Violence and Democracy in India (Hardback)  | Released: 01 Mar 2007

Violence and Democracy in India examines the relationship between the extreme violence of riots, pogroms, acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing and the ordinary, everyday, often invisible structures and practices of violence in India. Usually, these exceptional, extreme moments of state-sponsored violence are treated as aberrations, quite separate from the everyday world of politics-as-usual, particularly when the norm in question is that of liberal democracy. In contrast, Violence and Democracy explores the ways in which democracy enables violence, and how violence in turn transforms the practices and pursuit of democracy. About the Author: Amrita Basu is the Paino Professor of Political Science and Women's and Gender Studies at Amherst College and author of Two Faces of Protest: Contrasting Modes of Women's Activism in India. Srirupa Roy is Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Massachusetts-Amherst and author of Beyond Belief: India and the Politics of Postcolonial Nationalism.