Pluralism and the Post-Minority Condition

Khalid Anis Ansari

This chapter considers the breakthroughs created by the Pasmanda movement in minority areas in India. I show how the Pasmanda movement is involved both in the broader context of the struggles of the subordinate castes and also in the defence of the most important minority religious group in India, the Muslim community. From a caste perspective, the movement has shaken up the majority–minority (Hindu–Muslim) duopoly and destabilized the related conceptual associations. I therefore reveal how this movement represents an important challenge for the current minority imagination and for its discursive field of secularism, rights and cultural reform.