The limits to the political articulation of Sikh identity in post- 1947
India are explored in Chapter 6. Operationalizing the concept of
hegemonic control developed in Chapter 3, the Nehruvian and the
post-Nehruvian experience is reassessed in terms of the relationship
between the 'Sikh political system' and dominance of the Congress in
Punjab. Neither the Sikh (Indian) nationalists (Sikh Congressites) nor
Sikh Communists were, despite strenuous efforts, able to restructure
Sikh identity in accordance with requirements of Indian nationalism as
represented by Congress or the politics of class. Congress as the
dominant force in Punjab politics used four mechanisms to maintain
hegemonic control: ideological, factional penetration, tactical accom-
modation, and administrative residual control. Hegemonic control,
however, became open to challenge following the creation of a
Punjabi-speaking state, culminating in the violent confrontation of
1984. Hegemonic control, as subsequent chapters demonstrate,
appropriately describes the acceptable boundaries within which Sikh
ethno-nationalism is tolerated within the Indian union.

Chapter 7 was written in 1987 in order to make sense of the vast
body of literature produced on the ' Punjab problem' and its immediate
aftermath. At the time the objective was primarily to identify the
various schools of thought. Nevertheless this chapter did raise
the puzzle of Sikh nationalism: namely, its timid and defensive
character, the need, above all, to account for its partial 'accommoda-
tion' within the Indian union. A sense of incomplete understanding at
the time was reflected in the open conclusion as well as a call for a
more comprehensive theory of Sikh ethno-nationalism.

-76-