Religion and Conflict in Modern South AsiaThis is one of the first single-author comparisons of different South Asian states around the theme of religious conflict. Based on new research and syntheses of the literature on 'communalism', it argues that religious conflict in this region in the modern period was never simply based on sectarian or theological differences or the clash of civilizations. Instead, the book proposes that the connection between religious radicalism and everyday violence relates to the actual (and perceived) weaknesses of political and state structures. For some, religious and ethnic mobilisation has provided a means of protest, where representative institutions failed. For others, it became a method of dealing with an uncertain political and economic future. For many it has no concrete or deliberate function, but has effectively upheld social stability, paternalism and local power, in the face of globalisation and the growing aspirations of the region's most underprivileged citizens. |
Contents
1 | |
Building Spheres of Community 1860s1910s | 30 |
Transforming Spheres of Community The PostFirst World War Colonial World | 80 |
Defining Spheres of Community Society Religious Mobilisation and Anticolonialism | 119 |
State Transformation Democracy and Conflict High Politics and the Everyday in the 1940s | 163 |
Forging National Consensus and Containing Pluralism South Asian States between 1947 and 1967 | 195 |
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agendas argued Arya Samaj associated attempts Bangladesh Bengal British broader Cambridge caste census centre changes chapter community mobilisation conflict Congress context critique cultural Dalit debates Delhi dominance early economic elections electoral elites ethnic everyday example explore factional forms Gandhi groups Gyanendra Pandey high-caste Hindi Hindu community Hindu Mahasabha Hindu Nationalism Hindu right Hindu–Muslim Hinduism historians idea ideologies important importantly Indian National Indian politics institutions interests interwar period involved Islamic language late colonial period leaders levels low-caste LTTE middle-class minority Modern Asian Studies movements Muslim League nationalist Nehru north India organisations Oxford University Press Pakistan particular parties political mobilisation Political Weekly promotion Provinces Punjab reform regime regional religion religious community religious identity representation represented riots Sabha Sangh Parivar sectarian secular significant Sikh Sinhalese social society South Asia specific Sri Lanka Tamil tion traditions urban Uttar Pradesh violence women