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Shaping the 'community' : Hindu nationalist imagination in Gujarat, 1880-1950
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Martinez Saavedra, Beatriz (2013) Shaping the 'community' : Hindu nationalist imagination in Gujarat, 1880-1950. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.
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Official URL: http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b2685681~S1
Abstract
The concern of this research is the nature of the Hindu nationalist ideology in the western
Indian state of Gujarat from 1880 to 1950 since this period is crucial in forging a relationship
between Hindu and Muslim communities based on mutual suspicion. The attempt is to shed
light on the way a fundamentalist ideology is configured in increasingly exclusivist terms
whereby minorities in the subcontinent were gradually granted a marginal citizenship
subordinated to a Hindu cultural mainstream.
The deconstruction of the nationalistic discourses of some representative individual
figures and groups -the Arya Samaj, the Hindu Mahasabha, K.M. Munshi and Vallabhbhai
Patel- allowed unravelling a trajectory of this ideology identifying its major fluctuations. The
focus on Gujarati nationalism of Hindu tradition as opposed to a rather exceptional Gandhian
nationalism and its commitment to non-violence made possible to explain the current political
culture in India nowadays that inherited the legacy of the agitational politics of those years.
Along with the historiographical analysis of these discourses, the research explores
the mobilizational strategies accompanying the ideological dimension. The political
campaigns of these actors were fundamental in spreading a communal consciousness that
enabled a history of perennial confrontation between Hindus and Muslims, an aspect whose
origin can be traced in the colonial historiography on India.
In this sense, the research aims not only at being a contribution to the academic debate
on the formation of a national consciousness in Gujarat, but also attempts to elucidate the
motivations behind communal violence grounded on the circulation of stereotypes and their
exploitation. The study contributes to the understanding of contemporary violence as a result
of a gradual communalization of politics and daily life that imbibes from the distortion of the
historical paradigms that by the end of the nineteenth century still coped with
multiculturalism.
Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) | ||||
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Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BL Religion J Political Science > JC Political theory |
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Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Hinduism and politics -- India -- Gujarat, Nationalism -- India -- Gujarat | ||||
Official Date: | March 2013 | ||||
Dates: |
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Institution: | University of Warwick | ||||
Theses Department: | Department of History | ||||
Thesis Type: | PhD | ||||
Publication Status: | Unpublished | ||||
Supervisor(s)/Advisor: | Hardiman, David | ||||
Extent: | iv, 282 leaves. | ||||
Language: | eng |
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