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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.
List of contents
Foreword. Preface. Introduction to the Second Edition. Introduction
1. Reflections on Secularism and Communalism in Constituent Assembly Debates and Beyond
2. Institutional Communalism in India
3. The Philosophy of Number
4. Tracing the Trajectory of Communalism and Communal Violence in India
5. The Diaspora Community
6. Gandhi and Religious Fanaticism
7. Communal Violence in India: Ending Impunity
8. Conflict and Attrition in the North-east: Identity, Impunity and Inequality
9. Role of Intellectuals and Hindu-Muslim Divide
10. Indian Christians: History and Contemporary Challenges
11. Politics of Anti-Christian Violence in Kandhamal, 2008
12. United Progressive Alliance (I) and India's Muslims: Redefining Equality of Opportunity?
Afterword. Bibliography
About the author
Mujibur Rehman teaches at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India. He has received graduate research training at the University of Texas, USA; the University of Heidelberg, Germany; and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), New Delhi. He wrote his doctoral dissertation on Politics of India's Economic Reform (1991/92-2004). He has edited
Rise of Saffron Power: Reflections on Indian Politics (2018). He is presently working on two book projects on Indian Muslims, and on the politics of anti-Christian violence in India.
Summary
This book reconceptualises the idea of communalism in independent India. Using conceptual tools and an interdisciplinary approach, it challenges the conventional understanding of communalism as time and context independent. The second edition includes a Foreword by Romila Thapar and an Afterword by Dipesh Chakraba
