Leveling Crowds: Ethnonationalist Conflicts and Collective Violence in South Asia (Volume 10) (Comparative Studies in Religion and Society)

"In recent years much has been written about what Tambiah calls 'the strange malformations' that have resulted at the end of the twentieth century from complex combinations of nationalism, ethnicity, demands for self-determination, and social groups defining each other in terms of religious identity. No one, however, has analyzed how these factors lead to the violence that has become the characteristic of our time as brilliantly as Tambiah has in this remarkable book. His insights as a social science into the political and cultural history of South Asia are informed by a passionate humanism that gives us a new understanding of the dark tragedies of our time."—Ainslie Embree, Professor Emeritus of History, Columbia University "Resolutely transgressing disciplinary and spatial boundaries, Tambiah offers a scholarly but accessible, a focused but wide-ranging analysis that places ethnicity on the borderlines of the old and the new, the past and the present, politics and culture...With uncanny skill, he turns the contemporary worry about ethnic politics and violence into a brilliant meditation on the history of nationalism, nation-states, and world-capitalism—in a word, modernity itself. No student of modernity, let alone ethnicity in South Asia and other regions, can afford to ignore this thoughtful inquiry into our modern history."—Gyan Prakash, Princeton University Leveling Crowds CONTENTS FIGURES, MAPS AND TABLES PREFACE PART ONE SELECTED SITES OF CONFLICT IN SOUTH ASIA 1 The Wider Context The Ubiquity of Ethnic Conflict The Politicization of Ethnicity The Nation-State in Crisis and the Rise of Ethnonationalism The Nation-State as a Historical Construction The Three Phases of Independence 2 Orientation and Objectives The Modern Discourse of Ethnicity and Ethnic Identity "Communalism" as Colonial Discourse Collective Violence: Domains of Inquiry Crowds and Riots Riots as Contingent and Recurring Phenomena The Collective Standpoint The Layout of the Study 3 The 1915 Sinhala Buddhist-Muslim Riots in Ceylon The Rise of Sinhalese Buddhist Revivalism and Nationalism Demographic Distributions Religious Distribution The Muslims Buddhist Reactions to Christianity The Kotahena Riot of 1883 The Alleged Causes of the 1915 Riots Rioting Begins in Kandy Events in the Kandyan and Northwestern Provinces Rioting in Colombo Events in the Western and Southern Provinces Faces in the Crowd Political and Economic Facets of Buddhist Revivalism Islamic Revivalism Unveiled The Scope of the Riots Kannangara's Thesis Were the Riots Planned? 4 Two Postindependence Ethnic Riots in Sri Lanka 1956: The First Eruption The Colombo Riots of 1983: A Synopsis 5 Sikh Identity, Separation, and Ethnic Conflict The Successive Partitions of the Punjab The Politics of the Akali Dal Movement Political Contests, 1947–1984 The Anti-Sikh Riots of 1984 in Delhi The Trajectory of the Riots First Day: October 31 Second Day: November 1 Third Day: November 2 Fourth Day: November 3 Fifth Day: November 4 The Scale of the Destruction Organized Violence in the Settlement Colonies Faces in the Crowd The Role of Congress The Conduct of the Police Allegations Against the Delhi Transportation Corporation The Tale of the Affidavits Concluding Comments Bhindranwale's Fundamentalism and Militancy: Religion, Politics, and Violence Sikh Identity and the Boundary Problem Polarized Violence and the Passage to Civil War The Reign of Terror in the Punjab, 1990–1991 The Indian Elections of 1991 and Generalized Violence Appendix: Constructing a Sikh Identity Sikh Protest Politics Against the Raj 6 Ethnic Conflict in Pakistan Muhajirs and Sindhis Refugees in Sind Province The Sindhi Predicament The Jiye Sind Movement The Rise and Decline of Muhajir Fortunes Case Study 1: Muhajir-Sindhi Collisions, 1988–1990 Pakistan's Political Arena and its Tensions The Role of Islam in Communal Conflict Case Study 2: Bihari Muhajirs and Pathans in Karachi's Squatter Settlements The Pathan-Bihari Riots of April 1985 The Trajectory of Communal Riots: Further Elaboration of the Processes of Focalization and Transvalu... From Episodic Riots to Continuous Civil War Islamization and its Implications for National Unity PART TWO RETHINKING THE NATURE OF COLLECTIVE VIOLENCE 7 Some General Features of Ethnic Riots and Riot Crowds 8 The Routinization and Ritualization of Violence Elections and Violence Bangladesh India Sri Lanka The Conduct of the Campaign The Conduct of the Polling The Repertoire of Collective Violence Triggering Events Rumors and Distorted News Processions and Parades Festivals, Rallies and Violence: An Illustration from Kashmir 9 Hindu Nationalism, the Ayodhya Campaign, and the Babri Masjid The Ideology of Hindu Nationalism The Ayodhya Dispute The Demolition of the Babri Masjid and its Consequences The Bombay Riots The Processes of Nationalization and Parochialization Violence in Democratic Politics The Weiner Paradox Coda: Elections and Collective Violence 10 Entering a Dark Continent The Political Psychology of Crowds Le Bon's Heterogeneous Crowds A Rioting Mob: An Illustration Canetti's Sketches An Underlying Axis: Double Exchange Between Assailants and Victims Interpretive Forays Jubilant Destruction The Circulation of Rumors The Spiraling of Rage and Panic: A Window onto "Excesses" and the Breaching of Boundaries Fear and Panic During the Delhi Riots The Moors are Coming: Rumors in the 1915 Riots in Sri Lanka Projection and Aggression The Relative Motions of Ethnic Crowds Attack and Flight: The Unstable Extreme Social Dissociation and Stereotyping The Turbulence of Crowds 11 Reconfiguring Le Bon and Durkheim on Crowds as Collectives Le Bon on the Age of Crowds Durkheim on the Effervescence and Euphoria of Crowds 12 The Moral Economy of Collective Violence Rites of Violence Is There a Moral Economy of Ethnic Violence? The Moral Economy Perspective and the Subaltern Historians A Subaltern Historian Looks at India's Contemporary Sectarian Strife The Moral Economy Argument and Modern South Asian Ethnic Violence Human Rights Against Oppression Coping with Collective Violence An Internal Contradiction Hidden Payoffs for Aggressors Can we Predict? Preventative Action: A Recommendation Coda: The Politics of Ethnonationalism NOTES Chapter 1. The Wider Context Chapter 2. Orientation and Objectives Chapter 3. The 1915 Sinhala Buddhist-Muslim Riots in Ceylon Chapter 4. Two Postindependence Ethnic Riots in Sri Lanka Chapter 5. Sikh Identity, Separation, and Ethnic Conflict Chapter 6. Ethnic Conflict in Pakistan Chapter 7. Some General Features of Ethnic Riots and Riot Crowds Chapter 8. The Routinization and Ritualization of Violence Chapter 9. Hindu Nationalism, the Ayodhya Campaign, and the Babri Masjid Chapter 10. Entering a Dark Continent Chapter 11. Reconfiguring Le Bon and Durkheim on Crowds as Collectives Chapter 12. The Moral Economy of Collective Violence BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z Ethno-nationalist conflicts are rampant today, causing immense human loss. Stanley J. Tambiah is concerned with the nature of the ethno-nationalist explosions that have disfigured so many regions of the world in recent years. He focuses primarily on collective violence in the form of civilian'riots'in South Asia, using selected instances in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and India. He situates these riots in the larger political, economic, and religious contexts in which they took place and also examines the strategic actions and motivations of their principal agents. In applying a wide range of social theory to the problems of ethnic and religious violence, Tambiah pays close attention to the history and culture of the region.On one level this provocative book is a scrupulously detailed anthropological and historical study, but on another it is an attempt to understand the social and political changes needed for a more humane order, not just in South Asia, but throughout the world.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1997.Ethno-nationalist conflicts are rampant today, causing immense human loss. Stanley J. Tambiah is concerned with the nature of the ethno-nationalist explosions that have disfigured so many regions of the world in recent years. He focuses primarily on colle