scholarly journals Love Jihad and the Governance of Gender and Intimacy in Hindu Nationalist Statecraft

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 1068 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth Bo Nielsen ◽  
Alf Gunvald Nilsen

What role does the Islamophobic theory of “love jihad” play in the politics of Hindu nationalist statecraft—the legal codification of Hindu nationalist ideology—in India today? In this article, we address this question through a critical analysis of how the idea of “love jihad” relate to both (a) a conservative politics of governing gender and intimacy in which women are constituted as subjects of protection and (b) an authoritarian populism grounded in a foundational opposition between true Indians and their anti-national enemies within. The article begins by exploring how “love jihad” has transformed from an idea that was used to legitimize extra-legal violence by Hindu nationalist vigilantes to the status of law, with a particular focus on the BJP-ruled state of Uttar Pradesh. We then situate the “love jihad” laws in relation to a regime of gender governance that constitutes women as subjects of protection - and specifically protection by state and nation—and discuss how this resonates with a pervasive patriarchal common sense in Indian society. Finally, we show how “love jihad” laws and the wider conservative politics of gender and intimacy within which it is embedded feeds into the authoritarian politics of the Modi regime, in which Muslims are consistently portrayed as enemies of the Indian nation, and reflect on what this entails for the country’s secular political order.

2020 ◽  
Vol 69 (3) ◽  
pp. 402-413
Author(s):  
Amites Mukhopadhyay

Yogendra Singh, the sociologist and the Professor emeritus of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) passed away in May this year. Professor Singh’s demise is not only a loss to the sociology fraternity, but also to the scholarship on and more importantly, to the tradition of critical studies in India. The article remembers Yogendra Singh and reflects on his career as a teacher, an academic and institution builder. Yogendra Singh was not simply a professor of JNU, but he collaborated with his colleagues in the late sixties in making possible the school of social sciences of JNU. The paper remembers him as a fine human being careful with his words and committed to the society he made the subject of his study. His sociology taught him to be critical about his ascriptive ancestry. In spite of being born in a zamindar family in Uttar Pradesh, Singh made caste, hierarchy and privileges an object of his critical analysis. The paper looks at Professor Singh’s contribution to different domains of sociology and Indian society, particularly modernizing India, Indian tradition, caste, class and hierarchies. He is also remembered for his works on historical roots of Indian sociology and institutions of science and critical learning.


2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
V. S. CHAUHAN ◽  
BHANUMATI SINGH ◽  
SHREE GANESH ◽  
JAMSHED ZAIDI

Studies on air pollution in large cities of India showed that ambient air pollution concentrations are at such levels where serious health effects are possible. This paper presents overview on the status of air quality index (AQI) of Jhansi city by using multivariate statistical techniques. This base line data can help governmental and non-governmental organizations for the management of air pollution.


Author(s):  
Nimer Sultany

This chapter argues that revolution is not separate from the very discourse and arrangements it responds to. Rather, it is subsumed in a legitimation discourse, and it is engulfed by similar tensions. Although revolution may erupt because of a perceived legitimacy deficit, it does not solve the conceptual deficiency of legitimacy. This is because revolution vacillates between an event that inaugurated it and a process that seeks to complete it. This duality makes revolution a contradictory concept that includes its own negation because different protagonists deploy it in contradictory ways. The very qualities that enable the designation of the Arab Spring as a revolution enable the counter-revolution. In other words, revolution does not provide a stable, unambiguous framework within which the new political order can be established. Consequently, the revolution’s attempt to delegitimate the status quo and legitimate the new order re-enacts the incoherence and instability of other legitimation devices.


1987 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 235-264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas O. Hueglin

AbstractA general perception of crisis at the end of the postwar period of growth has spawned two types of theoretical response: while a conservative theory of overload focusses on ungovernability caused by postmaterialist value change, radical analysis points to the structural contradictions of the welfare and intervention state. This article suggests that the current crisis is characterized by postmaterialist persistenceandstructural contradictions under the conditions of economic constraint. It examines polarization and potential mobilization of fragmented postindustrial societies in the context of neo-conservative politics, and it suggests a regime of economic dualism and/or corporatism as the most likely outcome.


2021 ◽  
pp. 2455328X2110281
Author(s):  
Priti Chandra

The identity of women cannot be seen in isolation but one that exists along with other constituents that intersects with class, race, sexuality and caste also. Being a woman, a person is already at periphery, adding caste to it makes more vulnerable. Thus, Dalit women are more subjugated in Indian society whether it is about leading a normal life or availing reproductive health services. This study primarily draws from a Dalit feminist perspective to understand the subjectivity and nuisances of the Dalit women who avail reproductive health services. While availing reproductive health services, the sort of discrimination the Dalit women face are denial in providing reproductive health services, creating and observing distance with the Dalit women by the health practitioners, and also promotion of privatization of healthcare services. The study is based on qualitative research design basically, participant observation, in which the total 27 married women were selected for the in-depth interview, among them 16 women were from the Dalit community and 9 women were from the so-called upper caste community. This research was conducted from February to April 2015 in Mau district of Eastern Uttar Pradesh, India.


2021 ◽  
Vol 58 (4) ◽  
pp. 77-94
Author(s):  
Alexey Z. Chernyak ◽  

The idea that knowledge as an individual mental attitude with certain propositional content is not only true justified belief but a belief the truth of which does not result from any kind of luck, is widely spread in contemporary epistemology. This account is known as anti-luck epistemology. A very popular explanation of the inconsistency of that concept of knowledge with the luck-dependent nature of truth (so called veritic luck taking place when a subject’s belief could not be true if not by mere coincidence) presumes that the status of propositional knowledge crucially depends on the qualities of actions that result in the corresponding belief, or processes backing them, which reflect the socalled intellectual virtues mainly responsible for subject’s relevant competences. This account known as Virtue Epistemology presumes that if a belief is true exclusively or mainly due to its dependence on intellectual virtues, it just cannot be true by luck, hence no place for lucky knowledge. But this thesis is hard to prove given the existence of true virtuous beliefs which could nevertheless be false if not for some lucky (for the knower) accident. This led to an appearance of virtue epistemological theories aimed specifically at an assimilation of such cases. Their authors try to represent the relevant situations as such where the contribution of luck is not crucial whereas the contribution of virtues is crucial. This article provides a critical analysis of the corresponding arguments as part of a more general study of the ability of Virtue Epistemology to provide justification for the thesis of incompatibility of propositional knowledge with veritic luck. It is shown that there are good reasons to doubt that Virtue Epistemology can do this.


Author(s):  
A. A. Kutsenkov ◽  

In general, modernization in India follows the general laws of the formation transition: Individualism builds up pressure on collectivism in all areas of society, while the process of individualization of the individual intensifies. However, the dualism of structure-forming ties in Indian society leaves its mark on said process. Neither individualism, nor collectivism can prevail. There is a dynamic balance: Individualization of the individual occurs within the framework of collectivism, but for how long can this go on? Everything depends on the resource of collectivism, which is far from exhausted. In the study the author captures the reader’s attention on three points. First: the radicalism of modernizing transformations must correlate with the degree of society’s readiness (otherwise, even the most “progressive” reforms can be rejected by society). Second: of multiple modernization options, democratic is the most important for the destinies of the country and people, nationwide (it provides the least painful path of development, it is accompanied by the expansion of human rights and freedoms, and it helps to improve the lives of ordinary people. And the third: the importance of the personality type for the historical development of society requires a steady increase in the status of a person. Therefore, human rights movements, which are considered marginal in some countries, should be recognized as the most important system-forming factor in social progress. The legal base and the real scope of human rights, the tasks of human rights movements are becoming important indicators of the maturity of the country’s civil society in the depth of modernization.


Author(s):  
Abdul Latef bin Alhadri ◽  
Muhamad Rozaimi bin Ramle

The introduction of Quranic and Fardhu Ain courses (Kelas Al-Quran dan Fardhu Ain (KAFA) by the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (Jabatan Kemajuan Islam Malaysia (JAKIM) is an effort to produce a generation that is moulded by the teachings of Al-Quran and Al-Sunnah. However, there are specific ḥadīths quoted in the textbook that require further attentive verification. This study seeks to verify the status of the ḥadīth mentioned in the ‘Aqīdah textbook in the eyes of the Ahlussunnah Wal Jama’ah scholars. This is because ‘Aqīda his the most important subject in Islamic studies.This research is a qualitative research which uses data analysis method, where allthe data and information obtained will be analysed using descriptive method. The method of takhrijal-ḥādīth will be applied to verify the status of the ḥadīths. This study reveals that there are six ḥadīths mentioned in the ‘Aqīdah textbook and the status of 3 of them are problematic. The origin of one of these ḥadīths isunknown while two of them are not properly narrated. This study also suggests the establishment of a committee or panel that is comprised of ḥadīth scholars/experts from the local universities in order to makesureall ḥādīths mentioned in the textbooks would adhere to the prescribed standards.


Author(s):  
S. I. Kaspe

In the 1990s, after the collapse of the USSR, was established the Russian polity, which continues to exist to this day. In this paper polity is understood as a macro-social community, united by a certain political order i.e., by a stable set of institutions and actors, as well as normative standards for organizing their interactions, both formal and informal. Establishment is understood as a series of events that establish these most fundamental frameworks for political action, as well as a repertoire of its scenarios, behavioral stereotypes, strategies, and tactics. The negative myth about the nineties, which has dominated the Russian public discourse in the recent years, describes the 1990s as a time of catastrophe and degradation. It certainly has its reasons, but this myth almost completely ignores the fact that the same decade was also a time of creation. Thus, the current state of Russia cannot be understood without paying attention to the circumstances of its establishment. The article describes some of the key features of the modern Russian polity that emerged in the 1990s — the “main takeaway” of the constituent era. They are the following: the electoral legitimacy of the supreme political power; non-partisan presidency; capitalism as the economic foundation of the political order; federalism as a principle of territorial organization of political space; freedom of association; freedom of religion; open borders. This list is not exhaustive: there are other elements of the design of the Russian polity that can claim the status of constitutive ones. However, a radical change in all these institutions together or in any one of them individually would mean another re-establishment of the political community as a whole.


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