Leveling Crowds: Ethnonationalist Conflicts and Collective Violence in South AsiaEthno-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. |
Contents
| 3 | |
Orientation and Objectives | 20 |
The 1915 Sinhala BuddhistMuslim Riots in Ceylon | 36 |
Two Postindependence Ethnic Riots in Sri Lanka | 82 |
Sikh Identity Separation and Ethnic Conflict | 101 |
Ethnic Conflict in Pakistan | 163 |
Some General Features of Ethnic Riots and Riot Crowds | 213 |
The Routinization and Ritualization of Violence | 221 |
Hindu Nationalism the Ayodhya Campaign and the Babri Masjid | 244 |
Entering a Dark Continent The Political Psychology of Crowds | 266 |
Reconfiguring Le Bon and Durkheim on Crowds as Collectives | 297 |
The Moral Economy of Collective Violence | 309 |
Notes | 343 |
| 375 | |
| 385 | |
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Common terms and phrases
action Akali alleged Amparai Anagarika Dharmapala areas armed army arson Asian attack Ayodhya Batticaloa Bhindranwale Bhutto Biharis Bombay British Buddhist central century Ceylon civil civilian clashes Coast Moors collective violence Colombo colonial Congress crowds cultural Delhi democracy destruction Dharmapala economic elections elite ethnic conflict ethnic groups ethnic riots ethnonationalist festivals Gal Oya Gandhi Guru Gyanendra Pandey Hindu Hindu nationalism human rights Ibid identity India Islamic issue Kandy Karachi Khalsa killed Kotahena large numbers leaders looting majority mass militant minister Misra Commission mobilized mosque movement Muhajirs Muslim nation-state nationalist officials organized Pakistan Pandey participants parties Pathans peasant percent police political politicians population processes protest provinces Punjab religion religious reported rioters rituals rule rumors security forces shops Sikh Sindhi Singh Sinhala Sinhalese social society South Asia Sri Lanka Tamil Tat Khalsa temple tion traditional University Press urban victims village Western workers