Introduction

The Routledge Handbook of Punjab Studies offers a comprehensive introduction to the field of Punjab studies. Chapters cover the history, politics, economics, culture, religion and society as well as the Punjab diaspora, and the Handbook is structured into six parts:

• Punjab, Partition and Beyond
• Economic Development: Labour, Resources and Challenges
• Political Contestations and Movements
• Cultural Repositioning: Language, Literature and the Arts
• Religion, Caste and Gender
• Diasporic Dilemmas

Topics explored include migration, memory, anti-colonialism, industrialisation, federalism, river water disputes, agriculture, ecology, communism, conflict, militancy, counter-insurgency, poetry, cinema, plays, music, theology, sexuality, inequality, tribal marginalisation, multiculturalism, diasporic homeland connections and gender-based violence.

Providing an interdisciplinary analysis by a set of international contributors, this Handbook will be an indispensable resource for researchers and students in the field of South Asian studies in general and Sikh and Punjab studies in particular.