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Bibliographic Data

ID23683050
AuthorsMeghnad Desai (0000-0002-5451-7254, University of Cambridge, corresponding author), Manali Desai (0000-0002-8882-8843)
Year2015
Pages1-6
Publication date2015-12-30
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeCHAPTER
VenueWiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity and Nationalism (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/9781118663202.wberen470
OpenAlexW4256031066
ISBN9781118663202
LanguageEN
References cited7

The construction of Indian nationhood since independence in 1947 has had to contend with various alternative forms of belonging such as caste, religion, region, and language. Given that India was created through the partition of British Indian territory on religious grounds, an ethnic conception of nationhood retained its influence even though India was officially declared a secular nation. The postindependence constitution explicitly prohibited any discrimination based on caste or religion and the state does not officially recognize the existence of these categories. Yet they remained powerful to the present day. Major economic changes and rapid modernization have not mitigated the role of religion in everyday life. Nationalism remains powerful in political discourse, but its meaning is continually contested by these other forms of identification and belonging. Caste and religious–ethnic violence are one avenue through which such forms of belonging are asserted and a secular concept of nationhood is challenged.

Caste · Constitution · Epistemology · Ethnic group · Everyday life · Hindu nationalism · Hinduism · Meaning (existential) · Modernization theory · Nationalism · Partition (number theory) · Political science · Politics · Secular state · Secularization · Sociology · State (computer science) · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Gender Studies · Law · Philosophy · Religious studies · South Asian Studies and Conflicts

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