In the Hindutva Laboratory: Pogroms and Politics in Gujarat, 2002

Howard Spodek

51 citations0/0 files storedModern Asian Studies

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South Asian Studies and Diaspora South Asian Studies and Conflicts Indian Economic and Social Development

Abstract

Abstract Communal violence wracked the state of Gujarat and the city of Ahmedabad once again in 2002, leaving some 2,000 people dead. Because the ruling BJP party had proclaimed Gujarat the ‘Laboratory of Hindutva’, analysts throughout India saw the violence as BJP policy and debated its possible spillover effects elsewhere. This paper finds that in a period already marked by stressful economic and cultural change and attended by political uncertainty, some BJP leaders gambled that an attack on Gujarat's Muslims, and on the rule of law in general, would attract followers and voters. Their gamble proved correct at least in the short run. This paper examines the cultural, social, geographical and educational restructuring that is occurring, through legal and illegal struggles, and the impact of the violence upon these processes. It examines the declining status of Muslims as a result of continuous propaganda against them. It analyzes the degree to which the state was damaged as a result of the decision for violence and asks about the degree to which leaders do, or do not, wish to ‘put it behind them’, and suggests that Ahmedabad's problems are widely shared in both the developing and developed worlds.

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References

2002Ethnic conflict and civic life: Hindus and Muslims in India 2004Ethnic Conflict and Civic Life. Hindus and Muslims in India 2004Votes and Violence 2006Votes and violence electoral competition and ethnic riots in India 2004Votes and Violence: List of Figures 2004Votes and Violence: List of Tables 1998Creating a Nationality: The Ramjanmabhumi Movement and Fear of the Self 2004The history of history: politics and scholarship in modern India

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