Region, Religion and Politics : 100 Years of Shiromani Akali Dal

The study is located in the broader frame work of rise and growth of regional parties and identity politics in India as a part and consequence of India’s adopted model of state and nation building, integration and socio-economic development and transformation.

An objective and dispassionate study of the oldest religion based regional political party: the Shiromani Akali Dal, participating in the de­mocratic politics and processes of socio-economic develop­ment and transformation of the country. It delineates and analyses events and developments from the emergence of the Akali Dal, as a religious move­ment, its transformation in to a religious political party, concerned with safeguarding the political, social and eco­nomic interests of the Sikhs as a minority and to represent them in governing institutions, engaged in the struggle for power in secular domain mobilizing the com­munity support using the ideology of fusion of religion and politics, yet lacking equal support from dif­ferent sections of the community. Rather than dwelling on a mere narrative of events and describing strategies, tactics and agitations of the Akalis an attempt has been made to understand why and how social and economic antagonisms arising out of gen­eration and articulation of demands in a pluralistic society, undergoing mod­ernization and democratization may be marked by identity politics.