Tremors of Violence : Muslim Survivors of Ethnic Strife in Western India

Based on narratives of, and interviews with, Muslim men and women, this book furthers an understanding of the world and worldviews of those who have seen and lived through one or more violent confrontations and episodes in their lives. Through engagements with these survivors, it weaves many stories of devastating loss, the painful and never absolute process of recovery and the unrelenting battles for survival and for redress from the state. It explores troubling issues like what it means to be a Muslim today; how people who have experienced such violence perceive their neighbours, their land, their own selves, and their practices, which have been violated during times of violence; and the ways in which the memories of violence bring about shifts in everyday life, in ideas of space and time. Tremors of Violence seeks to demystify the stereotyping experienced by entering into the lives of everyday muslims. This book is an ethnographic study of Muslim survivors of ethnic strife in Mumbai and two major cities of Gujarat. Based on narratives of and interviews with Muslim men and women, it tries to understand the world and worldviews of those who have seen and lived through one or several violent confrontations and episodes in their lives. Through engagements with these survivors, the book weaves several stories of devastating loss, the painful and never absolute process of recovery, and battles for survival and redress from the state. By giving space to the voices of both women and men, to survivors of communal violence on the one hand and religious leaders and the non-laity on the other, the book provides numerous insights: how Muslims construct their identity in such conditions; how Muslim voices in Mumbai are different from those in Gujarat; and how women`s narratives are tinged with personal sadness but men`s recollections are couched in more abstract terms. Contents......Page 8 Acknowledgements......Page 10 1 - Inaugurating Responsibility......Page 14 2 - Space, time and the stigma of identity......Page 39 3 - Muslim marginality and the experience of violence......Page 79 4 - 'I can harden my heart to bear this': women's words and women's worlds......Page 114 5 - Fissures in a time of crisis......Page 155 6 - Breaching boundaries: experiments in remaking the world......Page 195 7 - Through a dark tunnel: the face of the future......Page 225 Bibliography......Page 252 Index......Page 260 About the author......Page 263 This analysis of religious violence from a Muslim perspective considers questions about the nature of memory and the ways in which memories of violence affect perceptions of time, space and religious practice. The author asks whether memories of violence affect victims' perceptions of the land, neighbours and themselves