Discuss the impact of ethnic and religious conflicts on post-independence India.

The question requires that candidates offer a considered and balanced review of the impact of both ethnic and religious conflicts on post-independent India. Candidates may offer equal coverage of ethnic and religious conflicts or they may prioritize their discussion of one of these aspects. However, both aspects will be a feature of the response. The impacts may extend beyond the timeframe but they must be clearly linked to the issues raised in the question and should not go much beyond 1964 (death of Nehru). Candidates may refer to the partition and the situation of the Muslims that remained in India. After 1947, the Hindu-Muslim riots predominately occurred in urban centres, while villages remained largely undisturbed. Ethnic conflicts mainly took place in Punjab, Assam and Kashmir. The conflict in the Punjab had a dominant linguistic thrust during the mid-1960s. In Assam, the migration from East Pakistan put pressure on the Assamese residents. In Kashmir, militancy arose with demands for Islamic separatism. There were tribal insurgencies in the north-eastern states. Language was an emotive issue as demonstrated by the Dravida Kazhagam movement in Tamil Nadu when violence broke out on the adoption of Hindi as the national language. Caste-based reservations in jobs and educational institutions led to heightened tension among different castes.