How this politics of difference affected people and religious communities in postcolonial South Asia.

In the film, Stories My Country Told Me, Eqbal Ahmad describes nationalism as a politics of difference and argues that there is no end to politics of difference (2003). Over the past few weeks we have seen how the struggle to define national identity has affected postcolonial South Asia. Drawing extensively on Tahmima Anams book A Golden Age and on the book chapter by Willem van Schendel, discuss how this politics of difference affected people and religious communities in postcolonial South Asia.

A good paper will use detailed examples from the readings (especially Anams book) to show how nationalist politics affected individuals and religious communities in South Asia. Make sure you (1) discuss shared religious worlds in some depth, and (2) show how these were affected by nationalist constructions of identity and religion.