Hindu-Muslim violence in Gujarat, 2002: political logic, spatial configuration, and communal cooperation

<p>This thesis uses a mixed methods approach to investigate the different levels of Hindu-Muslim violence in Gujarat (western India) in 2002 when at least a thousand Muslims were killed. An original dataset of killings is compiled to analyse macrospatial variation in the violence across towns...

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Main Author: Dhattiwala, R
Other Authors: Biggs, M
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: 2013
Subjects:
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author Dhattiwala, R
author2 Biggs, M
author_facet Biggs, M
Dhattiwala, R
author_sort Dhattiwala, R
collection OXFORD
description <p>This thesis uses a mixed methods approach to investigate the different levels of Hindu-Muslim violence in Gujarat (western India) in 2002 when at least a thousand Muslims were killed. An original dataset of killings is compiled to analyse macrospatial variation in the violence across towns and rural areas of Gujarat. Data collected from 21 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Ahmedabad city is used to investigate microspatial variation across three neighbourhoods with varying levels of violence.</p><p>Macrospatial analysis discusses the link between political authority and its capacity to instigate ethnic violence as a response to electoral calculations and identifies the mechanisms by which violence against Muslims was orchestrated by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Ethnographic findings demonstrate the importance of ecological strategies adopted by attackers and targets during the course of attack and urge a re-examination of the intuitive association of spatial proximity with greater interethnic contact. Findings also reveal methods of enforcement used by legitimate and illegitimate institutions of a peaceful slum neighbourhood in resolving commitment problems of cooperation. Finally, the thesis examines the aftermath of the violence, more specifically a political phenomenon of Muslims of Gujarat supporting the BJP nine years after the brutal violence.</p><p>Methodologically, the main contribution of this thesis is in bridging the quantitative and ethnographic traditions in the sociology of ethnic violence to make possible the linking, and disentangling, of macrolevel risk factors associated with violence from microlevel factors. Findings of the thesis hopefully provide a better understanding of ethnic violence in multi-ethnic democracies and a roadmap of policy-making for India as it continues to struggle with ethnic strife.</p>
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spelling oxford-uuid:b66dfef0-26d7-4300-8d60-36ec4a7746b02024-02-06T15:35:17ZHindu-Muslim violence in Gujarat, 2002: political logic, spatial configuration, and communal cooperationThesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06uuid:b66dfef0-26d7-4300-8d60-36ec4a7746b0South AsiaEthnic minorities and ethnicityConflictSocial SciencesSociologyEnglishValet2013Dhattiwala, RBiggs, MHeath, A<p>This thesis uses a mixed methods approach to investigate the different levels of Hindu-Muslim violence in Gujarat (western India) in 2002 when at least a thousand Muslims were killed. An original dataset of killings is compiled to analyse macrospatial variation in the violence across towns and rural areas of Gujarat. Data collected from 21 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Ahmedabad city is used to investigate microspatial variation across three neighbourhoods with varying levels of violence.</p><p>Macrospatial analysis discusses the link between political authority and its capacity to instigate ethnic violence as a response to electoral calculations and identifies the mechanisms by which violence against Muslims was orchestrated by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Ethnographic findings demonstrate the importance of ecological strategies adopted by attackers and targets during the course of attack and urge a re-examination of the intuitive association of spatial proximity with greater interethnic contact. Findings also reveal methods of enforcement used by legitimate and illegitimate institutions of a peaceful slum neighbourhood in resolving commitment problems of cooperation. Finally, the thesis examines the aftermath of the violence, more specifically a political phenomenon of Muslims of Gujarat supporting the BJP nine years after the brutal violence.</p><p>Methodologically, the main contribution of this thesis is in bridging the quantitative and ethnographic traditions in the sociology of ethnic violence to make possible the linking, and disentangling, of macrolevel risk factors associated with violence from microlevel factors. Findings of the thesis hopefully provide a better understanding of ethnic violence in multi-ethnic democracies and a roadmap of policy-making for India as it continues to struggle with ethnic strife.</p>
spellingShingle South Asia
Ethnic minorities and ethnicity
Conflict
Social Sciences
Sociology
Dhattiwala, R
Hindu-Muslim violence in Gujarat, 2002: political logic, spatial configuration, and communal cooperation
title Hindu-Muslim violence in Gujarat, 2002: political logic, spatial configuration, and communal cooperation
title_full Hindu-Muslim violence in Gujarat, 2002: political logic, spatial configuration, and communal cooperation
title_fullStr Hindu-Muslim violence in Gujarat, 2002: political logic, spatial configuration, and communal cooperation
title_full_unstemmed Hindu-Muslim violence in Gujarat, 2002: political logic, spatial configuration, and communal cooperation
title_short Hindu-Muslim violence in Gujarat, 2002: political logic, spatial configuration, and communal cooperation
title_sort hindu muslim violence in gujarat 2002 political logic spatial configuration and communal cooperation
topic South Asia
Ethnic minorities and ethnicity
Conflict
Social Sciences
Sociology
work_keys_str_mv AT dhattiwalar hindumuslimviolenceingujarat2002politicallogicspatialconfigurationandcommunalcooperation