A Narrative of Communal Politics
A Narrative of Communal Politics

Author: Salil Misra

Publisher: SAGE Publications Pvt. Limited

Published: 2001-05

Total Pages: 372

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The promulgation of the Government of India Act of 1935 not only reinforced the phenomenon of separate electorates on the basis of religion but led to a dramatic change in the nature of communalism in the Indian subcontinent. This is the story of how the different political forces in Uttar Pradesh the Congress, the Muslim League, the landlords and the Hindu Mahasabha responded to the new context, and how they strove to establish control over the available political space. This seminal work is a significant departure from other studies of the period, in that it addresses communalism as an independent force, acutely conscious of its interests and very keen on preserving itself, and not allied to either the Congress or the British.

Anatomy of a Confrontation
Anatomy of a Confrontation

Author: Sarvepalli Gopal

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Published: 1993

Total Pages: 248

ISBN-13: 9781856490504

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

With the rise of the Hindu fundamentalist BJP as a significant electoral force nationwide, Indian politics are in the process of a major shift in character. Not only is the shaky hold of Congress on power threatened by this dynamic party with its overt appeal to religious chauvinism, but the secular nature of the Indian state and delicate balance of relations between diverse religious communities are at stake. The eminent scholars who have collaborated in this book examine both the flash point issue of the mosque at Ayodha (demolished by militant Hindus), as well as the deeper causes - historic and contemporary - underlying rising communal tension in India today/ This book constitutes a profound but accessible re-examination of many basic features of Indian society and politics.

Communal Luxury
Communal Luxury

Author: Kristin Ross

Publisher: Verso Books

Published: 2016-11-22

Total Pages: 161

ISBN-13: 1784780545

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Reclaiming the legacy of the Paris Commune for the twenty-first century Kristin Ross’s highly acclaimed work on the thought and culture of the Communard uprising of 1871 resonates with the motivations and actions of contemporary protest, which has found its most powerful expression in the reclamation of public space. Today’s concerns—internationalism, education, the future of labor, the status of art, and ecological theory and practice—frame and inform her carefully researched restaging of the words and actions of individual Communards. This original analysis of an event and its centrifugal effects brings to life the workers in Paris who became revolutionaries, the significance they attributed to their struggle, and the elaboration and continuation of their thought in the encounters that transpired between the insurrection’s survivors and supporters like Marx, Kropotkin, and William Morris. The Paris Commune was a laboratory of political invention, important simply and above all for, as Marx reminds us, its own “working existence.” Communal Luxury allows readers to revisit the intricate workings of an extraordinary experiment.

A Revolutionary History of Interwar India
A Revolutionary History of Interwar India

Author: Kama Maclean

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 2016-03-01

Total Pages: 327

ISBN-13: 9385890859

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Focusing on the Hindustan Socialist Republican Army (HSRA), A Revolutionary History . . . delivers a fresh perspective on the ambitions, ideologies and practices of this influential organization formed by Chandrashekhar Azad and Bhagat Singh, and inspired by transnational anti-imperial dissent. It is a new interpretation of the activities and political impact of the north Indian revolutionaries who advocated the use of political violence against the British. Kama Maclean contends that the actions of these revolutionaries had a direct impact on Congress politics and tested its policy of non-violence. In doing so she draws on visual culture studies, demonstrating the efficacy of imagery in constructing—as opposed to merely illustrating—historical narratives. Maclean analyses visual evidence alongside recently declassified government files, memoirs and interviews to elaborate on the complex relationships between the Congress and the HSRA, which were far less antagonistic than is frequently imagined.

Contested Conversions to Islam
Contested Conversions to Islam

Author: Tijana Krstic

Publisher: Stanford University Press

Published: 2011-05-13

Total Pages: 281

ISBN-13: 0804773173

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book explores the role of conversion to Islam in the emergence of the Ottoman Empire, its imperial ideology and Sunni identity, and its relationship with its Muslim and non-Muslim subjects, in the context of the early modern Mediterranean.

Changing Homelands
Changing Homelands

Author: Neeti Nair

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2011-04-01

Total Pages: 356

ISBN-13: 0674061152

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Changing Homelands offers a startling new perspective on what was and was not politically possible in late colonial India. In this highly readable account of the partition in the Punjab, Neeti Nair rejects the idea that essential differences between the Hindu and Muslim communities made political settlement impossible. Far from being an inevitable solution, the idea of partition was a very late, stunning surprise to the majority of Hindus in the region. In tracing the political and social history of the Punjab from the early years of the twentieth century, Nair overturns the entrenched view that Muslims were responsible for the partition of India. Some powerful Punjabi Hindus also preferred partition and contributed to its adoption. Almost no one, however, foresaw the deaths and devastation that would follow in its wake. Though much has been written on the politics of the Muslim and Sikh communities in the Punjab, Nair is the first historian to focus on the Hindu minority, both before and long after the divide of 1947. She engages with politics in post-Partition India by drawing from oral histories that reveal the complex relationship between memory and history—a relationship that continues to inform politics between India and Pakistan.

Contesting Buddhist Narratives
Contesting Buddhist Narratives

Author: Matthew J. Walton

Publisher:

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 65

ISBN-13: 9780866382533

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Myanmar's transition to democracy has been marred by violence between Buddhists and Muslims. While the violence originally broke out between Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims, it subsequently emerged throughout the country, impacting Buddhists and Muslims of many ethnic backgrounds. This article offers background on these so-called "communal conflicts" and the rise and evolution of Buddhist nationalist groups led by monks that have spearheaded anti-Muslim campaigns. The authors describe how current monastic political mobilization can be understood as an extension of past monastic activism, and is rooted in traditional understandings of the monastic community's responsibility to defend the religion, respond to community needs, and guide political decision-makers. The authors propose a counter-argument rooted in Theravada Buddhism to address the underlying anxieties motivating Buddhist nationalists while directing them toward peaceful actions promoting coexistence. Additionally, given that these conflicts derive from wider political, economic, and social dilemmas, the authors offer a prescription of complementary policy initiatives.--Résumé de l'éditeur.

Narratives, Politics, and the Public Sphere
Narratives, Politics, and the Public Sphere

Author: Agnes S.M. Ku

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-08-16

Total Pages: 425

ISBN-13: 0429836775

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Published in 1999, the book invites readers to rethink about the contemporary form of politics in terms of the cultural and narrative logics of public discourse. The author proposes that the notions of 'public' and 'narrative' are central to understanding the discursive formation of public opinion. Incorporating a reformulated conception of the public into a theory of narrative progression, Dr. Ku explains (1) the interaction between narrative construction and political conflicts in politics of public credibility and (2) the progressive or narrative formation of the force of the ’public’ out of the struggle as well as its power over the positioning and re-positioning of the actors. Using the method of textual interpretation of newspaper discourses, she analyzes the interplay between politics and the 'public' by delving into the continuously changing narrative contexts wherein the controversy over governor Patten’s reform proposals unfolded in Hong Kong between 1992 and 1994.

Everyday Communalism
Everyday Communalism

Author: Sudha Pai

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2018

Total Pages: 348

ISBN-13: 9780199466290

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

With the demolition of the Babri Masjid and subsequent riots of the late 1980s and 1990s in Uttar Pradesh, the period that followed appeared relatively peaceful. Only at the turn of the century, India witnessed a strong wave of communalism in early 2000s. After the Godhra riots of Gujarat in 2002, Uttar Pradesh saw a series of them--in Mau in 2005, Lucknow in 2006, Gorakhpur in 2007, and Muzaffarnagar in 2013--announcing the return of fundamentalism in the Bharatiya Janta Party's core agenda of Hindutva politics. Everyday Communalism not only attempts to explore the anatomy of a Hindu-Muslim riot and its aftermath, but also examines the inner workings that enable deep-seated polarization between communities. Pai and Kumar show that frequent, low-intensity communal clashes pegged on routine everyday issues and resources help establish a permanent anti-Muslim prejudice among Hindus legitimizing majoritarian rule in the eyes of an increasingly polarized, intolerant, and entitled majority community of Hindus. Uttar Pradesh's rising cultural aspirations; economic anxieties to move away from its traditionally backward status; a deep caste-marked agrarian crisis; and sharp inequalities and acute poverty further play into the making a new post-Ayodhya phase of Hindutva politics.

Ethnic Conflict and Civic Life
Ethnic Conflict and Civic Life

Author: Ashutosh Varshney

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2008-10-01

Total Pages: 516

ISBN-13: 0300127944

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

What kinds of civic ties between different ethnic communities can contain, or even prevent, ethnic violence? This book draws on new research on Hindu-Muslim conflict in India to address this important question. Ashutosh Varshney examines three pairs of Indian cities—one city in each pair with a history of communal violence, the other with a history of relative communal harmony—to discern why violence between Hindus and Muslims occurs in some situations but not others. His findings will be of strong interest to scholars, politicians, and policymakers of South Asia, but the implications of his study have theoretical and practical relevance for a broad range of multiethnic societies in other areas of the world as well. The book focuses on the networks of civic engagement that bring Hindu and Muslim urban communities together. Strong associational forms of civic engagement, such as integrated business organizations, trade unions, political parties, and professional associations, are able to control outbreaks of ethnic violence, Varshney shows. Vigorous and communally integrated associational life can serve as an agent of peace by restraining those, including powerful politicians, who would polarize Hindus and Muslims along communal lines.