To answer the first question, state institutions can be made more representative of the society they govern, but achieving this goal can be complex, especially when dealing with various grievances among different segments of the population. In the late 19th century in Jammu and Kashmir, there was a growing demand for representative rule. The British…

The state of Jammu and Kashmir was created in 1846 through two treaties – the Treaty of Lahore between the British East India Company and the Sikhs, and the Treaty of Amritsar between the Company and Gulab Singh, the Dogra ruler of Jammu. After the death of Ranjit Singh in 1839, the Sikh kingdom faced…

Tambiah analyzes some general features of ethnic riots in South Asia by looking at the Sinhala-Muslim riots (1915), the Sinhala-Tamil riots in Colombo (1983), the Sikh-Hindu eruptions in Delhi (1984), the Pathan-Bihari clashes in Karachi (1986), and the Sindhi-Muhajir encounters (1988-90), as case studies. It is true that the riots he identifies involved urban populations,…

Tambiah lays down an analytical framework to study modern ethnic conflict and collective violence. He argues that in today’s context, “ethnicity” has become the primary form of identity and the basis of calls for political action, overriding the concepts of “social class” and the “nation state” as a cause of mobilization. Although ethnic identity is…

The readings for today furthered my understanding of this week’s discussions where we questioned whether democracy entails equality for all or not and to what extent South Asian democracies fit into the understanding of “normative democracy”.   Cash can play very complex roles in democracy especially one as multi-faceted and multi-layered as South Asian democracies….