LAHORE: (Friday, December 8, 2023): Punjab University Pakistan Study Centre has organized a seminar on ''Politics of Crisis and Development: Contemporary Struggle for Identity in India”. David Karnail Singh, a scholar from France, Director PSC Prof Dr Naumana Kiran, Associate Professor Dr Amjad Abbas Magsi, Dr Ahmad Ajaz, faculty members and students were present on this occasion. In her address, Dr Naumana Kiran said that the centre offers a course on Evolution of Muslim Nationalism in colonial India and analyzed Muslim struggle for identity in colonial India. She said that although the theme of discussion dealt with the contemporary struggle for identity in India, she hoped it would be of great interest to know and analyze the colonial context of identity-formation with the developments taking place in this regard in contemporary India. In his keynote address, Dr Karnail Singh talked about politics of crisis and development in India’s border region of Kutch. He said that Congress government started anti-Muslim bias since early years after independence to control the region; however, after 2001 earthquake Muslims and Dalits were gradually excluded from development move of the region. He said that the rise of industrial development has further marginalized Muslims of Kutch. He also shed light on the other aspect of the discussion was the one-year long movement of the farmers of Punjab, which started in 2020 and proved to be the most large-scale social movement in India in current times. He said that this movement and many other small-scale movements which had been initiated in 21st century India are the result of neo-liberalism and Hindu-Nationalism / extremism of the current regime. Although caste-identity had remained active during farmers’ movement, Dalits, mazdoors and the Muslims had equally participated in it until its success, he added. Dr Singh concluded while adding that marginalized sections of society are reacting to extremist Hindu-identity of the state and approach of Modi and that in case of crisis, like during farmers’ movement, plural identity prevails only.