Sovereigns and Others

Abstract

Abstract This chapter shows how the minorities of India and Pakistan have been gradually transformed, through exclusion and disempowerment, into elements that are erosive rather than constitutive of sovereignty. In the context of India, three aspects concerning the relationship amongst the state, the Muslim community, and the majority are examined: a sustained discourse that casts suspicion upon the loyalty of Muslims to the state and the nation; three forms of majoritarian violence; and democratic exclusion produced by a restricted access of Muslims to India’s substantive political domain. As regards the minorities of Pakistan, the chapter foregrounds minoritization, a process through which the minorities created at partition have been disempowered while new minorities have been created and subjected to exclusion and disempowerment. It highlights the roles played by the state as well as non-state actors in the minoritization process.