In the twilight of his political career, one of India's founding figures Jawaharlal Nehru warned that "the [real] danger to India is Hindu right-wing communalism." Were these words prescient? Without doubt, the rise of Hindu nationalism has been a key feature of contemporary Indian politics, with significant importance for India's sizable religious minorities, its concept of statehood and nation, the nexus of religion and politics, and India's place in the world. This issue has reached growing prominence in the United States in the aftermath of the government's denial to Gujurat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on grounds that his government's actions in 2002 violated religious freedom in India. We will discuss these issues, using the following outline as our guide:
======================================
1. Background
- Introduction to Hindu nationalism – the organizations
- Hindu cultural dominance vs. Hindu nationalism
- Brief history of Hindu nationalism
- India – demographics
2. Minorities and confrontations with Hindu nationalism and Hindu cultural dominance
- Anti-Sikh violence in Delhi following Indira Gandhi's assassination in 1984
- Destruction of the Babri Masjid in 1992 and the violence that followed
- Struggles for caste justice – e.g. impact of the Mandal Commission recommendations and responses
- Violence against Christians in Gujarat (Dangs district), 1998-1999
3. Hindu nationalism and the State
- Concepts of nation and national unity
- State response to sectarian violence in Delhi in 1984 and in Gujurat in 2002. What this might foreshadow.
- Role of the two dominant political parties, the more secularist Congress and the more Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
- Role of the army and police
4. What happened during Gujarat 2002
- BJP's entry into Gujarat
- Build-up toward the climate of violence, including 9/11
- What happened at Godhra, the general strike, the role of the media
- The massacres and the complicity of the state in them
- The aftermath: impunity, court cases, displacements, December elections
- 2004 Elections: The Congress Party defeats the BJP in national elections and takes power with a Sikh prime minister
- The continuing targeting of religious minorities (e.g. in employment, education, mobility, etc.)
5. Modi's Visa Denial and India-US relations
- Local Activist Groups (e.g. Coalition Against Genocide, Coalition Against Communalism)
- The US's stance and its diverse relations with others involved in crimes against humanity.
- Responses to the denial from Modi, Government of India, and others
PRESENTERS:
Annie Paradise is completing her master's degree in anthropology at the California Institute of Integral Studies, where she will continue into the doctoral program in the fall. Her research includes issues of insurgency and human rights in Punjab, state accountability and rehabilitation in the Narmada Valley, and Hindu nationalism. She has also worked with local advocacy groups who work with issues of communalism and democracy in India. Pei Wu is a doctoral student in anthropology at the California Institute of Integral Studies. She has been researching issues related to India, Hindu nationalism, human rights, cultural survival, and minority issues for the last three years, and has helped in the work of the local advocacy groups who work on issues of communalism and democracy in India.
