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This book explores the links between militancy and migration, two movements that transformed the socio-political landscape of late 2 century Punjab; a transformation wrought by biotechnological revolutions, economic restructuring and persistent migrations. The book traverses three different fieldwork locations that form its unique structure the sacred city of Amritsar, a village of the Doaba area and the transnational urban neighborhood of Southall in the UK. Drawing on interviews with men who sought political asylum in the late 198s, and with those classified as `illegal` labour migrants of the late 2 century, the analysis uses completely new material while simultaneously relooking at existing literature. As the author shows, relations between the sacred, the rural and the transnational, fostered through migration, marriage and material exchange, existed well before 1984. Post-1984, however, and through the violent decades of the militancy period, these three locations became connected via the circulation of political ideologies, violent deaths, financial aid, a sense of disaffection and the migration of men. It is the analysis of the linkages between transnational migration and religious revival that is the key theme of the book. Conversely, the book argues, the enhanced engagements of the diaspora with homeland politics became a source of support and created sanctuary spaces for political asylum seekers and transnational migrant labour. Re-looking at existing literature and drawing on ethnography, extensive interviews and local history archives, his important book presents a different framework to analyse the politics and social history of Punjab. Those in the fields of history, politics and South Asian studies, and issues of transnational and diaspora studies have a great deal to look forward to.isbn-9780415598002
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Pages : 150
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