Colonial Legacies and Repertoires of "Ethnic" Violence

The Case of Western India, 1941-2002

Bibliographic Data

ID4898192
AuthorsMeghnad Desai (0000-0002-5451-7254, corresponding author), Manali Desai (0000-0002-8882-8843)
Year2009
Volume22
Issue2
Pages147-179
Publication date2009-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Historical Sociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0952-1909 • E-ISSN: 1467-6443
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1467-6443.2009.01346.x
OpenAlexW2037956934
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited33

The post-colonial state is held to be a weak state whose ease of capture reduces its capacity to suppress violence. The focus on the state, however, risks neglecting the ways in which violence is deployed to render the state weak in popular perception. This perception in turn legitimates claims for a foundational shift in the basis of power. In this paper, the concept of "repertoire" as first used by Charles Tilly, is used to analyze continuities and discontinuities in the development of the "ethnic riot" in urban, western India. As an "extreme" case in which riots have shown considerable durability over time, it highlights a key point, namely, that riots can form part of a strategy of power by simultaneously projecting themselves as popular insurrection and constructing a perception of the state as weak. The persistence of this repertoire, it is further argued, derives from the historical specificities of colonial state formation which promoted an ethnically imagined and hierarchized polity, as well as political struggles which weakened alternative forms of community

Art · Colonialism · Epistemology · Ethnic group · Perception · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Polity · Power (physics · Repertoire · Sociology · State (computer science · State formation · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Political Conflict and Governance · South Asian Studies and Conflicts · Gender Studies · Law

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