The Production of Hindu-Muslim Violence in Contemporary India

The Production of Hindu-Muslim Violence in Contemporary India
Author: Paul R. Brass
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Total Pages: 501
Release: 2011-05-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0295800607

Chronic Hindu-Muslim rioting in India has created a situation in which communal violence is both so normal and so varied in its manifestations that it would seem to defy effective analysis. Paul R. Brass, one of the world’s preeminent experts on South Asia, has tracked more than half a century’s riots in the north Indian city of Aligarh. This book is the culmination of a lifetime’s thinking about the dynamics of institutionalized intergroup violence in northern India, covering the last three decades of British rule as well as the entire post-Independence history of Aligarh. Brass exposes the mechanisms by which endemic communal violence is deliberately provoked and sustained. He convincingly implicates the police, criminal elements, members of Aligarh’s business community, and many of its leading political actors in the continuous effort to “produce” communal violence. Much like a theatrical production, specific roles are played, with phases for rehearsal, staging, and interpretation. In this way, riots become key historical markers in the struggle for political, economic, and social dominance of one community over another. In the course of demonstrating how riots have been produced in Aligarh, Brass offers a compelling argument for abandoning or refining a number of widely held views about the supposed causes of communal violence, not just in India but throughout the rest of the world. An important addition to the literature on Indian and South Asian politics, this book is also an invaluable contribution to our understanding of the interplay of nationalism, ethnicity, religion, and collective violence, wherever it occurs.

The Production of Hindu-Muslim Violence in Contemporary India

The Production of Hindu-Muslim Violence in Contemporary India
Author: Paul R. Brass
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Total Pages: 504
Release: 2003
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780295985060

Chronic Hindu-Muslim rioting in India has created a situation in which communal violence is both so normal and so varied in its manifestations that it would seem to defy effective analysis. In this volume, Paul R. Brass, one of the world’s preeminent experts on South Asia, reports the results of an immense scholarly undertaking: his tracking of more than half a century’s riots in the north Indian city of Aligarh, where he has conducted extraordinary research for the past thirty-eight years.

The Production of Hindu-Muslim Violence in Contemporary India

The Production of Hindu-Muslim Violence in Contemporary India
Author: Paul R. Brass
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Total Pages: 508
Release: 2003
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780295982588

This book is the culmination of a lifetime's thinking about the dynamics of institutionalized intergroup violence in northern India, covering the last three decades of British rule as well as the entire post-independence history of Aligarh."--BOOK JACKET.

Hindu Nationalism in India and the Politics of Fear

Hindu Nationalism in India and the Politics of Fear
Author: D. Anand
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 153
Release: 2016-04-30
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0230339549

The representation of the Muslims as threatening to India's body politic is central to the Hindu nationalist project of organizing a political movement and normalizing anti-minority violence. Adopting a critical ethnographic approach, this book identifies the poetics and politics of fear and violence engendered within Hindu nationalism.

Keeping the Peace

Keeping the Peace
Author: Raheel Dhattiwala
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 212
Release: 2019-05-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 1108497594

Investigates geographic variation in Hindu-Muslim violence in Gujarat in 2002 critically examining the logic of political violence.

Forms of Collective Violence

Forms of Collective Violence
Author: Paul R. Brass
Publisher:
Total Pages: 214
Release: 2006
Genre: History
ISBN:

These essays focus on the various forms of collective violence that have occurred in India during the past six decades, which include riots, pogroms, and genocide. It is argued that these various forms of violence must be understood not as spontaneous outbreaks of passion, but as productions by organized groups. Moreover, it is also evident that government and its agents do not always act to control violence, but often engage in or permit gratuitous acts of violence against particular groups under the cover of the imperative of restoring order, peace, and tranquility. This has certainly been the case in numerous incidents of collective violence in India where curfew restrictions have been used for just such purposes. In this context, secularism constitutes a countervailing practice, and a set of values that are essential to maintain balance in a plural society where the organization of intergroup violence is endemic, persistent, and deadly.

Riots and Pogroms

Riots and Pogroms
Author: Paul R. Brass
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 274
Release: 2016-07-27
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1349248673

Riots and Pogroms presents comparative studies of riots and pogroms in the twentieth century in Russia, Germany, Israel, India, and the United States, with a comparative, historical, and analytical introduction by the editor. The focus of the book is on the interpretive process which follows after the occurrence of riots and pogroms, rather than on the search for their causes. The concern of the editor and contributors is with the struggle for control over the meaning of riotous events, for the right to represent them properly.

Ethnic Groups and the State

Ethnic Groups and the State
Author: Paul R. Brass
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2023-02-28
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1000844897

First published in 1985, Ethnic Groups and the State examines the effects of the state, its official ideologies, its structural forms and its specific policies upon the formation of ethnic identity. It is argued that the formation of ethnic identity is viewed as a process that involves three sets of struggles. One takes place within the ethnic group itself for control over its material and symbolic resources. The second takes place between ethnic groups, as a competition for rights, privileges, and available resources. The third takes place between the state and the groups that dominate it on the one hand and the population that inhabits its territory on the other. This issue is viewed both from a historical and contemporary political standpoint, and the impact of ethnic issues in a wide range of cultures is assessed. This book will be of interest to students of history, sociology, political science and ethnic studies.

Riot Politics

Riot Politics
Author: Ward Berenschot
Publisher:
Total Pages: 252
Release: 2013-02
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9788129123756

"This is a study of communal violence in India that looks at a range of actors, including criminals, politicians, local leaders, police officers and Hindu-nationalist activists. It is an ethnography revealing the links between violence and political mediation."--Publisher's description.