1. India's House Divided.
- Author
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Kumar, Radha
- Subjects
- *
NONFICTION , *HINDUS , *MUSLIMS , *ETHNIC relations ,SOCIAL conditions in India - Abstract
The article presents a review of the book 'Ethnic Conflict and Civic Life: Hindus and Muslims in India,' by Ashutosh Varshney. In the book, Varshney suggests that it would be wrong to conclude that India is beginning to suffer the same kind of communal convulsion that has ravaged so many multiethnic countries in recent years. According to Varshney, there are two reasons why India is unlikely to succumb to the maelstrom that broke up such countries as Yugoslavia. First, Hindu-Muslim conflict is highly localized and second, India's complex polity is made up of a range of constituencies with cross-cutting interests. The reviewer alleges that Varshney's first argument is more convincing than his second. He uses data from 1950 to 1995, covering most of independent India's history, and shows that the vast majority of communal riots have been concentrated in 4 of India's 28 states.
- Published
- 2002
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