Militant publics in India : physical culture and violence in the making of a modern polity / Arafaat A. Valiani.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Valiani, Arafaat A.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Gandhi, Mahatma, 1869-1948.

Political and social views.

Hinduism and politics.

History.

Religious militants.

Violence--Political aspects.

Violence.

Physical education and training--Political aspects.

Physical education and training.

Political participation.

Nationalism.

Gujarat (India)--Politics and government--20th century.

Gujarat (India).

Gujarat (India)--Politics and government--21st century.

Gujarat (India)--Social conditions.

Nationalism--India--Gujarat--History.

Political participation--India--Gujarat--History.

Physical education and training--Political aspects--India--Gujarat--History.

Violence--Political aspects--India--Gujarat--History.

Religious militants--India--Gujarat--History.

Hinduism and politics--India--Gujarat--History.

Gandhi, Mahatma, 1869-1948--Political and social views.

Gandhi.

India--Gujarat.

Physical Description:

xiv, 266 pages : illustrations, maps ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Palgrave Macmillan, [2011]

Summary:

"An historically informed ethnographic study of conceptions, arenas, and practices of physical training and militancy in the context of religious nationalism in twentieth- and twenty-first-century western India. Arafaat A. Valiani offers readers a telling glimpse and a rare insider perspective of the social world in which militants are made, explaining how group physical training and technico-ethical experiments with it have created a powerful religious nationalist movement in the Indian state of Gujarat that has been held responsible for carrying out massive episodes of ethnic cleansing against Indian minorities. A close reading of Mohandas Gandhi's writing on popular mobilization and resistance and a detailed historical investigation of hitherto understudied episodes of satyagraha (Gandhi's celebrated concept of non-violence), this work illuminates debates on politics in South Asian history, anthropology, and sociology. Valiani interprets his own direct observation of Hindu nationalist pogroms in contemporary Gujarat, in addition to testimonies and ethnographic observations of the inner workings of the movement discovered by the author when he immersed himself as a "trainee" within it"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Section 1. Modalities of political mobilization

Efficacies of political action : physical culture and the kinesthetic politics of Gandhian nationalism

Preparatory training and disciplined Satyagraha in Bardoli (1928)

Militant peacekeeping and subterfugic violence of the Quit India Movement (1942)

section 2. Elaborating political itineraries

Physical culture, civic activism, and Hindu nationalism in the city

Physical training, ethical discipline, and creative violence : zones of self-mastery in the Hindu nationalist movement

Epilogue

Glossary.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780230112575

0230112579

OCLC:

719428025