Minority Studies

Description

 In India, the ‘minority–majority’ logic has been inherited from the Independence struggle and Partition history, and ratified by provisions in favour of minorities in the Constitution. Yet, the process of minority identity formation at the ground level, and the complex and changing dynamics of state and legal institutions in these constructions, is worthy of closer analysis. How does modern law create and condition minority identity? How do groups manipulate and project a certain identity? What is the relation of caste, gender, or ethnic associations with minority identity? What happens when a group considered part of the ‘majority’ demands ‘minority’ status? The current discourse on minorities in India is just beginning to explore these intriguing questions. Minority Studies, the first volume in the new series, ‘Oxford India Studies in Contemporary Society’, brings together a group of scholars across disciplinary boundaries to tackle a host of core issues related to the identification, definition, and categorization of religious minorities, foregrounding the significant and immediate social categories of caste, gender, ethnicity, and class. Capturing the interplay of socio-cultural categories and the agencies of governmental institutions, law, and identity politics, the introduction and twelve essays in this volume together chart the content and contours of the exceedingly important and emergent field of minority studies.