![]() Hindu-Nationalism and Violence Across IndiaWard Berenschot VIOLENT CONJUNCTURES IN DEMOCRATIC INDIA By Amrita Basu 2015, Cambridge University Press, Delhi, 2015, pp. 334, $94.99 VOLUME XL NUMBER 10 October 2016 Why are some parts of India more prone to Hindu-Muslim
violence than others? That is the question that
Amrita Basu takes up in her
engaging, insightful yet not fully convincing book Violent Conjunctures in
Democratic India. Why have States like Gujarat or UP seen so much violence,
while Kerala or Andhra Pradesh experienced much less Hindu-Muslim strife—despite
having almost similarly sized Muslim populations? This puzzle is quickly
becoming a ‘classic’ in the study of Indian politics, as scholars such as
Ashutosh Varshney, Steven Wilkinson and Paul Brass have also sunk their teeth
in it. Their answers have been varied: Varshney attributes relative
peacefulness to the existence of a strong civil society connecting religious
communities, Wilkinson focuses on electoral incentives and argues that violence
is unlikely where the ruling party depends on Muslim votes, while Brass
attributes violence to the existence of local networks—he calls them
‘institutionalised riot systems’—that derive benefit from the violence. The
answer that Basu develops in her book is closest to Brass’s, while also
differing in a number of important respects.
Amrita Basu, a professor of political science at Amherst College,
relates India’s communal violence to the evolution of India’s Hindu-Nationalist
(HN) movement. Using her decades long experience in studying Indian politics to
examine the patterns of violence in UP, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and
Rajasthan, Basu argues that extensive violence is most likely when an
‘alignment of forces’ takes place. She argues that violence can occur when the
BJP has achieved power in the State while maintaining close ties with both
Hindu-nationalist organizations (such as VHP, RSS and Bajrang Dal) as well as
the national government. In doing so, she puts the spotlight on the role of
social movements and civil society (in casu: Hindu nationalist organizations)
in fostering violence. To make this argument, Basu offers illuminating and
well-researched chapters on the political history of these selected Indian
states. These comparative chapters are by themselves highly recommended reading
for anybody wishing to read up on regional political histories. By providing
these histories, Basu aims to show that when communal violence occurs, the BJP
is in power and benefits from its close links with other Hindu nationalist
organizations, who play no small role in getting the violence going. Gujarat
seems exhibit A for this argument: former RSS pracharak Modi was in
power when in 2002 the incident in Godhra brought a dark coalition ... Table of Contents >> |