This book studies minorities of South Asia and Europe in a comparative and
transnational perspective. While country-specific studies in minorities are not
rare, their comparisons within a region (like South Asia and Europe) or across
them are almost non-existent. This is so because the history of the formation of
minorities in many ways coincides with that of the formation of nation-states in
both these regions. As modern states emerge and their boundaries are drawn in
fairly neat and precise terms, minorities are created if not trapped and
colonized within them. International boundaries have often been drawn in
postcolonial South Asia or in post-war Europe in ways that