesia and Pakistan, thus adding a valuable global context for evaluating the politics of Muslim countries.