Minorities In South Asia And In Europe

This book studies minorities of South Asia and Europe from a comparative and transnational perspective. It is not difficult to come across country-specific studies of minorities; but comparisons within a region, like South Asia and Europe, or across them are almost non-existent. Minorities are created as modern states emerge and their boundaries are drawn in neat and precise terms. Studying minority groups across such disparate regions as Europe and South Asia makes us aware of the underlying similarities in their situations, as well as of the very real differences, which, perhaps, are as important as the similarities in understanding them. Not all minority interests are reconcilable with one another or even with the transregional agenda. Caught in the whirlpool of global politics, minorities sometimes do not know how to retain the autonomy of their social and political agenda. The book seeks to respond to this challenge by sensitizing us to the lessons of minority experience from a cross-national and cross-regional perspective