Author: John McGuire
Peter Reeves/Howard Brasted
Editor(s): John Mcguire /Peter Reeves /Howard Brasted
Publisher: Sage Publications
Year: 1996
Language: English
Pages: 300
ISBN/UPC (if available): 817036597X
Description
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has brought about a radical shift in the country's political agenda. Bringing together the insights of film-makers, activists and scholars from a diverse range of disciplines, this collection of 19 original essays examines the role of the BJP today.
Arguably, the most significant development in Indian politics since the mid-eighties has been the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). This party has brought about a radical shift in the country’s political agenda through its production and manipulation of perceived or real conflicts between Hindus (whom it claims to represent) and Muslims (whom it describes as the major enemies of Hindus and even the Indian nation).
As a central plank of its political strategy, the BJP focused on a mosque in the town of Ayodhya which they claimed had been constructed on the site of major Hindu temple. On 6 December 1992, this mosque (the Babri Masjid) was destroyed by a frenzied mob of Hindu fanatics. The ensuing months witnessed communal violence in the country on a scale not seen since the Partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947.
Bringing together the insights of film-makers, activists and scholars from a diverse range of disciplines, this collection of 19 original essays examines the role of the BJP today. The contributors demonstrate how communal violence is most often based on unreal fears, constructed by a regressive political process which, they maintain, must be staunchly opposed. Taking the case of Berhampada-a Muslim majority slum in the city of Bombay which suffered violence on a large scale in December 1992- the contributors show how the day-to-day lives of communities which had been built up gradually over the years were suddenly torn apart in the wake of Ayodhya. Muslims who had lived alongside Hindus in relative harmony were overnight perceived as enemies; as aliens in their own homeland.
Combining a detailed understanding of specific examples of communal violence with an analysis of the broader forces which have shaped the rise of the BJP, this immensely topical and thought-provoking volume will interest all those who want to understand the politics of contemporary India in all its dimensions –social, political, ethnic, cultural, economic and religious.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Contributors
From Ayodhya to Behrampada:
The BJP and Hindutva-An Interpretation
How I Live in Behrampada Came About
I Live in Behrampada
Behrampada: The Busti that did not Yield
Witnessing Ayodhya
Of Communal Consciousness and Communal Violence:
Impressions from Post-Riot Surat
Redefining the Agenda of the Women’s Movement
Within a Secular Framework
The Bombay Riots of January 1993: The Politics of Urban Conflagration
The State and Communal Violence in UP: 1947-1992
The New Hindu History
Paritranaya sadhunam-What might tradition’s response be to BJP’s Hindu Rashtra?
Whither the BJP? A Political Movement or Just a Group of Religious Revivalists?
Mosque, Temple and Crypt
Modernity and Ethnicity in India
The Potential for BJP Expansion: Ideology, Politics and
Regional Appeal-The Lessons of Jharkhand
Conflict and Competition:
The Labour Movement and Organized Communalism
Post-Ayodhya Situation: The Left and India’s Crisis Today
Indian Security Policy and the Rise of the Hindu Right
The Bharatiya Janata Party and Globalization of the Indian Economy
Index