The colors of violence : cultural identities, religion, and conflict /
Kakar, Sudhir.
Chicago : University of Chicago Press,
1996.
For decades India has been intermittently tormented by brutal outbursts of religious violence, thrusting thousands of ordinary Hindus and Muslims into bloody conflict. In this provocative work, psychoanalyst Sudhir Kakar exposes the psychological roots of Hindu-Muslim violence and examines with grace and intensity the subjective experience of religious hatred in his native land.
Through riveting case studies, Kakar explores cultural stereotypes, religious antagonisms, ethnocentric histories, and episodic violence to trace the development of both Hindu and Muslim identities. He argues that in early childhood the social identity of every Indian is grounded in traditional religious identifications and communalism. Together these bring about deep-set psychological anxieties and animosities toward the other.
For Hindus and Muslims alike, violence becomes morally acceptable when communally and religiously sanctioned. As the changing pressures of modernization and globalization in a multicultural society grate at traditional religious-cultural identities, ethnic-religious conflicts ignite. The Colors of Violence speaks with eloquence and urgency to anyone concerned with the postmodern clash of religious and cultural identities.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 205-212) and index.
Preface -- Acknowledgments -- 1. The Setting -- Shifting Perspectives -- The City: "Unparalleled in the World" -- Hindus and Muslims: Versions of the Past -- Between Enemy Lines -- 2. The Riot -- The Story of a Cousin Told by His Elder Brother -- The Cousin from Lahore -- Territory and Passion -- Profile of a Riot -- Hyderabad: December 1990 -- 3. The Warriors -- Testing the Tigers -- The Violent Poet -- Young Tigers and Pussy Cats -- Spreading the Wind -- Psyche and Wrestling -- 4. Victims and Others I: The Hindus -- A Pardi Family -- Pardis and the Modern World -- The Night of Long Knives -- Pardis and Muslims: The Past -- Image of the Muslim -- Gandi, Psychoanalysts, and Cows -- Children's Tales -- 5. Victims and Others II: The Muslims -- Rashid's Family -- Days and Nights of the Riot -- Barbar's Children -- The Victim Response -- Morality of Violence -- Morality and the Hindus -- 6. A New Hindu Identity -- Shadows of Mourning -- Secred Wounds -- Cultural Identity and Cure -- Psychology versus Politics? -- Search for Hindu-ness -- The Virtuous Virago -- 7. The Muslim Fundamentalist Identity -- Meeting the Mullahs -- Religious Politics -- 8. Conclusion: Religious Conflict in the Modern World -- Religious Identities and Violence -- Histories and Futures -- Appendixes -- 1. The Giessen Test -- 2. The Morality Interview -- Notes -- Index.
For decades India has been intermittently tormented by brutal outbursts of religious violence, thrusting thousands of ordinary Hindus and Muslims into bloody conflict. In this provocative work, psychoanalyst Sudhir Kakar exposes the psychological roots of Hindu-Muslim violence and examines with grace and intensity the subjective experience of religious hatred in his native land.
Through riveting case studies, Kakar explores cultural stereotypes, religious antagonisms, ethnocentric histories, and episodic violence to trace the development of both Hindu and Muslim identities. He argues that in early childhood the social identity of every Indian is grounded in traditional religious identifications and communalism. Together these bring about deep-set psychological anxieties and animosities toward the other.
For Hindus and Muslims alike, violence becomes morally acceptable when communally and religiously sanctioned. As the changing pressures of modernization and globalization in a multicultural society grate at traditional religious-cultural identities, ethnic-religious conflicts ignite. The Colors of Violence speaks with eloquence and urgency to anyone concerned with the postmodern clash of religious and cultural identities.
Communalism
Violence
Violence
Conflict (Psychology)
Hindus
Muslims