"India and Pakistan provides an historical understanding of the chequered process of nation-building in the subcontinent. In particular, Talbot examines the role of 'parochial' loyalties and the impact of contemporary processes of economic and cultural globalization on national and local allegiances. And, in introducing the increasingly important function of overseas South Asian communities in the political mobilization of the homeland, the reader is shown the complexities of South Asian society and the effects of its relationship with the state on the process of nation-building in India and Pakistan."--BOOK JACKET.

Introduction 1 -- 1 Community, nation and the British Raj 9 -- 2 Indian ideas and new senses of community 32 -- 3 Spreading the word: communicating new senses of identity 60 -- 4 Anjumans, associations and sabhas: the institutionalisation of -- new senses of community 86 -- 5 The politicisation of community identities 111 -- 6 Nationalism, communal and ethnic identities and the partition -- of India 134 -- 7 Nation building in India: ideas and institutions 162 -- 8 Nation building in Pakistan: ideas and institutions 196 -- 9 Globalisation and the nation state in the subcontinent 223 -- 10 Ethno-nationalism, insurgency and secessionism in India and -- Pakistan 252 -- Conclusion 283.