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Ethnic and Religious Militancy and the New World Order: Hindu Nationalism, Islamism, and Regionalism

Arvind Rajagopal, Woodrow Wilson Center and New York University; David Ludden, New York University; Faisal Devji, The New School University; Engseng Ho, Harvard University

Date & Time

Wednesday
Apr. 4, 2007
3:30pm – 5:30pm ET

Overview

This Asia Program event addressed the topical issues of ethnic and religious militancy and violence increasingly committed by non-conventional forces world-wide. The political challenge of violence today is augmented by the multiplicity of claimants and stakeholders for power. Violence appears to be not only a byproduct of political conflict, but also a crucial means of advancing arguments for alternative political formations and of challenging the legitimacy of existing systems. The tacit state sanction that appears to be given to non-conventional acts of violence in different parts of the world suggests that the traditional relationship between the state and civil society may require reconsideration.

David Ludden defines "ethnic territorialism" as a situation where "groups of people define themselves and their relationships to each other through ethnic origin." South Asia is one such ethnicized territory, where problems of violence are inextricably tied to economic inequality. The acknowledged increase in inequality in South Asia over the last few decades—as shown by the sharp rise in income disparity—is accompanied by increasing violence. Ludden asserted that economic globalization has introduced both illegitimate and legitimate forms of violence, predominantly occurring in the low-income segments of society. A key example of such violence induced by globalization is the Narmada movement in India, where villagers have been protesting the construction of a mega-dam project on the Narmada river. The villagers based on the riverbanks claim that their homes and land have been appropriated and their livelihoods destroyed, without due compensation.

Engseng Ho displayed archival news media of the terrorist bombings that struck Madrid on March 11, 2004. He demonstrated how the media footage of violence inflicted on innocent civilians in Madrid was shown by both Al Jazeera and the BBC, but not by the American media. Thereafter, the debates during the Spanish national election linked the Iraq war and the terrorist bombings, so that neither issue could be addressed without mentioning the other. Ho posed the question, "What is the notion of people-to-people foreign policy in international relations?" In the interface between democracy and terror, what kind of a social entity is religion transformed into, Professor Ho asked.

Narrating his personal experience during the bombings of London's public transportation system on July 7, 2005, Faisal Devji cited Hannah Arendt to say that in the contemporary world, a "globalization of responsibility" has occurred as both "victim and suspect can today be assigned to every person and place in the world." Devji argued that during the London bombings, the suicide bombers displayed a form of behavior that did not fit the conventional model of Islamic fundamentalism. What the evidence from London suggests, Devji asserted, is that dogmatic religious authority is not able to win blind obedience. Rather, the British suicide bombers were motivated by their own interpretations of both political events involving the West and Muslim communities worldwide, as well as by Islamic religious texts. In this way, the British suicide bombers represent a modern militancy that is part of a transnational and electronically mediated world. Such a world allows for multiple interpretations of the nexus of politics, violence, and religion, which goes beyond the traditional context of Islamic fundamentalism.

In 2002, communal violence struck Gujarat, one of the largest states in India, as Hindu fundamentalists attacked the minority Muslim community. Arvind Rajagopal stated that violence is being accommodated within the procedures of electoral politics in India, as voters returned the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to power in elections following the gruesome violence against Muslims, in which the BJP was accused of playing a major role. The previous association between national identity and secularism has come under attack in current-day India. Secularism is no longer adjudicable as an expert matter, but has come to be identified with the issue of national identity as a whole. The politicization of secularism has been aided by the historical divisions within a language-divided print media, which have only deepened with the rise of electronic media. Rajagopal argued that in understanding the growth of support for Hindu nationalism, analyzing the influence of these factors can be illuminating.

Drafted by Bhumika Muchhala, Asia Program Associate
Robert M. Hathaway, Director, Asia Program, Ph: (202) 691-4020

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Indo-Pacific Program

The Indo-Pacific Program promotes policy debate and intellectual discussions on US interests in the Asia-Pacific as well as political, economic, security, and social issues relating to the world’s most populous and economically dynamic region.   Read more

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