List of Tables, Maps and Figures Preface Acknowledgements Abbreviations PART I: ETHNICITY, ETHNIC CONFLICT AND INDIAN POLITICS Introduction Perspectives on Ethnic Conflict in Indian Politics What is Happening to the Political Science of Ethnic Conflict? Reassessing 'Conventional Wisdom': Ethnicity, Ethnic Conflict, and India as an Ethnic Democracy The Partition of India as State Contraction: Some Unspoken Assumptions PART 2: PUNJAB AND THE SIKHS Introduction Sikh Ethnicity and Punjab Hegemonic Control: Punjab Politics, 1947-84 Understanding the 'Punjab Problem' PART 3: MILITANCY AND COUNTERINSURGENCY: RESTRUCTURING SIKH POLITICS Introduction The 'Punjab Problem': A Post-1984 Assessment Punjab Legislative Assembly Elections 1992: Breakthrough or Breakdown? Punjab Since 1984: Disorder, Order and Legitimacy PART 4: HINDUTVA , AKALIS AND THE BJP: The 'PUNJAB PROBLEM' IN A COMPARATIVE INDIAN PERSPECTIVE Introduction India's Akali-BJP Alliance: The 1997 Legislative Assembly Elections Resizing and Reshaping the Indian State: The 'Punjab Problem' in a Comparative Perspective Selected Bibliography Index