Abstract
Religious conflict, known as “communalism”, has had a long history in India. Although Hindu–Muslim conflict has been, what Varshney (2002) calls, the “master narrative” of Indian politics, it is observed that since the 1990s the Christian populations have increasingly become the targets of violence. What is interesting is that most of these atrocities have occurred in provinces that not only have a sizable tribal population but also are ruled by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and/or its allies. The central question then is why has violence against Christians increased in the tribal dominated, BJP-ruled provinces in particular? The paper argues that in order to explain this, it is important to understand the political economy of the tribal society and the politics of Hindu nationalism as well as of Christian missionaries during the post-colonial period. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in the tribal dominated regions of south Rajasthan, the paper concludes that economic “backwardness” and contested cultural identity of tribals on the one hand and the competing projects of “conversion” by Christian missionaries and Hindu nationalists on the other are responsible for this increasing anti-Christian violence in India.
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Notes
- 1.
As per the 2001 Census, Hindus constitute 80.5 % of the Indian population.
- 2.
http://indianchristians.in/news/content/view/439/43/; accessed on 15 November 2011.
- 3.
http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Hindu-fundamentalists-attack-Christian-preachers-in-Rajasthan-2785.html; accessed on 15 November 2011.
- 4.
http://indianchristians.in/news/content/view/89/45/; accessed on 15 November 2011.
- 5.
- 6.
The idea of “civilizing mission” was used as a powerful tool to legitimize colonial rule around the world. The basic assumptions were: (1) Western culture was superior, and (2) colonial subjects, or the natives, were too backward to govern themselves and thus required “uplift” (Froerer 2007, p. 14).
- 7.
The Christian Solidarity Worldwide data suggests that in 2006, Christians are estimated to make up no more than 100,000 of Rajasthan’s population of 70 million. http://dynamic.csw.org.uk/article.asp?t=press&id=513&search=rajasthan; accessed on 18 November 2011.
- 8.
For example, Lord William Bentinck, while governor of Madras, gave every encouragement to the missionaries to carry on their work of converting Hindus. Such support was significantly increased with the passing of the Charter Act in 1813. Even a governor of a province publicly declared that he looked forward to the Christianization of all India. See Smith (1963, pp. 195–197).
- 9.
In Jharkhand, the Permanent Settlement of 1793 turned the traditional tikhedars (tax collectors) into zamindars (landlords). Tribal land began to be alienated to the zamindars. At that stage, the Belgian Jesuit Constant Lievens who studied their land laws and helped them to save their land came to be viewed as their saviour and, as a result, mass conversions followed. See Fernandes (1999, p. 82), Bauman (2008, p. 26).
- 10.
Considering their cultural closeness to the Hindu social and religious order, Indian sociologist G.S. Ghurye has declared them the “backward Hindus”. See Ghurye (1959).
- 11.
Discussion with some tribal people in Kotra on September 21, 2006.
- 12.
http://www.islamicvoice.com/January.2002/investigation.htm; accessed on 18 October 2006.
- 13.
http://www.worthynews.com/1622-india-rajasthan-passes-new-anti-conversion-bill; accessed on 25 Nov. 2011.
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Acknowledgments
I would like to thank the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IRD Project: MI00940 and Planning Project: MI00935) and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for providing financial support to carry out this research. I would also like to thank Martin Fuchs (Max-Weber-Kolleg) for his valuable comments and suggestions. A shorter version of this paper appeared in the ISA E-Symposium.
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Sahoo, S. (2016). Religious Violence and the “Developmental State” in Rajasthan. In: Tripathi, R., Singh, P. (eds) Perspectives on Violence and Othering in India. Springer, New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-2613-0_9
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