Breaking the Wave: Explaining the Emergence of Inter-Ethnic Peace in a City of Historic Hindu-Muslim Violence. Honors Thesis in Political Science, University of Michigan, 2004. (original) (raw)

Why do riots happen here and not there? Communal Violence, Patronage and Civil Society in Gujarat, India Paper prepared for the conference “Rethinking …

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Why does violence erupt in some areas and not in others? The Hindu-Muslim violence that engulfed Gujarat in 2002 did not spread uniformly throughout the state, as a sizable number of towns and villages remained unaffected by the killing, looting and raping that took place. This article takes up the different levels of violence within one city as a clue to understand the local dynamics understanding of how and why Hindu-Muslim riots take place. To understand why violence happens in some places, the argument goes, we should also understand why violence does not happen in other places. Wilkinson (2004) used an extensive database of incidents of riots in independent India to argue that communal violence is more likely in states with a limited number of effective parties, and where the ruling party does not depend on minority votes. In these states ruling politicians would have less incentives to instruct the army and the police to quell disturbances. While

The Spatial Distribution of Riots: Patronage and the Instigation of Communal Violence in Gujarat, India

World Development, 2010

Why does violence erupt in some areas and not in others? The Hindu-Muslim violence that engulfed Gujarat in 2002 did not spread uniformly throughout the state, as a sizable number of towns and villages remained unaffected by the killing, looting, and raping that took place. This article takes up the different levels of violence within one city as a clue to understand the local dynamics that lead to riots. This ethnographic study of events in a violent and a peaceful locality suggests that violence is more likely in neighborhoods where inhabitants gain access to state institutions through patronage networks that derive electoral gains from communal violence.

Communal Violence in India: Perspectives on Causative Factors

Economic and Political Weekly, 2005

The communal carnage in Gujarat led many to re-examine the existing explanations of the various causative factors of religious conflagrations. Paul Brass terms these explications as 'unsatisfactory' and 'mystifying' in his work on Hindu-Muslim violence in contemporary India. Naturalizing accounts of riots have invariably portrayed them as inevitable eruptions of anger and violence between communities divided by deep, incommensurable and often historical differences.

Ethnic Conflict and Civic Life: Hindus and Muslims in India by Ashutosh Varshney

The relationship between Hindus and Muslims in South Asia has been an epicentre of academic and intellectual attention over a long period of time. Varshney in this book gives a descriptive, analytical and comparative picture of the nature, socio-economic and cultural diversities of communal conflicts, which has often culminated in violence and deaths in India. He has critically analysed the local factors limited to particular regions of the vast country which often prevails over explicit issues sweeping across the state and the impacts of cross cutting interests of the Indian polity in which linguistic, or caste empathy surpass religious allegiance.

The Social Dynamics of Communal Violence in India

International Journal of Conflict and Violence, 2009

This article analyses mobilization among Hindu nationalist organizations. Rather than seeking their attraction in their discursive outputs and the possible answers they might give in times of change, the contention is that this is to be sought in the specific internal dynamics and the possibilities they create within their historical context. These specific opportunities for action are inherent firstly in a mode of operation relying on participation and involvement, their direct intervention, localness, and accessibility. The dichotomization inherent in violence makes it possible to integrate different interests and discontents under a single banner and therefore contributes to the project of unification undertaken by Hindu nationalism.