Vera Lazzaretti
Biographic Data
| ID | 162274 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Vera Lazzaretti |
| GIVEN NAMES | Vera |
| FAMILY NAME | Lazzaretti |
| SIGNATURE | LAZZARETTI V |
| AFFILIATIONS | Centre for Research in Anthropology |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5621-189X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 40 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Introduction
This thematic section, emerging from a June 2023 international workshop at the Centre for Research in Anthropology (CRIA) in Lisbon, investigates the frictions, entanglements and reconfigurations of heritage and religion across global South Asia. Drawing on ethnographic research in South Asia and its often-overlooked diasporas in China, Mozambique, Portugal and Italy, the contributions explore how heritage and religious practices and spaces are m…
Frictions, entanglements and reconfigurations
This article introduces the thematic section Heritage and Religion in South Asia and its Diasporas and proposes a new framework for analysing the relationship between religion and heritage. While previous scholarship has often approached this nexus in terms of similarities or conflicts, the article argues that global South Asia offers a productive ground for rethinking the complex ways in which religion and heritage interact and shape each other …
Paix et insécurité à Bénarès. Les effets paradoxaux du maintien de lʼordre dans les lieux de culte interreligieux
Dans les années 1980 et 1990, au cours du mouvement Ram Janmabhoomi, la mosquée Gyanvapi de Bénarès a été identifiée par les nationalistes hindous comme le prochain lieu à « libérer » de la présence musulmane. Un plan de sécurité a alors été mis en œuvre par le gouvernement pour prévenir l’apparition d’un « délit religieux » tel que spécifié dans le Code pénal indien, à savoir « détruire, endommager ou profaner un lieu de culte » (article 295). S…
The afterlives of repatriation
In 2021, a statuette of Hindu goddess Annapurna was taken from a Canadian museum to India as an arguably restorative, if not emancipatory, and decolonial achievement for a postcolonial nation. The statuette was enshrined at the Kashi Vishvanath temple in Banaras (Varanasi), a few metres from the Gyanvapi mosque – a longstanding target of Hindu nationalist campaigns for the mukti (liberation or emancipation) of supposedly originally Hindu sites. T…
Jurisprudence and geography of Hindu majoritarianism
In this introduction, we first outline the background to this collection of papers and recall some of the conversations that were its genesis, before introducing the questions we wish to address through it. We then situate the collection within scholarship on Hindu majoritarianism and suggest that a nuanced understanding needs to take into account both its institutional and everyday dimensions. To do so, we focus on both jurisprudence and geograp…
Security and heritage in the making of urban futures
Heritage and security are distinct research topics in anthropology, but some of their connections have been unpacked, particularly in scholarship about heritage during conflicts and peace building. This article, however, brings them analytically together to understand how they entangle to shape cities and their futures. In scrutinising overlooked similarities between heritage and security, my longitudinal ethnography in Banaras (Varanasi) suggest…
Book and Film Reviews
ALTNURME, Riho, ed., Old Religion, New Spirituality: Implications of Secularisation and Individualisation in Estonia. xii, 185 pp., 6 tables, 1 map, references, index. Leiden: Brill, 2023. Paperback, $54. ISBN: 978-90-04-52446-0. CHAMEL, Jean, and Yael DANSAC, eds., Relating with More-than-Humans: Interbeing Rituality in a Living World. xvi, 254 pp., 25 b/w ills., index London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2022. Hardback, $129. ISBN: 978-3-031-10293-6. CH…
Ayodhya 2.0 in Banaras? Judicial discourses and rituals of place in the making of Hindu majoritarianism
Indian news channels and headlines meticulously cover ongoing legal suits seeking the ‘restitution’ of the Gyanvapi mosque in Banaras (Varanasi) to Hindus, with the site dubbed ‘Ayodhya 2.0’ by several commentators. The recent construction of the monumental Kashi Vishvanath Corridor next to the contested Gyanvapi mosque and the 2019 Supreme Court verdict in favour of a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya seem to be the main developments prompting an esca…
Beyond Courtrooms and Street Violence
Beyond Courtrooms and Street Violence
‘We know how to behave and that's why we feel safe'
In the 1980s and 1990s, during the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, the Gyanvapi mosque in Banaras was identified by Hindu nationalists as the next place to be ‘liberated’ from Muslim presence. A security plan was then implemented by the government to prevent the occurrence of a ‘religious offence’ as specified in the Indian Penal Code, namely ‘destroying, damaging or defiling a place of worship’ (Section 295). Drawing on ethnographic research, this art…
Introduction
In this introduction, we situate the special section, ‘Containing Religious Offence beyond the Courts’, within and beyond existing scholarship on religious offence in South Asia. Much of this scholarship focuses on the unintended effects of blasphemy laws, showing, for instance, that laws presumably intended to promote religious tolerance end up informing, if not encouraging, disputes around religious sensitivities. But while debates about the ef…
Religious Offence Policed
In the 1980s and 1990s, during the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, the Gyanvapi mosque in Banaras was identified by Hindu nationalists as the next place to be ‘liberated’ from Muslim presence. A security plan was then implemented by the government to prevent the occurrence of a ‘religious offence’ as specified in the Indian Penal Code, namely ‘destroying, damaging or defiling a place of worship’ (Section 295). Drawing on ethnographic research, this art…
New monuments for the new India
The ambitious Kashi Vishvanath Corridor in Varanasi (India) was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in March 2019. Set to turn the site into a 'world-class' pilgrimage destination, the project entails the construction of a monumental path that connects the Ganges river to the city's main Hindu temple. In the middle of the area under 'beautification', stands the Gyanvapi mosque - a longstanding target of Hindu nationalist campaigns to 'lib…
The Burden of Security
After the Babri mosque in the northern Indian city of Ayodhya was destroyed in 1992 by mobs of 'volunteers' mobilised by Hindu nationalist forces, a deed of license between the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board and the Uttar Pradesh state government was signed. Through this license a portion of land in the Gyan Vapi mosque premises in Banaras (Varanasi) was handed over to the state for security purposes. The Gyan Vapi mosque is less than fif…
Banaras Reconstructed
Banaras Reconstructed inserts itself into a well-established scholarly effort to historicise a city long depicted as an ancient and eternal Hindu sacred centre. A critical approach to deconstructin
Questioning Meaningful Layers of Locality in a Pan-Indian tīrtha
This paper critically addresses notions of locality, tradition, and pan-Indian-ness by analyzing the case of Kedāreśvara in Varanasi. Textual evidence from local māhātmyas and digests, as well as historical sources, depict Kedāreśvara as one of the city’s major manifestations of Śiva. However, the shaping of a progressively more locally-oriented myth in eulogistic texts, together with a mix of regional elements and contemporary practices at the t…
Banaras Reconstructed
Banaras Reconstructed inserts itself into a well-established scholarly effort to historicise a city long depicted as an ancient and eternal Hindu sacred centre. A critical approach to deconstructin
New monuments for the new India
The ambitious Kashi Vishvanath Corridor in Varanasi (India) was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in March 2019. Set to turn the site into a 'world-class' pilgrimage destination, the project entails the construction of a monumental path that connects the Ganges river to the city's main Hindu temple. In the middle of the area under 'beautification', stands the Gyanvapi mosque - a longstanding target of Hindu nationalist campaigns to 'lib…
Jurisprudence and geography of Hindu majoritarianism
In this introduction, we first outline the background to this collection of papers and recall some of the conversations that were its genesis, before introducing the questions we wish to address through it. We then situate the collection within scholarship on Hindu majoritarianism and suggest that a nuanced understanding needs to take into account both its institutional and everyday dimensions. To do so, we focus on both jurisprudence and geograp…
Ayodhya 2.0 in Banaras? Judicial discourses and rituals of place in the making of Hindu majoritarianism
Indian news channels and headlines meticulously cover ongoing legal suits seeking the ‘restitution’ of the Gyanvapi mosque in Banaras (Varanasi) to Hindus, with the site dubbed ‘Ayodhya 2.0’ by several commentators. The recent construction of the monumental Kashi Vishvanath Corridor next to the contested Gyanvapi mosque and the 2019 Supreme Court verdict in favour of a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya seem to be the main developments prompting an esca…
The Burden of Security
After the Babri mosque in the northern Indian city of Ayodhya was destroyed in 1992 by mobs of 'volunteers' mobilised by Hindu nationalist forces, a deed of license between the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board and the Uttar Pradesh state government was signed. Through this license a portion of land in the Gyan Vapi mosque premises in Banaras (Varanasi) was handed over to the state for security purposes. The Gyan Vapi mosque is less than fif…
Religious Offence Policed
In the 1980s and 1990s, during the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, the Gyanvapi mosque in Banaras was identified by Hindu nationalists as the next place to be ‘liberated’ from Muslim presence. A security plan was then implemented by the government to prevent the occurrence of a ‘religious offence’ as specified in the Indian Penal Code, namely ‘destroying, damaging or defiling a place of worship’ (Section 295). Drawing on ethnographic research, this art…
Security and heritage in the making of urban futures
Heritage and security are distinct research topics in anthropology, but some of their connections have been unpacked, particularly in scholarship about heritage during conflicts and peace building. This article, however, brings them analytically together to understand how they entangle to shape cities and their futures. In scrutinising overlooked similarities between heritage and security, my longitudinal ethnography in Banaras (Varanasi) suggest…
Questioning Meaningful Layers of Locality in a Pan-Indian tīrtha
This paper critically addresses notions of locality, tradition, and pan-Indian-ness by analyzing the case of Kedāreśvara in Varanasi. Textual evidence from local māhātmyas and digests, as well as historical sources, depict Kedāreśvara as one of the city’s major manifestations of Śiva. However, the shaping of a progressively more locally-oriented myth in eulogistic texts, together with a mix of regional elements and contemporary practices at the t…
Banaras Reconstructed
Banaras Reconstructed inserts itself into a well-established scholarly effort to historicise a city long depicted as an ancient and eternal Hindu sacred centre. A critical approach to deconstructin
The Burden of Security
After the Babri mosque in the northern Indian city of Ayodhya was destroyed in 1992 by mobs of 'volunteers' mobilised by Hindu nationalist forces, a deed of license between the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board and the Uttar Pradesh state government was signed. Through this license a portion of land in the Gyan Vapi mosque premises in Banaras (Varanasi) was handed over to the state for security purposes. The Gyan Vapi mosque is less than fif…
Introduction
In this introduction, we situate the special section, ‘Containing Religious Offence beyond the Courts’, within and beyond existing scholarship on religious offence in South Asia. Much of this scholarship focuses on the unintended effects of blasphemy laws, showing, for instance, that laws presumably intended to promote religious tolerance end up informing, if not encouraging, disputes around religious sensitivities. But while debates about the ef…
Religious Offence Policed
In the 1980s and 1990s, during the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, the Gyanvapi mosque in Banaras was identified by Hindu nationalists as the next place to be ‘liberated’ from Muslim presence. A security plan was then implemented by the government to prevent the occurrence of a ‘religious offence’ as specified in the Indian Penal Code, namely ‘destroying, damaging or defiling a place of worship’ (Section 295). Drawing on ethnographic research, this art…
New monuments for the new India
The ambitious Kashi Vishvanath Corridor in Varanasi (India) was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in March 2019. Set to turn the site into a 'world-class' pilgrimage destination, the project entails the construction of a monumental path that connects the Ganges river to the city's main Hindu temple. In the middle of the area under 'beautification', stands the Gyanvapi mosque - a longstanding target of Hindu nationalist campaigns to 'lib…
Beyond Courtrooms and Street Violence
Beyond Courtrooms and Street Violence
‘We know how to behave and that's why we feel safe'
In the 1980s and 1990s, during the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, the Gyanvapi mosque in Banaras was identified by Hindu nationalists as the next place to be ‘liberated’ from Muslim presence. A security plan was then implemented by the government to prevent the occurrence of a ‘religious offence’ as specified in the Indian Penal Code, namely ‘destroying, damaging or defiling a place of worship’ (Section 295). Drawing on ethnographic research, this art…
Book and Film Reviews
ALTNURME, Riho, ed., Old Religion, New Spirituality: Implications of Secularisation and Individualisation in Estonia. xii, 185 pp., 6 tables, 1 map, references, index. Leiden: Brill, 2023. Paperback, $54. ISBN: 978-90-04-52446-0. CHAMEL, Jean, and Yael DANSAC, eds., Relating with More-than-Humans: Interbeing Rituality in a Living World. xvi, 254 pp., 25 b/w ills., index London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2022. Hardback, $129. ISBN: 978-3-031-10293-6. CH…
Ayodhya 2.0 in Banaras? Judicial discourses and rituals of place in the making of Hindu majoritarianism
Indian news channels and headlines meticulously cover ongoing legal suits seeking the ‘restitution’ of the Gyanvapi mosque in Banaras (Varanasi) to Hindus, with the site dubbed ‘Ayodhya 2.0’ by several commentators. The recent construction of the monumental Kashi Vishvanath Corridor next to the contested Gyanvapi mosque and the 2019 Supreme Court verdict in favour of a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya seem to be the main developments prompting an esca…
Jurisprudence and geography of Hindu majoritarianism
In this introduction, we first outline the background to this collection of papers and recall some of the conversations that were its genesis, before introducing the questions we wish to address through it. We then situate the collection within scholarship on Hindu majoritarianism and suggest that a nuanced understanding needs to take into account both its institutional and everyday dimensions. To do so, we focus on both jurisprudence and geograp…
Security and heritage in the making of urban futures
Heritage and security are distinct research topics in anthropology, but some of their connections have been unpacked, particularly in scholarship about heritage during conflicts and peace building. This article, however, brings them analytically together to understand how they entangle to shape cities and their futures. In scrutinising overlooked similarities between heritage and security, my longitudinal ethnography in Banaras (Varanasi) suggest…
Paix et insécurité à Bénarès. Les effets paradoxaux du maintien de lʼordre dans les lieux de culte interreligieux
Dans les années 1980 et 1990, au cours du mouvement Ram Janmabhoomi, la mosquée Gyanvapi de Bénarès a été identifiée par les nationalistes hindous comme le prochain lieu à « libérer » de la présence musulmane. Un plan de sécurité a alors été mis en œuvre par le gouvernement pour prévenir l’apparition d’un « délit religieux » tel que spécifié dans le Code pénal indien, à savoir « détruire, endommager ou profaner un lieu de culte » (article 295). S…
The afterlives of repatriation
In 2021, a statuette of Hindu goddess Annapurna was taken from a Canadian museum to India as an arguably restorative, if not emancipatory, and decolonial achievement for a postcolonial nation. The statuette was enshrined at the Kashi Vishvanath temple in Banaras (Varanasi), a few metres from the Gyanvapi mosque – a longstanding target of Hindu nationalist campaigns for the mukti (liberation or emancipation) of supposedly originally Hindu sites. T…
Introduction
This thematic section, emerging from a June 2023 international workshop at the Centre for Research in Anthropology (CRIA) in Lisbon, investigates the frictions, entanglements and reconfigurations of heritage and religion across global South Asia. Drawing on ethnographic research in South Asia and its often-overlooked diasporas in China, Mozambique, Portugal and Italy, the contributions explore how heritage and religious practices and spaces are m…
Frictions, entanglements and reconfigurations
This article introduces the thematic section Heritage and Religion in South Asia and its Diasporas and proposes a new framework for analysing the relationship between religion and heritage. While previous scholarship has often approached this nexus in terms of similarities or conflicts, the article argues that global South Asia offers a productive ground for rethinking the complex ways in which religion and heritage interact and shape each other …
Anthropological Studies and Insights (11 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Law (8 works) · Philosophy (8 works) · Political science (8 works) · Hinduism (7 works) · Religious studies (7 works) · History (6 works) · Law (5 works) · Philosophy (5 works)