Communal and caste conflict: secularism, Hindu nationalism, and the Indian state

2015 ◽  
pp. 228-266 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul R. Brass
Keyword(s):  
Hindu Nationalism ◽  
Indian State ◽  
Caste Conflict

Congress Radicals and Hindu Militancy: Sampurnanand and Purushottam Das Tandon in the Politics of the United Provinces, 1930–1947

2002 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 619-655 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Gould
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
North India ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Hindu Nationalism ◽  
Indian Nationalism ◽  
Indian State ◽  
National Congress ◽  
The Right ◽  
Sangh Parivar ◽  
The Relationship

A recent trend in the historiography of north India has involved analyses of ‘Hindu nationalist’ motifs and ideologies within both mainstream nationalist discourses and subaltern politics. A dense corpus of work has attempted to provide historical explanations for the rise of Hindutva in the subcontinent, and a great deal of debate has surrounded the implications of this development for the fate of secularism in India. Some of this research has examined the wider implications of Hindutva for the Indian state, democracy and civil society and in the process has highlighted, to some degree, the relationship between Hindu nationalism and ‘mainstream’ Indian nationalism. Necessarily, this has involved discussion of the ways in which the Congress, as the predominant vehicle of ‘secular nationalism’ in India, has attempted to contest or accommodate the forces of Hindu nationalist revival and Hindutva. By far the most interesting and illuminating aspect of this research has been the suggestion that Hindu nationalism, operating as an ideology, has manifested itself not only in the institutions of the right-wing Sangh Parivar but has been accommodated, often paradoxically, within political parties and civil institutions hitherto associated with the forces of secularism. An investigation of this phenomenon opens up new possibilities for research into the nature of Hindu nationalism itself, and presents new questions about the ambivalent place of religious politics in institutions such as the Indian National Congress.

Pogrom in Gujarat

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Parvis Ghassem-Fachandi
Keyword(s):  
Collective Violence ◽  
Hindu Nationalism ◽  
Railway Station ◽  
Middle Classes ◽  
Class Differences ◽  
Bharatiya Janata Party ◽  
Muslim Minority ◽  
Indian State ◽  
Intimate Knowledge ◽  
Original Interpretation

In 2002, after an altercation between Muslim vendors and Hindu travelers at a railway station in the Indian state of Gujarat, fifty-nine Hindu pilgrims were burned to death. The ruling nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party blamed Gujarat's entire Muslim minority for the tragedy and incited fellow Hindus to exact revenge. The resulting violence left more than one thousand people dead—most of them Muslims—and tens of thousands more displaced from their homes. The author witnessed the bloodshed up close. This book provides a riveting ethnographic account of collective violence in which the doctrine of ahimsa—or nonviolence—and the closely associated practices of vegetarianism became implicated by legitimating what they formally disavow. The book looks at how newspapers, movies, and other media helped to fuel the pogrom. It shows how the vegetarian sensibilities of Hindus and the language of sacrifice were manipulated to provoke disgust against Muslims and mobilize the aspiring middle classes across caste and class differences in the name of Hindu nationalism. Drawing on his intimate knowledge of Gujarat's culture and politics and the close ties he shared with some of the pogrom's sympathizers, the book offers a strikingly original interpretation of the different ways in which Hindu proponents of ahimsa became complicit in the very violence they claimed to renounce.

scholarly journals Populism and Precarity in Contemporary Indian Dystopian Fiction: Nayantara Sahgal’s When the Moon Shines by Day and Prayaag Akbar’s Leila

2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 214-232
Author(s):  
Dolores Herrero
Keyword(s):  
Hindu Nationalism ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Dystopian Fiction ◽  
The Social ◽  
Indian Nationalism ◽  
The World ◽  
Indian State ◽  
As If

Although dystopia has been an enduring trope in literature, it is now, however, that dystopian and apocalyptic fiction has become especially popular all over the world. The main aim of this article is to discuss how contemporary Indian fiction denounces the barbarity of contemporary Indian nationalism, in particular the policies enforced by a repressive Indian state where tradition and purity are valued above multiculturality, dialogue and equality. In order to do this, I focus on two internationally acclaimed novels, namely, NayantaraSahgal’s When the Moon Shines by Day (2017) and Prayaag Akbar’s Leila (2018). In different but complementary ways, both dystopias draw a telling portrait of precarious times in contemporary India. Both novels also warn against the dangers of the fundamentalist version of Hindu nationalism and cultural censorship, at the same time as they bring to our attention the damage that a dominant minority can inflict on those situated at the bottom of the social ladder, who are thus condemned to live in inhuman conditions, as if they were less than nothing.

The necropolitics of neoliberal state response to the Covid-19 pandemic in India

Organization ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 135050842110201
Author(s):  
Srinath Jagannathan ◽  
Rajnish Rai
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Indian Population ◽  
Job Security ◽  
The State ◽  
Hindu Nationalism ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
State Response ◽  
Indian State ◽  
Public Health Institutions ◽  
Health Institutions

We draw from the experience of the Covid-19 pandemic in India to outline that the neoliberal consolidation of the state is enabled by precariousness, violence, and inequality in overlapping planes of marginality. The pandemic showed the abysmal state of public health institutions in India as people experienced an erosion of dignity in both life and death. The harsh and sudden lockdown announced by the Indian state rendered workers jobless, hungry, exhausted, and on the borders of death. Instead of providing social security to workers, the state embarked on a neoliberal agenda of deregulation, weakening job security, and collective bargaining legislation. The state enacted a violent discourse of Hindu nationalism to blame Muslims for the spread of the pandemic in India to deflect attention from its abdication of responsibility in making healthcare and social security available to vulnerable segments of the Indian population. The neoliberal policy response of the state during the pandemic was embedded in the necropolitics of protecting the middle class and elite lives while directing structural violence against the working class and Muslims, making their lives disposable.

scholarly journals Misrecognition and the Indian state: the desire for sovereign agency

2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (5) ◽  
pp. 902-921 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catarina Kinnvall ◽  
Ted Svensson
Keyword(s):  
State Level ◽  
Hindu Nationalism ◽  
Group Cohesiveness ◽  
Individual Group ◽  
The Unconscious ◽  
Political Subject ◽  
Indian Context ◽  
Indian State ◽  
The Many ◽  
The Individual

AbstractA focus on misrecognition allows us to move between levels of analysis in a holistic fashion. If misrecognition works through the conscious and the unconscious we can account for the many overlapping insecurities and securities believed to exist at the individual, group, or state level – and thus felt. These insecurities also present themselves through the categories used to describe them and the policies through which they become materialised, technologised, and depoliticised, often by closing down discursive boundaries. Lacan’s concepts of desire, real and lack are here important for understanding the impossibility of recognising something that cannot be recognised. Hence, a perspective that takes misrecognition not as an end result or as failed attempts to reformulate the exceptional as the normal, has the potential to rethink the political subject. In empirical terms, the article discusses how this process of misrecognition has been shaped in the Indian context of postcolonial state formation and articulations of sovereignty. We show how the Indian state is being rethought, restructured, and reimagined through Hindu nationalism and how the concept of misrecognition accounts for desires for sovereign agency and group cohesiveness, but also for resistance to various reimaginations of the Indian state.

Dynamics of One-Party Dominance in an Indian State

Asian Survey ◽  
1968 ◽  
Vol 8 (7) ◽  
pp. 553-575 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramashray Roy
Keyword(s):  
Indian State ◽  
Party Dominance

The Crisis of the Indian State: From Quiet Developmentalism to Noisy Democracy

Asian Survey ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 30 (8) ◽  
pp. 809-819 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahendra Prasad Singh
Keyword(s):  
Indian State

Past Verses Present; Metamorphosis in Different Spheres of Guwahati: A Study of Srutimala Duara’s Mindprints of Guwahati

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
Ankita Pandey
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
Areca Nut ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
River Bank ◽  
North East India ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
Indian State ◽  
The City ◽  
Beautiful City

Guwahati derives its name from the Assamese word “Guwa” means areca nut and “Haat” means market. However, the modern Guwahati had been known as the ancient Pragjyotishpura and was the capital of Assam under the Kamrupa kingdom. A beautiful city Guwahati is situated on the south bank of the river Bramhaputra. Moreover, It is known as the largest city in the Indian state of Assam and also the largest metropolis in North East India. It has also its importance as the gateway to the North- East India. Assamese and English are the spoken languages in Guwahati.  In 1667, the Mogul forces were defeated in the battle by the Ahom forces commanded by Lachut Barphukan. Thus, in a sense Guwahati became the bone of contention among the Ahoms, Kochas and the Moguls during the medieval period.  Guwahati the administrative headquarters of Lower Assam with a viceroy or Barbhukan was made by the Ahom king.  Since 1972 it has been the capital of Assam. The present paper will discuss the changes happened in Guwahati over the period of late 1970s till the present time. It will focus on the behavior of people, transformed temples, Panbazar of the city, river bank of Bramhaputra, old Fancy Bazaar, chaotic ways, festivals and seasons including a fifth man made season etc. It will also deal how over the years a city endowed with nature’s gifts and scenic views, has been changing as “a dirty city”. Furthermore, it will also present the insurgencies that have barged into the city. The occurrence of changes will be discussed through the perspective and point of view of Srutimala Duara as presented in her book Mindprints of Guwahati.

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