This book reconceptualises the idea of communalism in independent India. It locates the changing contours of politics and religion in the country from the colonial times to the present day, and makes an important intervention in understanding the relationship between communalism and communal violence. It evaluates the role of state, media, civil societies, political parties, and other actors in the process as well as ideas such as secularism, nationalism, minority rights and democracy. Using new conceptual tools and an interdisciplinary approach, the work challenges the conventional understanding of communalism as time and context independent. This second edition includes a Foreword by Romila Thapar and an Afterword by Dipesh Chakrabarty, along with a new Introduction which revaluate the trajectory of communal politics in contemporary India, and question how secularism has come to be understood today. This topical volume will be useful to scholars and researchers in South Asian politics, political science, history, sociology and social anthropology, as well as the interested general reader.

Modern Indian studies have recently become a site for new, creative, and thought-provoking debates extending over a broad canvas of crucial issues. As a result of socio-political transformations, certain concepts—such as ahimsa, caste, darshan, and race—have taken on different meanings. Bringing together ideas, issues, and debates salient to modern Indian studies, this volume charts the social, cultural, political, and economic processes at work in the Indian subcontinent. Authored by internationally recognized experts, this volume comprises over one hundred individual entries on concepts central to their respective fields of specialization, highlighting crucial issues and debates in a lucid and concise manner. Each concept is accompanied by a critical analysis of its trajectory and a succinct discussion of its significance in the academic arena as well as in the public sphere. Enhancing the shared framework of understanding about the Indian subcontinent, Key Concepts in Modern Indian Studies will provide the reader with insights into vital debates about the region, underscoring the compelling issues emanating from colonialism and postcolonialism.

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Taking as its premise the belief that communalism is not a resurgence of tradition but is instead an inherently modern phenomenon, as well as a product of the fundamental agencies and ideas of modernity, and that globalization is neither a unique nor unprecedented process, this book addresses the question of whether globalization has amplified or muted processes of communalism. It does so through exploring the concurrent histories of communalism and globalization in four South Asian contexts - India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka - as well as in various diasporic locations, from the nineteenth century to the present. Including contributions by some of the most notable scholars working on communalism in South Asia and its diaspora as well as by some challenging new voices, the book encompasses both different disciplinary and theoretical perspectives. It looks at a range of methodologies in an effort to stimulate new debates on the relationship between communalism and globalization, and is a useful contribution to studies on South Asia and Asian History.

The book examines the postcolonial Muslim political discourse through monuments. It establishes a link between the process by which historic buildings become monuments and the gradual transformation of these historic/legal entities into political objects. The author studies the multiple interpretations of Indo-Islamic historical buildings as ‘political sites’ as well as emerging Muslim religiosities and the internal configurations of Muslim politics in India. He also looks at the modes by which a memory of a royal Muslim past is articulated for political mobilisation. Raising critical questions such as whether Muslim responses to political questions are homogenous, the book will greatly interest researchers and students of political science, modern Indian history, sociology, as well as the general reader interested in contemporary India.

An interdisciplinary and engaging book which looks at the nature of Indian society since Independence and unpacks what post-colonialism means to Indian citizens. Using the case study of the Doon School, a famous boarding school for boys, and one of the leading educational institutions in India, the author argues that to be post-colonial in India is to be modern, rational, secular and urban. In placing post-colonialism in this concrete social context, and analysing how it is constructed, the author renders a complex and often rather abstract subject accessible.

The neighboring north Indian districts of Jaipur and Ajmer are identical in language, geography, and religious and caste demography. But when the famous Babri Mosque in Ayodhya was destroyed in 1992, Jaipur burned while Ajmer remained peaceful; when the state clashed over low-caste affirmative action quotas in 2008, Ajmer's residents rioted while Jaipur's citizens stayed calm. What explains these divergent patterns of ethnic conflict across multiethnic states? Using archival research and elite interviews in five case studies spanning north, south, and east India, as well as a quantitative analysis of 589 districts, Ajay Verghese shows that the legacies of British colonialism drive contemporary conflict. Because India served as a model for British colonial expansion into parts of Africa and Southeast Asia, this project links Indian ethnic conflict to violent outcomes across an array of multiethnic states, including cases as diverse as Nigeria and Malaysia. The Colonial Origins of Ethnic Violence in India makes important contributions to the study of Indian politics, ethnicity, conflict, and historical legacies.