Overview

On February 27, 2002, a train coach caught fire just outside a railway station in Gujarat, killing fifty-eight people. The incident initiated one of the worst outbreaks of Hindu-Muslim violence since India's independence. As mobs of Hindus thronged the streets of Gujarat's cities and villages, local and state-level politicians made inflammatory speeches and distributed weapons for revenge, excusing the police from their responsibility to protect citizens from harm. In the end, the bloodshed claimed the lives of more than two thousand people. Based on an extensive ethnographic study of Gujarat's local politics, this volume introduces a novel approach to comprehending the processes fostering communal violence. Ward Berenschot argues that the difficulties faced by Indians, especially the poor, in dealing with state institutions enable political actors to incite communal violence with ease. Guiding readers through Gujarat's shadowy local politics, Berenschot details the capacities of various rioters, from local criminals and Hindu-nationalist activists to neighborhood leaders, politicians, and the police, and their ability to organize and perpetrate violence. Specifically, he explains how different official positions allow some individuals to exploit patronage networks supplying access to state resources.

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<p>Outbursts of communal violence in India are often portrayed as aberrations, as moments of collective madness interrupting a lively liberal democracy. Nobody can maintain that position after having read Ward Berenschot's meticulously researched and robustly argued study of local politics and violence in Gujarat. Berenschot demonstrates that organizing, preparing, and imagining communal violence--real or potential--is endemic to the way democracy, identity, and political power function at the level of neighborhoods and streets in India's economic powerhouse. A must-read for anyone interested in the political sociology of violence.--Thomas Blom Hansen, Stanford University

<p>Outbursts of communal violence in India are often portrayed as aberrations, as moments of collective madness interrupting a lively liberal democracy. Nobody can maintain that position after having read Ward Berenschot's meticulously researched and robustly argued study of local politics and violence in Gujarat. Berenschot demonstrates that organizing, preparing and imagining communal violence -- real or potential -- is endemic to the way democracy, identity and political power functions at the level of neighborhoods and streets in India's economic powerhouse. A must read for anyone interested in the political sociology of violence.--Thomas Blom Hansen, Professor of Anthropology, Stanford University

The 2002 genocidal violence in Gujarat has remained partly unexplained. Focusing on the city of Ahmedabad, Ward Berenschot's work throws new light on these events, drawing on unique fieldwork emphasizing the role of grassroots leaders. This is a remarkable addition to the literature on communalism in India. -- Christophe Jaffrelot, Senior Research Fellow, Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales, Sciences Po, and author of Religion, Caste, and Politics in India Ward Berenschot provides insight into everyday politics and the state in Gujarat, India. This volume is highly useful for students of Indian politics and society. -- Ghanshyam Shah, National Fellow, Indian Institute of Advanced Study Ward Berenschot explains how the neighborhood-based agents of the commanding party heights tried to segregate individuals on the basis of their religious identity. His excellent study shows that communalism is a political act rather than a state of mind. -- Jan Breman, Amsterdam Institute of Social Science Research Outbursts of communal violence in India are often portrayed as aberrations, as moments of collective madness interrupting a lively liberal democracy. Nobody can maintain that position after having read Ward Berenschot's meticulously researched and robustly argued study of local politics and violence in Gujarat. Berenschot demonstrates that organizing, preparing, and imagining communal violence--real or potential--is endemic to the way democracy, identity, and political power function at the level of neighborhoods and streets in India's economic powerhouse. A must-read for anyone interested in the political sociology of violence. -- Thomas Blom Hansen, Stanford University

Author Information

Ward Berenschot is a political scientist and postdoctoral researcher at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV) in Leiden. His research focuses on identity politics and local democracy in India and Indonesia.

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