Lost in Translation: The Case of Muslim Minorities in India and Myanmar

This study examines the rise of religious nationalism in a two-case historical analysis of India and Myanmar. Sharing similar historical and cultural ties, each country’s regime and institutional framework influence the lives of the Muslim minority population. India’s backsliding democracy and Myanmar’s dubious democracy under military rule target religious diversity under the hands of Hindu and Buddhist nationalists. At the institutional level, religious nationalists’ broader efforts to persecute Muslims, burn identification cards to deem them as ‘illegal’, and discriminate against cultural and religious norms give rise to and motivate political actors to define national goals at the expense of religious minorities. India and Myanmar’s trends in pre- and post-colonial legacies, shifts in regime and institutional frameworks, religious nationalism, electoral incentives, and manipulation of civic engagement determine the current role of Muslim minorities. This research aims to show how religious freedom under different regimes can diverge under institutional frameworks, and in the case of India and Myanmar, cause political instability.