Examines Self Awareness Particially Among Muslim-Socio-Political Evolution Of Muslims Of Punjab-Interaction Of Religion And Politics, Khilafat Movement. Non-Cooperation Movement-Communal Antagonism Etc. It Suggests That Events In Punjab In The Third Decade To Be A Watershed For The Partition Of The Country. 5 Chapters, Conclusion-Glossary, Bibliography, Index.

First published in 1986, Sikh Separatism is a comprehensive study of the emergence of Sikh unrest in India. The appearance of Sikh fundamentalism and separatism is not a sudden development. They are both shown to have deep social and historical roots linked to the growth of contemporary Sikh identity, community and organization. The genesis of Sikh communal consciousness and organization lies in a social and religious reform movement among Sikhs from the 1870s to the 1920s. This movement is believed to have moulded Sikh perceptions of their political interests and resulted in the establishment of an institutional framework which has served as an arena and a base for Sikh separatism. The development of this reform movement and its motivations, the strategies and tactics employed by the reformers and its profound political implications are examined. This book will be of interest to students of political science, international relations, and South Asian studies.

Changing Homelands offers a startling new perspective on what was and was not politically possible in late colonial India. In this highly readable account of the partition in the Punjab, Neeti Nair rejects the idea that essential differences between the Hindu and Muslim communities made political settlement impossible. Far from being an inevitable solution, the idea of partition was a very late, stunning surprise to the majority of Hindus in the region. In tracing the political and social history of the Punjab from the early years of the twentieth century, Nair overturns the entrenched view that Muslims were responsible for the partition of India. Some powerful Punjabi Hindus also preferred partition and contributed to its adoption. Almost no one, however, foresaw the deaths and devastation that would follow in its wake. Though much has been written on the politics of the Muslim and Sikh communities in the Punjab, Nair is the first historian to focus on the Hindu minority, both before and long after the divide of 1947. She engages with politics in post-Partition India by drawing from oral histories that reveal the complex relationship between memory and history—a relationship that continues to inform politics between India and Pakistan.