The Politics of Race, Nationhood and Hindu Nationalism

2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 27-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tejaswini Patil

The discussion on Hindu-Muslim conflict in India has revolved around religious or ethno-nationalist explanations. Employing the Gujarat riots of 2002 as a case study, I argue that dominant (Hindu) nationalism is linked to the ideas of “race” and has its roots in Brahminical notions of Aryanism and colonial racism. The categories of “foreign, hypermasculine, terrorist Other” widely prevalent in the characterisation of the Muslim Other, are not necessarily produced due to religious differences. Instead, social and cultural cleavages propagated by Hindu nationalists have their origins in race theory that accommodates purity, lineage, classification and hierarchy as part of the democratic discourses that pervade the modern nation-state. It focuses on how the state and non-state actors create discursive silences and normalise violence against minority communities by embodying emotions of fear, hate and anger among its participants to protect Hindu nationalism.

The Rohingya ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 110-134
Author(s):  
Nasir Uddin

Chapter 5 focuses on the vulnerable conditions of stateless people because the state regulates their everyday lives in various forms, committing severe injustices and producing various inequalities by yielding illegibility in the state structure. The modern nation-state has produced the concept of citizenship rendering some stateless. Since the state of statelessness sanctions that some people do not belong to any state, they cannot claim any rights from any state and therefore easily become subject to injustice, inequality, and discrimination and are even subjected to death. The treatment of stateless people as illegal human bodies and as animals can be termed as ‘bare life’, as Agamben would argue. A life is ‘bare’ because it can be taken by anyone without any legal intercession, as this life does not exist ‘before the law’. This chapter depicts a vivid picture of the Rohingyas, where the state intervenes in their everyday lives amid the reproduction of vulnerabilities in order to reconfirm their statelessness.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 153
Author(s):  
Felix Chukwudi Oparah ◽  
Enya Ndem Bassey ◽  
Ohatu Ekoh Ohatu

This study examined the role of Non State Actors (NSAs) in strengthening the developmental capacity of the state, using a case study of Cross River State, Nigeria. Primary and secondary data on selected constituents of NSAs including Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Privately Owned Companies, Banks, Private Hospitals and Private Schools were analyzed using tables and charts. The results revealed that activities of NSAs significantly enhance the developmental capacity of Cross River State especially in the areas of provision of public services, knowledge and skill acquisition, infrastructural development and employment generation. Besides other recommendations, it was recommended that NSAs and the government should perform complementary roles in enhancing developmental capacity and that the establishment of more NSAs in the rural areas should be encouraged through the provision of special funding and other incentives for NSAs that have their offices in the rural areas.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ayelet Harel-Shalev ◽  
Rebecca Kook

In this article, we examine the special challenges posed by the practice of polygamy to minority women, focusing on the ways that the state and the women confront the related experiences of violence and trauma associated with this practice. Based on analysis of both policy and interviews with women, we demonstrate the tension between the different mechanisms adopted by the state as opposed to those adopted by the women themselves. We suggest that the concept of ontological security is valuable for a deeper understanding of the range of state motivations in cases related to minority women, violence, and the right for protection. Our case study is the Bedouin community in Israel. We explore the relationship between individual and state-level conceptions of violence and trauma and the complex relationship between these two. We examine state discourses of ontological security through a gendered lens, as frameworks of belonging and mechanisms of exclusion.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 28
Author(s):  
Budi Sirait

This article is based on research in Gereja Kristen Indonesia (GKI, Indoensian Christian Chruch) Yasmin Bogor as a case study. It has been years for the community to struggle for gaining permission to legally build the church. Court has decided to allow the community to use the building for religius activities. However, practically, the court's decision cannot be implemented because there was pressure for some parties, including from the local government, to refuse the operation of the church. The study is aimed to identify the dynamics and difficulties of being minority in a nation-state, called Indonesia. This lengthens the list of acts of intolerance and violence on minority within a democratic government, in which majority is still preferred. There is a celar need for changing the mindset of the state and society to resolve conflict based on religious belief, to enable equality in economy, politics and religious life.


2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan Schlanger

AbstractRather than being bashed around in view of its contents, the nation state – or at least the ‘state’ part of this compound term – needs to be cherished for the context it provides. Without the state, instilling regulations, procedures and common purpose, archaeology will not really thrive. This is confirmed through an exemplary case study, namely the seemingly measured and consensual retrenchment of the state occurring in England over the past 25 years. A brief presentation of the structure of English archaeology serves to highlight the situation of each of its main sectors, commercial contractors, curators at local levels and national bodies. Recent changes at the last level, involving English Heritage Trust and Historic England, highlight the risks posed by state disengagement, by funding withdrawal and by the enforced commercialization of public services.


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