Ethnicity and nation-building in South Asia : case studies of the Baluch movement in Pakistan and the Khalistan movement in India

Abstract

This thesis examines the process of nation-building in South Asia, with particular reference to the Baluch in Pakistan and the Sikhs in India. The two movements stand in stark contrast to one another. The Baluch, a closed tribal community with low levels of socio-economic development represent a small ethnic group in Pakistan; while the Sikhs, a small religious minority, are a robust people with high levels of socio-economic development in India. But both desired a separate homeland for themselves. The thesis pursues two objectives. First, it analyses the factors responsible for the growth of separatist sentiments among the Baluch and the Sikhs, as well as the causes contributing to the decline of the respective movements. It explains these dynamics with the help of three variables: the nature of the movements, the policies of the Pakistani and Indian state, and the role of extemal powers. The period selected for the two case studies coincides with the rise, operation, and decay of the two movements. For the Baluch it ranges from 1971, the beginning of the civil war to 1981. In the case of Khalistan, it concentrates on the period from 1978 to 1992. Second, it examines the phenomenon of separatism in the larger context of state-building in South Asia, but more specifically India and Pakistan. It looks at the policies of both the Indian and Pakistani states in dealing with their ethnic minorities. The study does not subscribe to any one theory to explain the rise of the Baluch and Khalistan movements. Instead it adopts a trans-disciplinary approach using various schools of social anthropology and political science to understand separatism in the subcontinent.