Social Exclusion: Historical or Colonial Legacy?

Abstract

Through the constructs of political systems in South Asia, the subject of exclusion has a close corollary with policy perspectives. This paper looks at the paradigm of exclusion in South Asia and seeks to explore the relationship between ‘exclusion’ and ‘political bidding’, notably, reading through the ‘colonial legacy’. One of the striking features in the emergence of South Asia is the pattern on which states emerged- former colonies of the same ‘imperial power’. Thus, arrival of modern nation-states following de-colonization spearheaded the transition of colonial states under the British Empire into different political systems and patterns in South Asia. The nation-welding process, to stabilize socio-economic and political conditions, following protracted struggle for independence was thought to become a lynchpin between pre- and post- independent periods.