Introduction–new forms of anti-Muslim violence in India: Hindu Xenophobia in the post-instrumental Era

Abstract

Violence between Hindus and Muslims in India has traditionally taken a single form–the riot. The interpretation of this phenomenon has changed over time. First, it was marked by ‘primordialism,’ the view that the religious identities of these two communities were so different that tensions were inevitable. This approach was challenged by proponents of an instrumentalist reading of identity politics, who argued that the contours of communities were shaped and reshaped by leaders in pursuit of power. Communal riots were engineered to that end, to polarize the voters before elections. While the debate between primordialists and instrumentalists left its mark on this field of study, it is time for a new epistemological framework to adapt the theory to the current reality: Hindu nationalists no longer seek to seize power; they exercise it–and communal violence is increasingly taking the form of pogroms aiming at ethnic cleansing and ghettoization. Pre-electoral polarization is not the main objective of the Hindu nationalists who now persecute Muslims for the sake of violence and/or to take revenge on them for historical ‘reasons’. The main players of anti-Muslim violence are vigilante groups acting in conjunction with the police and forming, as a result, a ‘deeper state’.