Special Issue on Partition – IR 21(3) – Guest Editor Introduction

Abstract

The Partition of the British India in 1947 divided the people and territory on religious and confessional basis.Hence, the Partition further communalized the inter-religious relationships. It also disturbed the syncretic culture of the land. Most importantly, the Partition ever since has been turned into a politicized memory-project aimed at securing and maintaining power. Consequently, even after more than 74 years of the Partition, the political differences and cultural segregation on religious and confessional basis, especially in the case of Hindus and the Muslims, continues poisoning the politics that succeeded the British India. Over the years, as films, press, and television have powerfully evolved in India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, these media have acted as means to manufacture, reproduce, recreate, and disseminate the theory of cultural differences based on religion. These cultural apparatuses have become more effective with the rise of majoritarian nationalism in India and Pakistan, in particular. By majority and majoritarian one does not mean the demographic majority. The majoritarianism ideology is usually constructed and thrust upon the others by a small segment of the population, which dominates the country’s political and economic resources and enjoys high social status. The ideas and values of such dominant groups are defined as nationalism, which the other people follow/ “forced” to follow. With the political rise of majoritarian nationalism, the political, social, and cultural chasms between the majority and minority communities have only widened. The majoritarian nationalism has thrived by otherizing the minority groups (for instance, the Muslims in India and the Hindus in Pakistan) as the fifth column undermining the majority community’s existence. Not only does the majority otherize the minorities but in most cases, even the otherized group(s) internalize such otherizations. In turn, minoritized communities otherize the majority. In the process, arguably, the minority groups have embraced conservative, and in some cases, radical ideologies. Like the majority, the minority