Quote:
Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
I guess I picked the wrong example with Sikhs, since religion is the salient thing there. Except that the push for an independent Khalistan cuts across an ethnic group, per your explanation, and finds people wanting to define their nation by religion instead. With suggests that ethnicity is not as central to nationalism as you say.
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India is not really worried about a Khalistan forming. They are worried about the Terrorism that concept encourages. But India is very scared of India following apart along ethnic lines. That is why India will not give up on Kashmir or Assam. They are like the Russians with Chechnya. They think once they let one ethnic group go, all the other ethnic groups (like the Punjabis) will get national aspirations.
National ethnic aspirations are what the Indian government fears the most. The question is will they get weaker or stronger as India industrializes. I think it will get stronger.
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