Militant Publics in India (PDF)

Arafaat A. Valiani is Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of Oregon, USA.

'In this remarkable book, Valiani looks at the horrific 'saffron' violence of Gujarat in 2002 squarely in the eye and sets out to understand through first-hand encounters with participants how disciplined physical training not only makes tragedy possible but also shapes moral dispositions, new forms of sociality, and civic engagement. In the archival-based historical chapters, he shows us the roots of this training in the nationalist movement and the permeability between Gandhian practice and the violence of the Hindu Right. This absorbing study is a major contribution to understanding modern political life in India.' Barbara D. Metcalf, author of Husain Ahmad Madani: The Jihad for Islam and India's Freedom (2009) and president of the American Historical Association (2010)

'Valiani draws on rich and extensive fieldwork to theorize a series of unexpected links between Mahatma Gandhi, bodily self-fashioning, and performative politics with erudition and verve. He attributes contemporary Hindu nationalism, and the violence of contemporary electoral politics in India more generally, to the unintended (and unacknowledged) outcome of these elements. This is a bold intervention in the debates on democratization that will reward its readers with a distinctive and illuminating interpretation of the persistence of Hindu nationalism in western India.' Arvind Rajagopal, professor of Media Studies and affiliated faculty in the Departments of Sociology and Social and Cultural ANALYSIS, New York University and author of Politics After Television: Hindu Nationalism and the Reshaping of the Public in India

'Subtle yet powerful. By demonstrating the ways that physical training is embedded within local communities and the meanings that therefore adhere to such practices, Valiani enables us to come away with a much different understanding of how and why communal violence occurs. This has dramatic implications for those who seek to combat communal violence, as well as