ABSTRACT
The ultimate step for a cultural minority wishing to maintain or strengthen its identity is to attempt to secede from the state within which it has minority status. This is, of course, only possible if the minority is territorially concentrated, a fact that excludes a fair number of minorities whose members feel disadvantaged in their present situation. However, it leaves a fair number that have produced nationalist parties demanding secession or, if not complete secession, at least a large measure of autonomy. In 1988, secessionist parties or groups are to be found among the Scots, the Welsh, the Quebecois, the Corsicans, the Basques of Spain, the Kurds of Turkey, the Sikhs of India, the Tamils of Sri Lanka and the Ambonese of Indonesia, to name only those that have achieved a degree of prominence in the world news. For reasons that will be examined, the last third of the twentieth century has been a period in which minority nationalist movements have multiplied and flourished.
