War and Nationalism in South Asia

<p>This book presents and analyses the oldest sub-national war of postcolonial South Asia between the Indian state and the Nagas of Northeast India. It offers a serious and thorough political history on the Naga region over three periods pre-colonial colonial and post-colonial.</p><p>Drawing on a wealth of primary sources and comparative and theoretical literature Marcus Franke demonstrates that agency and identity-formation are an on-going process that neither started nor ended with colonialism. Although the interaction of the local population with colonialism produced a Naga national élite it was the emergence of the Indian political class with access to superior means of nation and state-building that was able to undertake the modern Indo-Naga war. This war firmly made the Nagas into a 'nation' and that set them onto the road to independence. </p><p>War and Nationalism in South Asia fundamentally revises our understanding of the existing 'histories' of the Nagas by exposing them to be influenced by colonial or post-colonial narratives of domination. Furthermore by placing the region into the longue durée of state formation with its involved technique of imperial rule the book presents a new approach to the study of nationalism and war in South Asia in general. </p><p>This book will be of interest to students and scholars of politics history anthropology and South Asian studies. </p>