At the Nation-State’s Edge

Centre–periphery Relations in Post-1947 South Asia

Bibliographic Data

ID8959236
AuthorsElisabeth Leake (0000-0003-1277-580X, Royal Holloway University of London, corresponding author)
Year2016
Volume59
Issue2
Pages509-539
Publication date2016-02-26
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Historical Journal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0018-246X • E-ISSN: 1469-5103
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0018246x15000394
OpenAlexW2346246417
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited7

This article examines centre–periphery relations in post-colonial India and Pakistan, providing a specific comparative history of autonomy movements in Nagaland (1947–63) and Baluchistan (1973–7). It highlights the key role played by the central government – particularly by Jawaharlal Nehru and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto – in quelling both insurgencies and in taking further steps to integrate these regions. It argues that a shared colonial history of political autonomy shaped local actors’ resistance to integration into the independent nation-states of India and Pakistan. This article also reveals that Indian and Pakistani officials used their shared colonial past in very different ways to mould their borderlands policies. India's central government under Nehru agreed to a modified Naga State within the Indian Union that allowed the Nagas a large degree of autonomy, continuing a colonial method of semi-integration. In contrast, Bhutto's government actively sought to abandon long-standing Baluch political and social structures to reaffirm the sovereignty of the Pakistani state. The article explains this divergence in terms of the different governing exigencies facing each country at the time of the insurgencies. It ultimately calls for an expansion in local histories and subnational comparisons to extend understanding of post-1947 South Asia, and the decolonizing world more broadly

Autonomy · Central government · Colonialism · Development economics · Economic history · Economics · Geography · Government (linguistics · Local government · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Sovereignty · State (computer science · History · Law · Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East · Public Administration · South Asian Studies and Conflicts · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies

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