You know, I was born well after Independence, and if I had grown up only in India the subcontinent as such would have seemed notional. But being a Bengali from an East Bengal family, the subcontinent is very real for me. I feel it is not just India that is my home, but also ...
The imagined center of Hindutva cannot define itself without differentially including/excluding figures from that outside, be it the Pathan, the Ahoms of Assam, or the Bengali speaking suspected Bangladeshi in Delhi. The “subcontinent”, in that sense, is everywhere and nowhere. It is due to...