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Corresponding Author

Belkacem BELMEKKI

Document Type

Original Study

Subject Areas

History/ Archaeology

Keywords

Muslim separatism, Hindu fanaticism, British India, religion and politics

Abstract

A great deal of research has been devoted to the explanation of the phenomenon of Muslim separatism/communalism in British India. In the main, scholars have been divided between, on the one hand, the Primordialists (such as Francis Robinson) who argued that this separatist tendency was an inevitable corollary pre-ordained from pre-modern times given the fundamental distinctions between the Muslim culture and the Hindu one, and on the other hand, the Instrumentalists (such as Paul Brass), who saw in this separatism nothing more than a stratagem orchestrated by the Muslim elite in order to safeguard their interests. This article, however, is an attempt to look at Muslim separatism from a different angle, that of fear of the Hindu majority.

Publication Date

2013

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