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This first article in the 2024 World Affairs special issue examines the Narendra Modi regime in India. Often acerbic political rhetoric is attached to official policies of the regime, creating fear and hopelessness within sections of the population. In this study, five sets of political activities of the government are evaluated. First, cultural authoritarianism became apparent with complicity toward "cow vigilantism," slapping sedition charges against those showing political dissent, banning the history books of selected progressives, and stereotyping sections of the left and liberals as antinationals. Second, the demonetization policy was implemented without adequately following the economic protocols of the state. Third, the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Bill indicates the thwarting of democratic and federalist ideas. Fourth, the Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens exercise in Assam demonstrate the communal‐fascist worldview of the regime in profiling population groups. Finally, the sloppy handling of the COVID‐19 pandemic and the new Information Technology rules show the government's callous approach toward science and privacy. By analyzing such political activities, the article points out that majoritarian religious nationalism, coupled with authoritarianism, has been the ideological expression of the Modi regime, coexisting with both state surveillance and electoral democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India today exemplifies the making of an "ethnocracy," a polity in which the dominant ethnic group obtains political control and deploys the state apparatus to ethnicize territory and society. I illustrate the making of India's ethnocracy by documenting key political and policy practices of Narendra Modi's rule. I do this by offering evidence of this process by documenting: (1). the contest between the dominant Hindus and minority Muslims over territorial space and the public realm; (2). solidifying Hindutva ethno-nationalism; which builds on and consolidates; and (3). long-term political and economic stratification between Hindus and Muslims. However, the making of India's ethnocracy has not gone unchallenged. Therefore, I direct attention to the resistance mounted against India's ethnocratic turn in the institutional, political and social terrains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hindus and Muslims represent the two largest religions in India, and also differ in nutritional status, health-related habits and standard of living associated with economic disparities. In this context, the present study considered estimated secular changes in body size, proportions, and weight status among Hindu and Muslim Indian men. The data are from anthropological surveys in the 1970s which included measurements of height, weight and sitting height of 43,950 males 18–84 years (birth years 1891–1957). Leg length was estimated; the BMI and sitting height/height ratio were calculated. Heights of men 35 + years were adjusted for estimated height loss with age. Weight status was also classified relative to WHO criteria for the BMI. Anthropometric characteristics of the two groups were compared with MANCOVA with age and geographic region as covariates. Linear regression of height on year of birth was also used to estimate secular change in each group. Heights, weights, and BMIs tended to be, on average, greater among Muslim than Hindu men at most ages, while distributions by weight status between groups were negligible. Sitting height was greater among Muslim men but estimated leg length did not differ between groups; the sitting height/height ratio thus suggested proportionally shorter legs among Muslim men. Results of the regression analyses indicated negligible differences in secular change between groups across the total span of birth years but indicated a decline in adjusted heights of men in both groups born between 1891 through 1930s and little secular change among those born in the 1930s through 1957. The variation in heights, weights and BMIs between Muslim and Hindu men at most ages suggested variation in socio-economic status and dietary habits between the groups, whereas the negligible estimated secular changes in height between groups likely reflected economic, social, and nutritional conditions during the interval of British rule and the transition to independence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does intergroup inequality, specifically minority experiences of persecution, affect contributions to local public goods? Based on an original survey experiment and qualitative research in slums in Delhi, we examine how Hindus and Muslims respond to social norms around promoting cooperation on community sanitation. Mainstream theories of development predict greater willingness to contribute to public goods in more homogeneous areas. In contrast to the "diversity-deficit hypothesis," however, we find that social accountability mechanisms are more effective among Muslims, a group that routinely faces discrimination and violence in India. We propose that this reflects "defensive cooperation," or a set of coping strategies developed by minorities to navigate a hostile sociopolitical environment. Our findings point to a new mechanism that helps to enforce prosocial norms and, hence, public goods provision in multiethnic contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Grief and the Shaping of Muslim Communities in North India, c. 1857–1940s" by Eve Tignol is a book that explores how elite north Indian Muslims expressed grief and related emotions during the British Raj. The author analyzes Urdu-language poetry, memoirs, letters, and other manuscripts to understand the cultural and historical context of these expressions. Tignol highlights the term "gham," which encompasses various connotations of grief and nostalgia. The book also discusses the impact of colonialism on the Muslim community and the different approaches taken by Muslim leaders in response to Indian nationalism. Overall, this volume offers valuable insights into the emotions and experiences of Muslims in North India during this period. [Extracted from the article]

Religious conversion and marriage across communal lines have long been contentious in India. The contemporary debate on 'Love Jihad' – the Hindu Nationalist conspiracy theory that accuses Muslim men of waging a religious war by seducing and converting unsuspecting Hindu brides – exemplifies the simultaneously geopolitical and biopolitical anxiety that religious conversion inspires. In this paper, I focus on the case of Hadiya, a young woman from Kerala, who, in 2016, found herself remanded first to her university's hostel – as dormitories are called in India – and then to her parents' home as various courts debated on the authenticity of her conversion to Islam, and her marriage to a Muslim partner. Through an examination of media discourse and court records in this case, the paper argues that in 'Love Jihad', the domestic and the carceral are rendered inextricably intertwined through an affective politics that presents desire outside the bounds of caste and religion as geopolitically misoriented. Drawing on Sara Ahmed's work on the phenomenology of orientation, I focus on the intimate geographies of the hostel, which I argue exemplifies a site of carceral convergence between nation and family, in the management of the affective disorder associated with religious conversion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on qualitative fieldwork with two Islamist movements in India since 2011, this article contributes to a better understanding of how Muslim community leaders try to spearhead third front alliances with secular and religious minorities through discourses of shared political and economic victimhood and the provision of protection against the assertions of Hindu nationalists in an era of unprecedented Hindu vote consolidation. While such alliances exist, the paper analyzes a new trend within Muslim politics that promotes a political departure from the traditional patronage of the Indian National Congress (INC) and other low-caste and socialist parties, which have historically represented the Muslim masses. I then discuss the limitations of these third front leadership ambitions, whereby Islamist movements are seen as incompatible with gender equality and secular norms. Theoretically, the paper informs the academic debate on coalition-building processes within social movement theory (SMT), which has partially ignored the role of conservative religious actors in democratic as well as authoritarian systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article, "Making Place for Muslims in Contemporary India" by Kalyani Devaki Menon, explores the experiences of Muslim residents in Old Delhi and how they navigate their circumstances to establish a sense of place. The study examines how Muslims engage with historical memories and current encounters to negotiate opportunities in an uncertain political economy. It also highlights the challenges faced by Indian Muslims, including social and economic marginalization, Islamophobic prejudices, and discrimination. The article emphasizes the intersectionality of Muslim women's identities and how they navigate various roles and challenges within their communities. Overall, the study sheds light on the complex dynamics of place-making and the impact of external factors on Muslim communities in India. [Extracted from the article]

Postcolonial democratic deepening brings new challenges to religion as a social imaginary in India. Increasing cultural differentiation and pluralization are countered by fundamentalization, but also challenge existing minority/multicultural imaginations. Religion, as the overarching identity category, has come under scrutiny given the politicization of caste among Muslims, who form the country's most significant religious minority. Through social-justice and anti-caste politics in the 1990s, lowered-caste Muslims started to enact a new identity named Pasmanda, which means "those who have been left behind". The Pasmanda discourse emphasizes internal heterogeneities and hegemonies and pluralizes the "Muslim". It thus ruptures the imaginary of Muslims as a homogeneous minority in a culturally diverse country and problematizes the majority–minority framework. An important site of contestation is the reservation (quota) policy in public employment, education, and the legislature. While privileged-caste Muslims generally prefer a quota based on religion, the lowered-caste Pasmanda Muslims increasingly mobilize for a caste-based quota, thus challenging systems of recognition and redistribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the past six decades, there has been an ever-growing awareness of the global ecological crisis threatening human survival. Concern for the future of human life has led to the necessity of upholding environmental rights and sustainable development. As in the case of other human rights, obligations of the state that derive from these need to be complemented by civic engagements, and sustained by shared values in the societal sphere. The question that we raise is if religions can play a significant role in favouring environmental rights, civil engagements and environmental care, given that in varied ways religious traditions appeal to the interdependence of divine-human-cosmic realities. The empirical research that we undertook in the multi-religious context of Tamil Nadu, India, seeks to verify if the religious identity of the senior secondary school students and college students has some influence on their attitude towards environmental obligations, engagements and care. The results show that senior school students are highly sensitive to state's obligations and civil engagements, but their religious affiliation does not seem to influence it. Instead, college students manifest strong agreement to environmental care, with Hindus displaying higher sensitivity. Besides, variables such as transformative function of religion, religious pluralism, human dignity, and empathy have favourable association with environmental care for Christians, Muslims and Hindus. We conclude with a discussion on the implications of the predictors for eco-education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Muslim communities in modern Indian society are often seen through the lens of race and politics. The separate mechanisms of faith and secularism, which, as Judith Butler observes, may well be "a fugitive way" for certain kinds of "religion to survive", are meshed together with the politics of representation and counter-representation of Islam and Muslims in the framing of identities. From the Babri masjid demolition to the wake of Ram mandir bhoomi pujan, and the hijab controversy, religion and culture run the risk of being employed in disloyalty, as a threat, in an artistically compromised manner. This article will examine how the tensions between individual subjectivity and a communitarian adherence to culture and faith manifest themselves in the present-day situation in India, as they negotiate between the pull of a liberal individualist lifestyle and that of family and community—between speaking as an "I" and on behalf of a collective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper intends to unravel the idea, the history, the theological understanding and the socio-cultural influences on the idea of "Talaq" in general and "Instant Triple Talaq" in particular. The paper also unearths the possibilities of the misuse, misinterpretation and politicization of the concept which have taken place at various historical junctures. At empirical level, the paper attempts to draw the attention toward the perception and opinion of the Muslim women through the structured questionnaire regarding the Instant Triple Talaq and Triple Talaq Act enacted by the Government of India. The study focuses on how the existing power structure in the Muslim community and the deeply rooted cultural practices that in a way were antithetical to the basic Islamic beliefs have shaped the lives of Muslim women in India. The study does not find the Triple Talaq Act passed by Indian parliament as something constructive, rather regards it as interference on part of state institutions into the religious affairs of a particular community. The study finally draws a parallel between the literate and illiterate strata of Muslim women and their perception toward the Triple Talaq Act. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Study investigates the Socio, economic and demographic conditions of Beedi workers with special reference to Melapalayam located in the banks of Tamirabarani river adjunct to Tirunelveli city, Tamil Nadu in Southern part of India. Melapalayam a densely populated area in Tirunelveli which predominantly occupied by Muslim neighborhoods in which most of the women engages in beedi rolling. India's Beedi workers is one of the unorganized vulnerable segment of labor force in rural areas consist majority of women faces very low wages than other industries. Tamil Nadu is one of the top producers in Beedi industry among the southern states. Lower compensation and Health hazards are the alarming issue in the Industry. Melapalayam is home to more than one hundred thousand populations with Muslim majority also holds hundreds of beedi workers from door to door. The study analyzed the contribution of beedi industry to the development in the area towards their education, health spending, social status and problems faced by the beedi workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article looks at the translation and circulation of yogis' learning in Persian medical and alchemical texts produced in South Asia. I suggest that looking at the non-religious environment allows for a more accurate understanding of the overall circulation of yogic knowledge and techniques in the Muslim society of South Asia. Furthermore, I suggest that the assimilation of yogis' learning in Persian sources concerned not only Yoga but also other types of knowledge associated with yogis. Muslim physicians' interest in yogis' knowledge focused on one specific aspect: rasaśāstra "alchemy" and the mastery over the production of mercurial and metallic drugs. The technical and pragmatic focus of Persian medico-alchemical writings contributed to give views of yogis beyond the exotic and foreignizing category of the wonders of India. Medical writings helped to develop views of yogis as a socio-economic group involved in the transmission of a specific body of knowledge. This was an important shift away from the perspective of the 'ajā'ib al-hind "wonders of India" as well as from the ways in which yogis were perceived in Sufi texts. New perspectives on yogis emerged when Persian-speaking scholars and readers in India needed more pragmatic representations of local groups, such as the physicians who were in the process of appropriating alchemical notions that were closely associated with the yogis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the potential for pleasant and cooperative contact to reduce prejudice between religious groups in India. We randomly assign Hindu and Muslim participants into groups, in which they interact over the course of a week-long vocational training program. A novel feature of our study is that all of the participants were women. We find that intergroup contact reduces the prejudice of both Hindu and Muslim participants toward members of the other religion one week after the training program concluded. While we find that most of the positive effect of intergroup contact on reducing prejudice dissipates after six months, effects on Hindu attitudes toward Muslims are persistent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chapter Four shows us how the local Urdu language press reflected and commented on these divisions, providing fora not just for Muslims who stayed in Delhi but also for Hindu and Sikh migrants who also published in Urdu. My one hesitation is with regards to interpretative and analytical strategy, namely the extent the book focuses on Delhi's Muslim communities. [Extracted from the article]

This paper captures how a women's protest offered resistance to the ethnonationalist state's exclusionary citizenship policy that seeks to disqualify Muslims from citizenship rights and entitlements in postcolonial India. Since the pre‐pandemic period, Muslim women have been contesting this ideological play of the sovereign state power through various cultural and political framing of counter‐narratives through various art forms, including poetry, poetic practices, and graffiti. We argue that this arts‐based resistance has significant implication for how grassroots feminist movements discursively mobilizes theory and practice to build feminist consciousness and solidarity among this minority community as well as create coalitions and networks with broader communities of different faiths. Poetry, poetic practice, and graffiti provide the communicative platform to voice against injustice and violence by those in power. We contribute to the debates on writing differently by integrating the poems and graffiti as an empirical source that brings forth collective experiences to engender empathy and the hope to resist structures of hegemony. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To date, analyses of 'cultural racism' or 'neoracism' have largely been oriented towards Western countries, where the pattern of discrimination at issue remains linked to perceptions of phenotypical characteristics. In India, by contrast, there are no physical markers of difference between Muslims and other social groups. Nonetheless, Islamophobia in India should be described as a form of racism, given the history of the term and its normative implications. Within Indian Islamophobic discourses, the Muslim 'type' functions much like racial types within European antisemitism. In addition, the disadvantaged social location of Indian Muslims resembles that of African Americans in significant respects. The label matters because it also offers a diagnosis and prescribes remedies. For legal, moral and political purposes, viewing the situation of Indian Muslims through the lens of racism points to solutions different from the ones the Indian state has implemented under the aegis of secularism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The innovative third chapter explores the material culture of the newspaper, examining its illustrations and calligraphy, and considering how these visual forms contained coded messages that positioned the newspaper within an axiomatic Islamic idiom. As Robb argues, the newspaper blended space through its simultaneous coverage of local, national, and transnational issues, and also time, through its combination of historical romanticism and current affairs. The newspaper's coverage, Robb argues, constructed the I qasbah i 's unique "timescape" that existed outside of clear temporal location and "saw the present, past and future as productively intertwined" (p. 57). [Extracted from the article]

Like rice, cattle smuggling connects and provides economic security among traders, intermediaries and state agents on both sides of the India-Bangladesh border. Sur transports readers to different settings and periods along and across the India-Bangladesh border and vividly captures the "power geometries" (Massey, 1993) that shape the everyday lives of her informants. Notably, the hardening of state borders has slowed the pace of visa and immigration case processing on all forms of migration, including a downward trend in refugee resettlement in 2020 and 2021 (Papademetriou & Hooper, 2020; UN, 2021). [Extracted from the article]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, misinformation gets a new momentum in India like many other countries, and the increasing social media penetration has a considerable contribution to it. Acknowledging misinformation's considerable impacts on Indian society as well as public health, this study analyzes 228 pieces of popular misinformation prevalent in India from 1 February to 11 April 2020. A thematic analysis explores six major themes of misinformation: health, religious, political, crime, entertainment, and miscellaneous. Health misinformation directly impacts the country's healthcare system and services, producing fake prescriptions, remedies, statistics, and predictions. The analysis further explores two types of religious misinformation: Misinformation based on spirituality and divinity that is less harmful, and misinformation based on religious politics and communalism that threatens social congruence. While Islamic misinformation is found more associated with spiritual misinformation that tries to champion Islam, Hindu misinformation is found more religiopolitical that mainly conveys vitriol against the Muslim minorities, promoting communal segregation and animosity. This study emphasizes a paradigm shift in the country's communication infrastructure, lack of digital literacy, inadequate anti-misinformation initiatives, and political ambience for a better understanding of the misinformation situation in India during the pandemic. The article concludes with some of its limitations related to the data source, thematization of misinformation, and data collection period. This study, identifying a few knowledge-gaps, invites more research as well, to understand the contents, sources, impacts, and other necessary aspects of COVID-19 misinformation in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Introduction to this Special Issue on '"Love Jihad": Sexuality, Reproduction and the Construction of the Predatory Muslim Male' provides a theoretical overview and suggests an analytical lens for how to understand "Love Jihad" and related notions of Islamization through marriage, sexuality, and reproduction. We define "Love Jihad" as the notion that Muslim men intentionally and strategically allure and entrap non-Muslim women with the intent to marry and convert them to Islam as part of an Islamization project. We suggest a two-fold understanding of the concept of "Love Jihad". First, the concept needs to be understood as a globalizing trope, originating from India and spreading to a wide range of cultural and national contexts across the world. Second, we propose to understand the specific term "love jihad" beyond its referential specificity, and thereby broadening it into an analytical concept for exploring related concepts (such as "sexual jihad" and "demographic jihad"), as well as related notions of Muslim men as sexual predators (in certain geographical settings known as "rapefugees"). We therefore include in our analysis related notions such as Islamic womb fare, "grooming", "The Great Replacement", and "unethical conversion" in marriage where they relate to flows of gendered nationalist imaginaries of the Muslim "Other". The aim of this Introduction—as well as the Special Issue—is to contribute to the study of Islamophobia as a global phenomenon and to deepen our understanding of the gendered imaginaries of anti-Muslim nationalist formations across the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through an ethnographic focus on a Muslim village in rural West Bengal, this article explores how a group of women have come to defy gendered socio-cultural and locally rooted religious interpretations to become the bureaucratic and political gatekeepers within their community. The wider climate for Muslim men at this moment across India, the characteristics of bureaucratic spaces themselves and the perceived necessity of this kind of work for the most marginal are all identified as facilitating this shift. Yet in addition to these factors, this article will claim that the women themselves are wilfully utilising these encounters in order to become seen by the organs and actors of the local Indian state. It is not simple recognition they are after, nor to be considered as bureaucratic or political insiders, but rather to be seen on their own terms in diverse and context dependant ways that are ultimately of their choosing. As such, this shorkārī kāj or political work has become a central part of their daily lives and identities, to which it is suggested that their attributes and experiences as women may make them particularly well suited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the relationship between emotions, identity and work in the narratives of Muslim women in rural Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan, India. The article uses an in-depth account of two families where all women engage in income generating work. The women experience complex challenges, struggles and negotiations, and they make remarkable decisions in resolution. The role their emotions play in their decisions articulates an entrepreneurial self that offers a newer interpretation of the relationship between emotions, identity and work. By detailing their struggles, negotiations and remarkable decisions, this article attempts to move towards a sociology of hope that marks the spirit of these women in overcoming the constraints in their everyday. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Islamic law gives women shares in the estate of a deceased parent, husband, and certain other relatives. However, in India they rarely obtain the inheritance shares to which they are entitled. When the time comes, they typically either waive their inheritance rights or are prevented by their male co-heirs from accessing them. Those who assert a claim to their shares find themselves vilified by their natal kin and by society at large, as greedy, grasping, selfish, unwomanly and lacking in family feeling. They are often even ostracized by their brothers, sisters-in-law, and other family members. Drawing upon data from interviews conducted in Delhi in 2011, I explore this gap in India between Islamic law and actual practice, with specific reference to a Muslim daughter's right to inherit natal property. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2019, India made the unprecedented move of listing 1.9 million people in its northeast state of Assam as illegal migrants from Bangladesh in a new National Register of Citizens before passing the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, which overtly discriminates against the country's Muslim minority. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork, this paper investigates the reality of precarious citizenship under India's increasingly anti-migrant regime, particularly for Bengali-speaking Muslims. Going beyond the predominant notion that illegal migrants acquire documentary citizenship through fraudulent means after crossing the porous border between India and Bangladesh, this essay reveals a reverse scenario: those living with citizenship rights and in a regular social world are subjected to the gradual process of detection, detention and 'deportability' in India. This paper employs the concept of precarious citizenship to unravel this complex and oscillating world of legality and illegality, citizenship and noncitizenship, and the predicaments of life as a Bengali-speaking Muslim in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2014, when the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party took power, India has witnessed attacks by cow vigilantes (gaurakshaks), who have beaten up and lynched people – mostly in the Muslim community – accusing them of smuggling cows for slaughter. Although vigilantes claim to protect cows, considered sacred in Hinduism, scholars argue they are 'shadow armies' and 'foot soldiers' in a politically motivated campaign against minorities and marginalized populations. India has a long tradition of cow-related iconography, songs, and music. However, some of these forms and practices have been used by right-wing groups to further their agendas. The rise in cow vigilantism has been accompanied by a surge in digital media that support and further violence, including music videos. This paper focuses on YouTube music videos to investigate how various sociotechnological components form a complex assemblage that enables the articulation and circulation of a highly polarized majoritarian narrative about cows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the arrival of the Ghaznavids to North India, which has been among the lands that many states and nations wanted to have since ancient times, the Muslim population started to increase rapidly. Muslim Turks in these lands preferred education in order to spread of Islam. The education system, which started with the Ghaznavids in the Indian subcontinent and was mostly religious, was maintained regularly with the Ghurids, Delhi Turkish Sultanate, Kalacs, Tugluks, Mughal, Nizamşahs, Kutubşahs and Adilşahs. During this time period, which is called as the "Golden Age of the Turks in India", Baburid women have always been at the top with their political authorities, education they received, literary works they brought to their period, public schools and constructions in addition to the charity and trade they carried out in this geography. In this paper, especially the studies about the period were examined and the education in the first Turkish societies was briefly mentioned, and especially the education in the first Muslim Turkish states in the Indian geography, under the subheadings of "The Basis of Education in the Baburs", "The Baburid Rulers Who Directed Education" and the Education of the Baburid Palace Women" Their contribution to education and training will be mentioned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why are religious riots between Hindus and Muslims endemic in some states of India and not in others? Scholarship on the topic is divided between those arguing that electoral competition increases the occurrence of such riots and those arguing that electoral competition decreases the occurrence of such riots. Both types of explanations assume a relationship between political parties and religious violence, but they ignore voting behavior. This paper accounts for party system instability or change, measured in terms of electoral volatility, to argue that electoral volatility in the Indian party system is a key overlooked determinant of religious violence. Specifically, higher levels of electoral volatility, implying high switching of party allegiances by voters, may indicate the process of ethnic outbidding that causes violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the changing nature of Muslim political mobilization in contemporary India in the context of Hindu nationalism's ascendancy into power and the consequent crisis of traditional Muslim politics. Through an ethnographic case study of the Popular Front of India, we argue that a qualitatively new form of political mobilization is taking place among Indian Muslims centered on an articulation of "self-defense" against a "Hindu nationalist threat." This politics of self-defense is constructed on the reconciliation of two contradictory processes: use of extensive legal pragmatism, and defensive ethnicization based on Islamic identity. The paper also examines the consequences of the emerging politics of competing ethnicization for even a normative and minimal idea of secularism and how it contributes to the process of decoupling of secularism and democracy in contemporary India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Communal violence in India has become more frequent due to the unwanted interplay between religion and political manipulation, by which India has been affected many times. Communal violence has also been recognized as a significant social and public health problem, resulting in long-term human and economic costs. The dominant form of communal violence in India has involved the two communities, i.e. Hindus and Muslims. Post-violence studies worldwide have shown a short and long-term higher prevalence of mental health disorders. To the best of our knowledge, no earlier study has investigated the association between communal violence experience and self-rated psychological health in India. Thus, the current study was designed to provide valuable addition to the existing literature on mental stress among riot victims. This paper explores the association between mental health and socio-economic characteristics among riot victims based on a primary survey (N = 300 participants) conducted in two riots-affected districts of Uttar Pradesh in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the gendered nature of Hindu and Buddhist nationalism in India and Sri Lanka. Nationalist movements have become increasingly prevalent in both countries and frequently rely upon Islamophobic discourse centred around a fear of Muslim expansionism. Specifically, nationalists in each country frame their concerns through a gendered lens concerning Muslim fertility vis‐à‐vis Hindus and Buddhists, religious intermarriage of Muslim men with Hindu/Buddhist women, and the securitization of Muslim women's clothing choices. Femonationalist rhetoric has also increasingly been utilized by Hindu and Buddhist nationalists to frame Muslim women as victims of Islam's patriarchal structures and in need of saving by Hindus and Buddhists. This article draws upon original field research in India and Sri Lanka, including interviews with Hindu and Buddhist nationalist groups, their leaders, and Muslim minorities and organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2002, barbaric communal violence broke out all over the western state of Gujarat in India. Over 2000 Muslims were killed and more than 96,000 displaced through violent attacks by Hindus in retaliation for the burning of a train carrying 59 Hindu pilgrims. After 2002, the Gujarat government implemented the Gujarat Development Model (GDM), an economic development model based on neoliberal politics and late-capitalistic policies. Using a rhetorical lens, I argue that the GDM performs memory work to forget the minority Muslim identity after the Gujarat pogrom of 2002. GDM is a rhetorical move that uses sectarian-neutral language circulated via newspapers to perform a simultaneous forgetting of the pogrom and the atrocities against the Muslims but remembering the moment of Godhra valorizing the majoritarian Hindu identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim. Caste studies conducted among Muslims in India generally focus on establishing the existence of a caste system among Muslims, but they seldom talk about different types of oppression and inequalities faced by Muslim women. This empirical study explores how gender and caste identities and their mutual intersectionality impact education, occupation, income choices and the actual attainments of Muslim women. Methods. This study is part of a larger study conducted among Muslims of Kashmir in India. Primary data was collected from 704 eligible respondents (392 male, 312 female) using mixed methods. Three layers of 'caste-like' and 'caste' groups existing in the research area are identified and gender situation within these groups are comparatively examined. Results and conclusion. Each of the 'caste-like' and 'caste' groups has patriarchal caste capital. Higher professions within the government and private services are largely acquired by upper caste male Muslims. There is a preponderance of lower caste male Muslims in low income self-employment, but lower caste Muslim females seldom find employment in family-based businesses and are compelled to take low-paid private jobs. Not all women face inequality in the same way: while upper caste Muslim women often witness benevolent restriction of choices, lower caste women are the most excluded section of the society. They face double discrimination due to patriarchy and interwoven caste positions, which severely impacts their educational and employment choices. Originality. This is an original research paper based on the findings of the doctoral work conducted by the first author and supervised by the second author. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is devoted to highlighting the temporal trends and spatial variations in the concentration and growth of the major religious groups in India with special reference to the Sikh population. Such studies are gaining importance with the increasing penetration of both the religion and caste-composition in the political environment of the country. Although religious and caste interventions in politics are prevalent in all the elections, these become stronger as we move down from Parliamentary to Panchayat elections in which the voting pattern changes in favour of religion and caste groups. It has been observed that the share of Muslim population increased by 5.96% between 2001 and 2011, while it declined in the case of all other communities and the maximum decline (−8.02%) was noticed in the case of the Sikh population with the lowest share among all the major religious communities in India. The Sikh population also recorded the lowest growth rate of 8.42% against 24.65% and 16.76% witnessed by Muslims and Hindus respectively between2001 and 2011. The study is based on the religious data released by the Census of India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

History of Kashmir is full of tales of terror and oppression. For centuries, despite change of rulers and reigns, sufferings of Kashmiris have continued unabated. Sikh rule under Maharaja Ranjit Singh is particularly, accused of persecution of Kashmiris. This persistent privation forced many Kashmiris to leave their homeland and settle in other areas of the Punjab during Sikh rule. Maharaja Ranjit Singh replaced eight governors one after the other, mainly on account of charges of persecuting Kashmiris however; neither miseries of Kashmiris halted nor their migration to other parts of Punjab. In addition to this 'push', establishment of factory of Kashmiri shawls and several residential colonies in Lahore and other parts of Punjab, also attracted lots of Kashmiris to Punjab where better prospects of employment, habitation and self-esteem existed. The current study therefore, would mainly focus on various 'push and pull' factors that forced Kashmiris to abandon their homes and settle in various parts of the Punjab during the Sikh rule. Additionally, the study will also explore, in the light of primary and secondary sources, the existing narrative against Maharaja Ranjit Singh for persecuting and forcing relocation of Kashmiris, and see if these allegations hold some ground or these are mere stereotypes and part of some larger conspiracy theory to divide the Muslims and the Sikh communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Independent India has witnessed a surge of right-wing militant Hindu extremism since the 1980s. The long term political and ideological goal of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is to create a Hindu Rashtra through propagating Hindutva. To realize this goal, proponents of Hindutva radicalize youth and children with conservative and fictional thoughts which lead to Islamophobia. This paper examines the link between radicalization and spread of Hindutva discourse, and communal violence. It also surveys campaigns used by the VHP to prevent proselytism. The paper also analyses how RSS aims to rewrite textbooks and control education patterns and establish conservative schools to further its interests. Findings of the paper also indicate that governments have been either complicit or negligent while dealing with Muslim riot victims. Analysis of news article regarding communal violence involving Hindus and Muslims indicate that the media acts as an echo chamber and enable Hindutva and Islamophobia in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the competing processes of ethnicization taking place among Hindu and Muslim religious communities in the coastal region of Karnataka state in South India in the broader context of hegemonic ascendancy of Hindu nationalism in the country. We describe how an array of militant Hindutva organizations use an institutionalized system of religious vigilantism and violence against minorities to construct an ethnicized, exclusivist moral community of Hindus in the region. This construction of an ethno-Hinduism by a clever depoliticizing of caste inequalities and violence seeks to produce and naturalize religious difference into an incorrigible and exclusivist ethnic identity that thrives on a continuous process of enemy-making. Responding to this predatory ethnicization executed by militant Hindutva organizations, and capitalizing on the pervasive sense of alienation and anxiety of the Muslims in the region, radical Islamic organizations engage in a counter-predatory ethnicization of Muslim communities in the region. These organizations, while officially articulating secular positions, use the language of self-defence and securitization, coupled with radical Islamic identity for mass mobilization, to create an exclusive Islamic moral community, often mirroring the tactics of Hindutva vigilante organizations. We conclude that these competing processes of ethnicization of religious identities and the emergence of a 'vigilante public' will have far-reaching consequences for the central facets of democracy such as citizenship and secularism while leaving the socio-cultural spaces in coastal Karnataka highly polarized on religious lines and peaceful co-existence of religious communities challenging and undesirable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The status of India as the world's largest democracy is often lauded, but the re‐election of the overtly Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party in 2019 has increased concerns about the threat to India's multinational democracy and the rule of law. India is not the only democracy facing challenges related to majoritarian nationalism; there has been a worldwide rise in the language of majority 'rights' in democratic systems. The importance of analysing the extent to which the rights of majorities are being increasingly institutionalized within democratic systems has therefore increased. It is vitally important to identify whether tendencies toward ethnic democracy are increasing (and the conditions under which they do so). There may well be red flags that emerge in democratic systems, heralding the potential direction of travel. This article proposes a methodology to identify degrees of ethnic democracy using a combination of formal and informal measures and illustrates it by assessing India through an examination of anti‐Muslim policies and rhetoric. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of holy cows in India has gained significant importance on social media and connects with the political dilemma between Hindus and Muslims. This paper discusses political discourse and people's dark shades of emotion on social media to cow vigilante violence in India. It elaborates legislation differences on cow slaughter, historical and political aspects of cow vigilante violence against Muslim and Dalit minorities in India. Drawing from literature, the vigilante groups in India use social media platforms to disseminate content on cow vigilantism and publicize spectacles for political benefits. Social activists who support political leaders play a vital role in spreading the cow vigilante violence content through end-to-end encrypted social media apps to create turbulent situations among vulnerable communities. The situation analysis of cow vigilante violence shows that the Hindu nationalists perpetuate violence against Muslims in retribution of perceived historic harm caused by the Muslim rulers of subcontinent India. This paper has identified restorative justice theories that could guide the transformation of cow vigilante violence situation factors into peaceful coexistence of Hindus and Muslims in India. Further, Galtung's peace model added value to ensure the functionality of peacebuilding, peacemaking, and peacekeeping among Hindus, Muslims, and Dalit minorities in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay focuses on the Indian migrant crisis in the context of the state's handling of the pandemic. It argues that the migrant situation in India pries open 'problem spaces' that, if attended to, reveal how many of the now normative solutions for governing and containing the virus are exceeded by bodies – of migrants in particular – that cannot be kept safe by solutions in place to check the contagion. The essay first raises questions about the unequal distribution of 'saveability' in the Indian context (but this can also apply to others). It asks who cannot be included in the frame of 'human life' that underlies the solutions offered for protecting lives in the pandemic. Second, the essay offers a description of the migrant crisis in India that has ensued in the pandemic. Following that description, the essay focuses on three problem-spaces or aporias that the pandemic has pried open and that call for a more politically complex, contextually sensitive, and humane response to the management of the virus: unequal temporalities, the dilemma of im/mobility, and the challenge of recording death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The invocation of "the people" as the foundation of the nation state raises the specter of "belonging" and involves a staging of the essence of the nation. In India, religion is taken to be the essence of the nation within the framework of hindutva ideology. Muslims are regarded not only as secondary citizens but also as enemy targets for national mobilization. The sovereignty of the Indian state thus necessarily depends on violence directed at the Pakistani national outside of its borders and at the Muslim population residing within. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Millennials are the most widely studied generational cohort who are often stereotypically described as a bunch of over-demanding, highly entitled, individuals who want everything here and now. Considering that generations are shaped by a multitude of socio-cultural factors, the present study explores the psyche of Millennials in India. The aim of this exploration is to discover the extent to which generational stereotypes represent Indian Millennials. Using Stryker's Structural Symbolic Interactionism approach, the investigation conceptualizes stereotypes as social constructions and seeks to identify the socio-historical factors involved in their creation. Since Muslims are at a greater risk of communal stereotyping, the study focuses only on Muslim Millennials and attempts to accentuate the intersectionality of two disadvantaged identities (generation and religion) in order to better explain the participants' lived experiences. Inferences are drawn from the interpretative phenomenological analysis of six semi-structured interviews, conducted with Indian Muslim Millennials. This analysis yielded four superordinate themes viz. Parental Role and Expectations, Technology, Multiplicity of selfhood, and Polarized Community Relationships which have been discussed in the light of existing theories and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to investigate the genomic diversity and population structure in the Muslim community of Telangana, India, using 23 autosomal microsatellite genetic markers. We also examined genetic relatedness between Muslim and non-Muslim populations of India. A sample of 184 randomly selected unrelated healthy Muslim individuals from the Telangana state were included in this study. The genotyping of 23 autosomal STR markers included in PowerPlex® Fusion 6 C multiplex system (Promega)was done. A total of 273 alleles were observed in the studied population, and locus SE33 showed 37 observed alleles, which is the highest number of observed alleles among all the studied loci. Among all the studied loci the most polymorphic and discriminatory locus was SE33, with the values of polymorphic information content (PIC) = 9.411E–01 and power of discrimination (PD) = 9.865E–01. Observed heterozygosity ranged from 6.630E–01 (D22S1045) to 9.239E–01 (SE33). Discrimination power, exclusion power, matching probability and paternity index for all the studied loci were 1.00E + 00, 1.00E + 00, 2.01E–28, and 5.68E + 09, respectively. The studied Muslim population showed genetic relatedness with non-Muslim populations i.e. populations of central India, Jharkhand, and Uttar Pradesh, suggesting the conversion of Hindus during the Muslim invasion. Neighbor-joining (NJ) tree and principal component analysis (PCA) revealed that the studied population showed genetic affinity with communities of Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh states. The genetic data of this study may be useful for forensic, medical, and anthropological studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]