Hindu-Muslim Conflict Research Articles

Hindu-Muslim Conflict in India: Causes, Consequences & Resolution

Hindu-Muslim Conflict in India: Causes, Consequences & Resolution

INDIA: CONFLICT WITH MINORITIES IN THE CONVENTIONAL POLITICAL SYSTEM. THE STATUS OF MUSLIMS

Hindu-Muslim conflict and riots in India are enduring intergroup conflicts in south Asia, destabilizing the region for a long time. Despite having federal democracy and secular nationalism in the political system of India, the state and its various technology of power take sides with religious groups abetting the persecution of minority Muslims as religious or ethnic groups. Among the various ethnic groups and communities living in India, Muslims are among the most deprived communities in contemporary times. In the issue of minority conflict, a permanent solution in the federal system of government has become a dream. This paper analyses India’s divergent political systems and state ideology and its failure and success in respective cases to counter communal and ethnic violence. We argue that, rather than focusing on the weakness of the existing political systems of India, the common failure to adequate power sharing can better explain these conflicts and successive persecution of minority Muslims. Keywords: Minority, Conflict, India, Political System, Muslim, Community.

Pilgrimage Space, Hinduization of Space, Hindutva Politics of Space, and the Case of Ayodhyā as a Religious and Religiopolitical Hotspot

Abstract In this article I analyze aspects of religious geography in the mobilization by Hindu nationalists in India in the 1980s and 1990s and how Hindu nationalism and Hindu religious geography were merged in the case of the Ayodhyā conflict. Ayodhyā was consciously changed from a pilgrimage center (tīrtha) of diminishing religious importance into a religiopolitical hotspot by political forces. The potential for a Hindu–Muslim conflict and for mobilizing support for their vision of a Hinduized India was probably what made the place attractive for Hindu nationalists. The article argues that Hindu nationalism exploited the views of territoriality of traditions of pilgrimage and salvific space and merged these with their political nationalist agenda, and that it was this blending of views of space from the pilgrimage traditions, ideas of national territory, and Hindu nationalists’ ideas of a homogeneous Hindu nation with aggressive political agitation that turned Ayodhyā into a religiopolitical hotspot.

Братство перед лицом Единого Бога: М.К. Ганди о путях преодоления межрелигиозных разногласий. Ганди М.К. Бог Един. Пер. с англ. и коммент. Е.А. Битинайте

The monotheistic idea is represented in the article as religious-philosophical base of nonviolent worldview. Belief in One God can help us to avoid and resolve any (not only religious) conflicts, but only providing that: 1) we considerate all reli­gions as equal paths leading to one spiritual goal; 2) we regard God as some power which connects the whole world, but not as someone beyond the universe who only rules it. Essentially that means two things: understanding that any claim of some religious community to possession of ultimate truth is failure and affirming at the same time the value of general spiritual kinship. These two no­tions make for us clear that intolerance and enmity are senseless. Noted above complex of ideas was analyzed on the example of M.K. Gandhi’s religious-philosophical thought which was foundation of his peacekeeping activity. The Indian thinker expresses his ideal of unity in diversity with the “tree of religions” metaphor. He depicts different faiths as branches of one spiritual root. He shows that all religions express divine truth in their original deepness in equal measure and at the same time all they are imperfect on the exoteric, i.e. cultural level. This way he proves absurdity of fanatic assurance in superiority of one faith over the others. He sees the method of overcoming religious conflicts in people’s un­derstanding of their kinship with God which helps them to realize their kinship with each of His creation. These ideas were foundation of Gandhi’s numerous callings to stop Hindu-Muslim conflict which darkened the last period of his life. The illustration is his short article “God is One” (25.09.1924). The Russian translation of this text is presented to the readers.

The authoritarian practice of issuing internet shutdowns in India: the Bharatiya Janata Party’s direct and indirect responsibility

ABSTRACT This article examines India’s troubling rise in internet shutdowns. Focusing on internet shutdowns issued outside of the conflict-prone region of Jammu and Kashmir, the article asks two essential questions: One, who issues the shutdowns in India? And two, why are they issued? Using qualitative fieldwork conducted in two Indian states, and quantitative data analysis of recorded internet shutdowns across the country, the article argues that (1) rather than a centrally coordinated, top-down campaign from the central government, India’s 28 state governments are largely responsible for the issuing of shutdowns, and (2) the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is both directly and indirectly responsible for many of India’s shutdowns. BJP-run state governments issue more shutdowns than non-BJP states, primarily to suppress protest (the direct responsibility), while the party’s polarizing rhetoric and policies, coupled with the BJP-built limited regulatory framework governing the issuance of shutdowns, contribute to an environment in which the shutdowns can thrive (the indirect responsibility). Confirming these arguments, my quantitative analyses (2012–2020) reveal that districts in BJP-ruled states experience significantly more internet shutdowns (primarily in response to protests), while Hindu-Muslim conflict triggers internet shutdowns all across the country.

Hindu-Muslim relations in Kashmir: A critical evaluation

India was under British colonial rule for a good number of years with her plural ethno-religious background and identity, which was to become the basis of an unending conflict. Several pre-colonial and post-colonial conditioning antecedents have been marshalled to buttress the premise leading to the conclusion that the British colonial era laid the time bomb along ethno-religious contours which exploded in 1947 thereby giving rise to the balkanisation of India into two separate states, that is India and Pakistan. Two major religious groups that is Hindus and Muslims became the gladiators in India’s partition. The Kashmir region of India, a town of religious confluence, has a history of conflicts that is perceived by different people as politico-religious and socio-economic. This article focuses on religion as a core tenet of every cultural worldview and its significance to both Hindus and Muslims, and how it has become the progressively vital central marker of identity and a smouldering keg of gun powder for conflict in Kashmir. Furthermore, this article contends that religion plays a key role in the conflict between Hindus and Muslims in Kashmir because of its significance and influence on both religions. India that is known as a mother to various religions cannot relegate the primary role of religion in their political and socio-economic affairs. Therefore, it is right to acknowledge politico-religious and socio-economic factors in the Hindu–Muslim conflict in the state of Kashmir. And, it will not be wrong to affirm that religion plays a key role in the conflict between Hindus and Muslims in Kashmir. Contribution: The article is a contribution in religious issues in India. It reveals how political power and sociopolitical antecedents are mostly recognised by religious scholars and historians as the reason for the fracas between Hindus and Muslims. It explains the influence and implication of religion in the Hindu-Muslim relations in Kashmir region.

Archival ethnography and ethnography of archiving: Towards an anthropology of riot inquiry commission reports in postcolonial India

ABSTRACT This paper examines the challenges and possibilities of combining archival and ethnographic methods in the field of ‘communal’ violence studies in India. Drawing insights from debates among historians and anthropologists on the multifarious interactions between archives and ethnography and reflecting on the empirical case of persistent violence between Muslims and Christians in southern India, it argues for a creative synthesis of these two modes of inquiry for an adequate understanding of ‘communal’ violence and riot inquiry commissions in India. First, the paper critiques how colonial and postcolonial Indian archival reports problematically inscribe violence between any religious communities (such as Muslims and Christians) in the same narrative as the predominant case of Hindu-Muslim conflict. Second, it illuminates how archival ethnography can be an effective way of studying violence between religious communities and thus transcend conventional disciplinary boundaries. Finally, the paper introduces a nuanced approach, called ‘ethnography of archiving’, to detail the judicial and nonjudicial discourses and bureaucratic manoeuvring involved in the creation of an archival report, thereby unravelling the power relations, mediating processes, manipulations and bureaucratic performances that make commission reports problematic even today.

Does conflict begin at home?—using family dynamics to understand The Hindu-Muslim conflict in British India; 1907–1947

ABSTRACT Despite common use of the term ‘sibling-rivalry’ for Hindu-Muslim conflict in British India, there are few or no attempts to explain this phenomenon from a proper theoretical foci. By employing an indigenous interpersonal conflict model, this article seeks to examine Hindu-Muslim conflict in the pre-partition period. This draws on the dynamics of intimate rivalry among family members to explain Hindu-Muslim conflict dynamics from a fresh psycho-cultural perspective. The institution of joint-family is the most pervasive and the most influential institution in the subcontinent shaping certain views regarding the functioning of other institutions in society; including in the political sphere. People use the concrete knowledge learned inside their families to reason about more abstract phenomena such as group conflict. Therefore, the conflict dynamics associated with the family institution are extrapolated onto intergroup conflicts.

Plight of Daksha: Identity Crisis and Communal Violence in Final Solutions

Mahesh Dattani is one among India’s avant garde dramatists. He worked as an actor, director, playwright, dancer and screenplay writer. He is one of the most serious contemporary playwrights writing in English. He is a master of language. He can express what he wants to say in any language. Throughout his dramas, he acts like a spokesman for all the marginalized people. His popular play ‘Final Solutions’ deals with the theme of communal hatred and violence. Exploring the issues of religion, hindu-muslim conflict, gender bias, generation thinking gap, Dattani seems to show the inner conflict inside each character in Play. Among all these characters, we sympathizes with Hardika the most. Her dear ‘Diary’ makes the things clear and we learn that she has witnessed this communal hatred for long time.

Politics or prejudice? Explaining individual-level hostilities in India’s Hindu–Muslim conflict

ABSTRACT Multiple explanations have been proposed for what drives India’s Hindu–Muslim conflict. Harnessing novel approaches to data acquisition and analysis, this paper uses insights from an electronic survey with 1,414 respondents to test three prominent theories of why individuals promote conflict with out-groups. The results show that security concerns for the future are strong predictors for a hostile stance and approval of violence. Experiences of violence in the past do not seem to systematically perpetuate hostility. Personal experiences with out-groups strongly correlate with hostile sentiments. These results hold across model specifications, post-stratified estimation based on census data, and a benchmark relying on Finite Mixture Models.

The Politics of Race, Nationhood and Hindu Nationalism

The discussion on Hindu-Muslim conflict in India has revolved around religious or ethno-nationalist explanations. Employing the Gujarat riots of 2002 as a case study, I argue that dominant (Hindu) nationalism is linked to the ideas of “race” and has its roots in Brahminical notions of Aryanism and colonial racism. The categories of “foreign, hypermasculine, terrorist Other” widely prevalent in the characterisation of the Muslim Other, are not necessarily produced due to religious differences. Instead, social and cultural cleavages propagated by Hindu nationalists have their origins in race theory that accommodates purity, lineage, classification and hierarchy as part of the democratic discourses that pervade the modern nation-state. It focuses on how the state and non-state actors create discursive silences and normalise violence against minority communities by embodying emotions of fear, hate and anger among its participants to protect Hindu nationalism.

SAFETY FIRST: THE SECURITY OF BRITONS IN INDIA, 1946–1947

ABSTRACTA month into his viceroyalty, Lord Mountbatten took time out from sounding Indian political opinion about independence to discuss the future security of British residents with his provincial governors. By this stage, the concerns stemmed from fears of a general breakdown in law and order and Hindu–Muslim conflict rather than nationalist assault. Detailed plans were developed for a sea-borne evacuation. In the event, the only Britons who were evacuated were those airlifted from Srinagar in November 1947 as they were in the path of an invasion of the disputed Kashmir territory by Pakhtun tribesmen from Pakistan. Despite numerous articles on the British departure from India and the aftermath of Partition, little has been written about either the airlift or the broader strategic planning for European evacuation. The paper will focus on this neglected corner of the history of the transfer of power. It argues that while anti-British sentiment declined from a peak around the time of the Indian National Army trials, of 1945–6, the memories of the wartime chaotic flight from Burma and Malaya and the irreparable damage this had done to British prestige in Asia coloured the safety first approach adopted in 1947.

Partition-Migration in Bengal: Political Schism and Regional-Cultural Divide

A colossal influx of Hindus from East Bengal (EB) to West Bengal (WB) was evidenced as a consequence of communal riots and partition-migration during 1946-1947. In WB alone, an estimated 3 million uprooted EB Hindus became 'refugee-migrants' (coerced to flee their homeland and eventually settled as migrants). Initially, the EB Hindus were struggling to resettle in Kolkata and its vicinities. However, their resettlement effort was partially dented by the inimical attitude of the WB Hindus for economic reason. Socio-cultural issues further exacerbated the cleavage between the locals and the settlers. These factors resulted in a new phase of regional communal categorisation between the EB and WB Hindus against the conventional Hindu-Muslim conflict. Subsequently, regional differences and sense of exclusion were reflected in their attitudes of retaining own family values, marriage practices and distinct cultural identities. This paper attempts to analyse the EB Hindus' tendency of maintaining typical family norms and continuity of their cultural traits amidst the WB local culture in Kolkata. A theoretical discussion will be carried out on symbolic construction of community and social exclusion and variance.

Muslims in Nepal: The Local and Global Dimensions of a Changing Religious Minority

AbstractThe study of South Asian Islam has expanded in recent decades to include communities and traditions on the margins of the political, cultural and religious centers of South Asia. However, only a small body of scholarship yet exists on the topic of Islam and Muslims in Nepal. In this Hindu majority country, the Muslim population is one of diversity and growing national visibility, and it is increasingly looking toward the global umma. This essay provides an overview of the history of Islam in Nepal and Nepal’s Muslim population, followed by a brief review of recent changes in Nepal’s religious and political identity that have created unprecedented opportunities and responsibilities for its minorities, including Muslims. It then reviews the main areas of inquiry undertaken by the few studies on Muslims in Nepal, particularly Muslim identity, Hindu–Muslim conflict, and Islamic revivalism. This is followed by a discussion of contemporary Muslim organizations in Nepal. The essay concludes with thoughts on directions for future research in this rich, but underexplored, area.

How are they othered? Globalisation, identity and violence in an Indian city

The literature on conflict claims that there has been a resurgence of ethnic conflict in the era of globalisation. This paper attempts to investigate how local conflict may be influenced by processes of globalisation. The paper argues that in order to understand how globalisation may be implicated in local violent events, it is essential to develop a nuanced understanding of the complexities of global–local interaction in places. This paper also hopes to contribute to the analytical potency of identity‐oriented explanations of conflict by explicating how identity construction has an overt spatial dimension – it is simultaneously place based and global, and how this global–local identity construction simultaneously produces socioeconomic and socio‐cultural strategies of ‘othering’ that define the complexion of contemporary conflicts. Using interviews from a case study of Hindu–Muslim conflict which happened in 2002 in Ahmedabad city, India, this paper explicates how locally embedded global narratives socioeconomically and socio‐culturally produce the ‘other.’

Violent morphologies: Landscape, border and scale in Ahmedabad conflict

Conflicts produce violence through death, confinement, torture, and control of spaces of everyday life. This paper investigates how spatial morphologies, like landscapes, borders and scales, are re-ordered and re-imagined to materialize violence. A Hindu–Muslim conflict in the globalizing city of Ahmedabad, India in 2002 is used as a case study. The conflict unfolded in a dying industrial city, now being re-envisioned through neoliberal urban entrepreneurialism into a ‘global city’. During and after the riots, the majority Hindu community, and the local Hindu fundamentalist government, annihilated the life spaces of the minority Muslim community. Through a combination of Hindu rioting and urban renewal, landscapes were destroyed, new spaces produced, borders re-imagined, and new ones imprinted on the landscape, to segregate previously co-existing communities. Local government and Hindu ideologues creatively juxtaposed neoliberal economic polices, global discourses of Islamophobia, local ethnocentrism to alter the spatial morphologies of Ahmedabad. Justice entails the democratization of space by altering the violent morphologies of Ahmedabad.

Gandhi, secularism and social capital in modern India

The partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947 was witness to Hindu Muslim conflict at its peak. In the 1990s, ethnic conflict was used by right wing ideologues to change the fabric of secular India. Using interview data and within a social representational framework the study demonstrates the processes whereby out-groups/in-groups are formed. Further, it is argued that religious tolerance as envisaged in Gandhian philosophy, needs to be an integral part of the debate on role of religion in the public sphere.

Social conflict and the neoliberal city: a case of Hindu–Muslim violence in India

In an era of globalisation the ‘global’ is very much implicated in the ‘local’. Local events like conflicts therefore need to be understood in the context of the dynamics of globalisation. This paper argues that neoliberal globalisation undergoes a thorough grounding in accordance with the pre‐existing socio‐cultural and economic specificities of places, which impact upon inter‐community alienation and conflict. Using four case studies from a Hindu–Muslim conflict in a neoliberalising city, Ahmedabad, India, this paper illustrates how open market policies are implicated in local industrial restructuring and urban renewal that simultaneously utilise place‐specific ethnocentrism to exclude and fragment the poor.

Conflict management in the Indian subcontinent: The dimensions of Hindu-Muslim conflict

The Indo-Pak-Bangladesh subcontinent presents a particularly challenging case for the study and development of appropriate models of conflict management for those who want to promote durable peace and stability in the volatile Indian sub-continent where both India and Pakistan house nuclear arms. In this article, I will provide a brief outline of some of the dimensions of the present communal and regional conflict, and will highlight selected and salient features of a model for conflict management as located within a human rights framework.

Method in the madness: A social justice manifesto for conflict analysis

Conflicts are complex, violent events. Justice becomes problematic when conflict research hesitates to identify oppressors. Such hesitation is due to an epistemological relativity that over-emphasizes situationality, preventing the researcher from taking sides with the oppressed. Over-emphasizing situationality often produces case-study oriented research that fails to go beyond case-specific micro causalities. I argue that heterogeneous micro events are often connected by macro phenomena that must be discerned for the sake of social justice. Using examples from a case of Hindu-Muslim conflict in India, I argue for a methodology that takes the side of the oppressed and links the specificity of this cultural conflict with neoliberal globalization.