Author: A. Valiani
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230370632
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 476
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Book Description
Offers readers a telling glimpse of the social world in which militants are made, explaining how group physical training and technico-ethical experiments with it have created a powerful religious nationalist movement in Gujarat that has been held responsible for carrying out spectacular episodes of ethnic cleansing against Indian minorities.
Author: Mushirul Hasan
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199087962
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 356
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Book Description
In this book Mushirul Hasan articulates a vision of Islam or rather the many different kinds of Islam, instead of the frightening monolith of popular perception, living in harmony with other faiths, and of Indian Muslims, inheritors of the great Indian civilization, living in a plural society. Engaging with the debates surrounding the society, polity, and history of India's Muslims, and using historical and literary sources, as well as the writings of modern Muslim thinkers like Aziz Ahmad and Mohammad Mujeeb, Hasan traces the development of contemporary ideas about Muslims from the mid-nineteenth century onwards, through British rule and the partition, to the present day. For Hasan, a truly secular reading of Indian history reveals Indian Islam as one that exists in a pluralist milieu.
Author: Thomas Blom Hansen
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400823056
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 300
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Book Description
The rise of strong nationalist and religious movements in postcolonial and newly democratic countries alarms many Western observers. In The Saffron Wave, Thomas Hansen turns our attention to recent events in the world's largest democracy, India. Here he analyzes Indian receptivity to the right-wing Hindu nationalist party and its political wing, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which claims to create a polity based on "ancient" Hindu culture. Rather than interpreting Hindu nationalism as a mainly religious phenomenon, or a strictly political movement, Hansen places the BJP within the context of the larger transformations of democratic governance in India. Hansen demonstrates that democratic transformation has enabled such developments as political mobilization among the lower castes and civil protections for religious minorities. Against this backdrop, the Hindu nationalist movement has successfully articulated the anxieties and desires of the large and amorphous Indian middle class. A form of conservative populism, the movement has attracted not only privileged groups fearing encroachment on their dominant positions but also "plebeian" and impoverished groups seeking recognition around a majoritarian rhetoric of cultural pride, order, and national strength. Combining political theory, ethnographic material, and sensitivity to colonial and postcolonial history, The Saffron Wave offers fresh insights into Indian politics and, by focusing on the links between democracy and ethnic majoritarianism, advances our understanding of democracy in the postcolonial world.
Author: Durba Ghosh
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107186668
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 293
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Book Description
Durba Ghosh uncovers the critical place of revolutionary terrorism in the colonial and postcolonial history of modern India.
Author: Tarini Bedi
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438460325
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 320
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Book Description
Rich in detail, this book tells the stories of women of Shiv Sena (Shivaji's Army), a militant political party in Western India. It provides insight into the political networks powered by lower-level women politicians in postcolonial, globalizing cities and on their margins. Based on more than ten years of in-depth ethnographic fieldwork with the women of Shiv Sena, the work shows how women political activists in urbanizing India conjure political authority through the inventive, dangerous, and transgressive political personas known as "dashing ladies." Tarini Bedi develops a feminist theory of brokerage politics, arguing that political grids where women employ political, symbolic, and material resources through the political system may be seen as channels of what can be termed "political matronage."
Author: Dinsha Mistree
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 0472904655
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 394
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Book Description
As India’s power and prominence rise on the international stage, its longstanding tradition of democracy is under threat. Since establishing a secular and democratic constitution in 1950, India has held elections at the local, state, and national levels with frequent transitions of power between opposing parties. This commitment to democracy has provided political order to a country that is twice the size of Europe and with a stunning array of social and economic divides. Despite this rich tradition, India’s democracy faces an unprecedented threat with the rise of Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist party, the Bharatiya Janata Party. After decisively winning general elections in 2014, Modi and the BJP have pursued a range of anti-democratic policies in which the state and society are used to undermine the opposition, to stifle free speech, and to harass religious minorities. The Troubling State of India’s Democracy brings together leading scholars from around the world to assess the conditions of India’s democracy across three important dimensions: politics, specifically the state of political parties and the party system; the state, including the condition of federalism and the health of various institutions; and society, including NGOs, ethnic and religious tensions, and control of the media. Even though elements of India’s democracy seem to function—like its commitment to elections—the contributors document a disturbing trajectory, one that not only threatens to undermine India’s own stability, but could also affect the global order.
Author: Christophe Jaffrelot
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691247900
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 656
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Book Description
A riveting account of how a popularly elected leader has steered the world's largest democracy toward authoritarianism and intolerance Over the past two decades, thanks to Narendra Modi, Hindu nationalism has been coupled with a form of national-populism that has ensured its success at the polls, first in Gujarat and then in India at large. Modi managed to seduce a substantial number of citizens by promising them development and polarizing the electorate along ethno-religious lines. Both facets of this national-populism found expression in a highly personalized political style as Modi related directly to the voters through all kinds of channels of communication in order to saturate the public space. Drawing on original interviews conducted across India, Christophe Jaffrelot shows how Modi's government has moved India toward a new form of democracy, an ethnic democracy that equates the majoritarian community with the nation and relegates Muslims and Christians to second-class citizens who are harassed by vigilante groups. He discusses how the promotion of Hindu nationalism has resulted in attacks against secularists, intellectuals, universities, and NGOs. Jaffrelot explains how the political system of India has acquired authoritarian features for other reasons, too. Eager to govern not only in New Delhi, but also in the states, the government has centralized power at the expense of federalism and undermined institutions that were part of the checks and balances, including India's Supreme Court. Modi's India is a sobering account of how a once-vibrant democracy can go wrong when a government backed by popular consent suppresses dissent while growing increasingly intolerant of ethnic and religious minorities.
Author: Amrita Basu
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107089638
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 365
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Book Description
This study examines the political sources of violence against religious minorities in India. Focusing on Hindu organizations that have asserted dominance over religious minorities, particularly since the late 1980s, Amrita Basu questions the common assumption that Hindu-Muslim violence is inevitable.
Author: Edward T.G. Anderson
Publisher: Hurst Publishers
ISBN: 1805260898
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 352
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Book Description
Hindu nationalism is transforming India, as an increasingly dominant ideology and political force. But it is also a global phenomenon, with sections of India’s vast diaspora drawn to, or actively supporting, right-wing Hindu nationalism. Indians overseas can be seen as an important, even inextricable, aspect of the movement. This is not a new dynamic—diasporic Hindutva (‘Hindu-ness’) has grown over many decades. This book explores how and why the movement became popular among India’s diaspora from the second half of the twentieth century. It shows that Hindutva ideology, and its plethora of organisations, have a distinctive resonance and way of operating overseas; the movement and its ideas perform significant, particular functions for diaspora communities. With a focus on Britain, Edward T.G. Anderson argues that transnational Hindutva cannot simply be viewed as an export: this phenomenon has evolved and been shaped into an important aspect of diasporic identity, a way for people to connect with their homeland. He also sheds light on the impact of conservative Indian politics on British multiculturalism, migrant politics and relations between various minoritised communities. To fully understand the Hindutva movement in India and identity politics in Britain, we must look at where the two come together.
Author: Sumit Ganguly
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134008090
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 268
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Book Description
Filling a clear gap in the literature, this book focuses on India's experiences waging counterinsurgency campaigns since its independence in 1947. It addresses the pressing military and civilian needs in the counterinsurgency arena by focusing on the lessons that can be learned by other states from India’s extensive endeavours.
