The political consequences of ethnic mapping

This paper contributes to the debate on the causes and consequences of politics that are practised in an 'ethnic' mode. It considers how ethnic identities are constituted and legitimised through the practices of modern states, which are themselves embedded in ethnic categories. It analyses the dynamics of ethnic politics in the context of the formation of linguistic states within the Indian Union in the 1950s and 1960s, with particular reference to Punjab and traces how these reinforced and intensified perceptions of ethnic discrimination from the 1970s onwards.