In search of citizens in Citizennagar: The politics of contingent citizenship among the survivors of 2002 Gujarat riots in India

<p>This thesis attempts to look at the question of Muslim citizenship in the aftermath of Hindu-Muslim violence in India. With the advance march of Hindu nationalism in India, when media and academic studies increasingly identify Muslims as second-class citizens, very little work has been done...

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Main Author: Hossain, MA
Other Authors: Sud, N
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: 2019
Subjects:
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author Hossain, MA
author2 Sud, N
author_facet Sud, N
Hossain, MA
author_sort Hossain, MA
collection OXFORD
description <p>This thesis attempts to look at the question of Muslim citizenship in the aftermath of Hindu-Muslim violence in India. With the advance march of Hindu nationalism in India, when media and academic studies increasingly identify Muslims as second-class citizens, very little work has been done to show what this second-class citizenship actually looks on the ground. In my work, I go beyond the legal understanding of formal citizenship, or membership of a nation and look at the quality of substantial citizenship, understood through lived experiences of Muslims in India. Though we have considerable literature on the causal effects of these riots, or the role of Hindu nationalism in such violence and scholarly work on the questions of justice and reconciliation for the Muslim survivors, we know very little about how these riots influence their experience and expectations of citizenship. There is also lack of work on the lives of women survivors of these riots, in my thesis whose path to recovery and quest for citizenship is different than Muslim men.</p> <p>Drawing on sixteen months of fieldwork among the survivors of the 2002 Gujarat riots who live in the outskirts of the Ahmedabad city, I ask how the politics of contingent citizenship can be situated in the aftermath of Hindu-Muslim conflict in India. I explore the notion of contingent citizenship in my work through the situated analysis of the lives of Muslim survivors in the aftermath of 2002 violence. In this process, I find that the political subjectivity as a citizen is contingent upon negotiations with multiple actors, local specificities and position within fuzzy social dynamics. As working with conflict survivors require attention to complex ethical issues, I used novel methodological approaches such as activist anthropology. In this process, my thesis provides rooted analysis that challenges both the present and the past on the question of Muslim citizenship in India.</p>
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spelling oxford-uuid:5c25029f-d649-403d-a10a-e68fe8b2f1752023-12-12T16:17:55ZIn search of citizens in Citizennagar: The politics of contingent citizenship among the survivors of 2002 Gujarat riots in IndiaThesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06uuid:5c25029f-d649-403d-a10a-e68fe8b2f175Anthropology of CitizenshipGender studiesPolitical TheoryMuslim studiesPolitical AnthropologyEnglishHyrax Deposit2019Hossain, MASud, N<p>This thesis attempts to look at the question of Muslim citizenship in the aftermath of Hindu-Muslim violence in India. With the advance march of Hindu nationalism in India, when media and academic studies increasingly identify Muslims as second-class citizens, very little work has been done to show what this second-class citizenship actually looks on the ground. In my work, I go beyond the legal understanding of formal citizenship, or membership of a nation and look at the quality of substantial citizenship, understood through lived experiences of Muslims in India. Though we have considerable literature on the causal effects of these riots, or the role of Hindu nationalism in such violence and scholarly work on the questions of justice and reconciliation for the Muslim survivors, we know very little about how these riots influence their experience and expectations of citizenship. There is also lack of work on the lives of women survivors of these riots, in my thesis whose path to recovery and quest for citizenship is different than Muslim men.</p> <p>Drawing on sixteen months of fieldwork among the survivors of the 2002 Gujarat riots who live in the outskirts of the Ahmedabad city, I ask how the politics of contingent citizenship can be situated in the aftermath of Hindu-Muslim conflict in India. I explore the notion of contingent citizenship in my work through the situated analysis of the lives of Muslim survivors in the aftermath of 2002 violence. In this process, I find that the political subjectivity as a citizen is contingent upon negotiations with multiple actors, local specificities and position within fuzzy social dynamics. As working with conflict survivors require attention to complex ethical issues, I used novel methodological approaches such as activist anthropology. In this process, my thesis provides rooted analysis that challenges both the present and the past on the question of Muslim citizenship in India.</p>
spellingShingle Anthropology of Citizenship
Gender studies
Political Theory
Muslim studies
Political Anthropology
Hossain, MA
In search of citizens in Citizennagar: The politics of contingent citizenship among the survivors of 2002 Gujarat riots in India
title In search of citizens in Citizennagar: The politics of contingent citizenship among the survivors of 2002 Gujarat riots in India
title_full In search of citizens in Citizennagar: The politics of contingent citizenship among the survivors of 2002 Gujarat riots in India
title_fullStr In search of citizens in Citizennagar: The politics of contingent citizenship among the survivors of 2002 Gujarat riots in India
title_full_unstemmed In search of citizens in Citizennagar: The politics of contingent citizenship among the survivors of 2002 Gujarat riots in India
title_short In search of citizens in Citizennagar: The politics of contingent citizenship among the survivors of 2002 Gujarat riots in India
title_sort in search of citizens in citizennagar the politics of contingent citizenship among the survivors of 2002 gujarat riots in india
topic Anthropology of Citizenship
Gender studies
Political Theory
Muslim studies
Political Anthropology
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