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DOI: 10.1177/006996670003400206

2000 34: 274Contributions to Indian SociologyAmrita Shodhan

Press, 1998. xix + 323 pp. Notes. Rs. 495 (hardback)service of nationalism and other essays. Delhi: Oxford University

Book reviews and notices : MADHU KISHWAR, Religion at the

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and SayyidAhmad Khan. Swatos does not have any articles on countries.

Significantly, neither encyclopaedia has an article on secularism, but secularisa-

tion is discussed in both.The articles in Swatos are shorter and more numerous. Being the more general

in scope, this encyclopaedia has spread its net wider. Swatos also has usefulinformation on professional bodies and journals. It is not always clear, however,why topics and personalities that have no direct relevance to the study of religionhave been included.As examples, I might mentionAdolescence/Youth Cultureand George Homans. I have noted one factual error in the article on Sikhism inSwatos: the Khalsa was established in 1699, and not in 1708 which is the yearof Guru Gobind Singhs death (p. 468).

Both encyclopaedias are useful and will prove to be immensely so for studentsof religion. Swatos might well be preferred for quick information; Wuthnows

in-depth articles will require more time to read.At 125 and 250 US dollars

respectively, both encyclopaedias will be beyond the reach of most libraries inIndia. One would hope that Sage India might take the necessary steps to have theSwatos encyclopaedia made available at a special, substantially lower, price inthis country.

Institute ofEconomic GrowthDelhi

T.N. MADAN

MADHU KISHWAR, Religion at the service of nationalism and other essays. Delhi:Oxford University Press, 1998. xix + 323 pp. Notes. Rs. 495 (hardback).

The book is a collection of a decade of Kishwars writings on major events con-

cerning communal and human rights abuses in India. Beginning with the massacreof the Sikhs in 1984 in Delhi and experiences with Punjab politics till 1986, shecovers the ground of the VHP-BJP-Shiv Sena inspired riots around the destruc-

tion of Babri Masjid between 1991 and 1994, discusses the Uniform Civil Code,the issue of Kashmir, and one right-wing attack on Christians in Kerala.

It is convenient to have the articles compiled together, since they give a clear

description of the problem of communalism in India. The book is a good sourceto explore Indian secularist and activist critiques of the events under study, as theauthor has been a leading figure and opinion-maker. Her vision is consistentwithout major changes or breaks in her understanding ofcommunal politics andthe role of the government.

In each essay she remains a staunch critic of authoritarian centrist government

_ policies. Her accounts are based on interviews and independent investigations.They report unreported accounts of violence during pogroms and raids in thefirst person, with names, places and sources. She personalises the terror unlikethe formal six people of a certain community-type anaesthetised statistics of

violence in the national press.The importance of the tollection of essays lies in the questions they pose to

us today. Her writing reminds us of the stands we have taken in the past.About

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the demolition of the mosque she said in December 1993, Had the

BJP-RSS-VHP Bajrang Dal and Co. stopped at the demolition of the Babri

mosque inAyodhya and proceeded to celebrate their victory through aarti andbhajan more people might have accepted their claim that they were motivated byreligious sentiment (p. 134). However, the BJP, she says, is a threat because itresorts to criminal acts of violence (p. 134). There is a demonisation of theBJP-VHP and a careful distinction of religion and faith from politics.

Today the BJP has come to power and there is a modification of their hate-

filled, violent politics. Sadhavi Ritambhara and Uma Bharati, employed for the

purpose of rousing the masses, are replaced by Vajpayee and Joshis urbane

images of not supporting bigotry.Now we urgently need to distinguish between bigotry and criminality; between

communal rape and ordinary rape. If the latter is criminal and so is the former,how does one fix responsibility on the individual/group of rapists and the ideo-

logy they espouse? The moral dilemma today is how to face the right wing andhold it responsible for violence and not alienate their violence from their ideo-

logy. Is it better for the right wing to seem to pose no physical threat or is itmore effective to have them expose themselves, so to say, by indulging in theirextremism of targeted violence?

Kishwars thesis

regarding religionis

clearlystated in the

essaycalled In

defence of our dharma, that there is no religion in the politics of the so-called reli-

gious parties-the BJP-VHP In fact, their politics represents the takeover of reli-

gious institutions by politicians and a homogenising secular nationalism. For her,the truly religious identities are the source of resistance to homogenising nationa-list identities. She describes the nature ofVHP-BJP-inspired violence as against aHindu/Indian ethic. This kind of glorification of Hinduism and hope in the innate

pluralism of Hinduism is all-pervasive but highly unfortunate and ahistorical. Itfeeds into the very communal rhetoric that she has so vigorously criticised.

Her attitude to problems remains extremely positive throughout. There is arefreshing absence of cynicism and despair regarding the possibility of change.A consistent recognition is that the middle-class elite, her readers, can andshould do something. They have been capable of challenging such problems inthe past and should attempt to do so again. Her ideas contravene the fundamentalMarxist understanding that change will come from the groups most oppressed.

Kishwars solution can often be summed up in the formula-decentralisation

and accountability. She feels that if cultural groups are recognised, the funda-mentalists will lose their violent sting. Such recognition must be given to the

Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims through decentralisation and working out institutionalsafeguards against the use and abuse of power.

It is in her masterly analysis of the ills of centralised government that we mayseek further solutions for current problems. She traces how the centralisation of

power and incomplete representation of various cultural groups create conditionsfor violence. The governments incompetence, lawlessness and corruption for

personal or sectarian benefit permits violence. In todays context when the right

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wing is in power this analysis becomes even more relevant. Her demand for

working out safeguards against the governments power needs to be voiced evenmore urgently.

It would have been interesting to see more of the author in the introduction.As she says, the essays are reproduced almost without any changes. They docu-ment some of the most important events in the history of communal violence inthe country. The introduction by the author could have spoken of her own jour-ney into this field of investigative journalism and reporting. ln fact, it is hard towrite a review of the book as the introduction reads like a review in itself. It is a

very objective description of the contexts of the essays, how the events that theydescribe

happenedand the authors

political analysis.What it does not

sayis

how she came to participate in the events. The evolution of her own perspectiveand the changes she sees in her own understanding remain unaddressed.

Obviously, however, evolution of thought is not the main purpose of the bookas the essays are not arranged chronologically but thematically. Together theyare a welcome documentation of the excesses of both the BJP (and associates)and the Congress (I). Whether we agree or disagree with her analysis, MadhuKishwar has surely put her finger on the confounding problems of contemporarypolitics and the human rights agenda.

Mumbai AMRITA SHODHAN

J.S. GREWAL, The Sikhs of the Punjab (The new Cambridge history of IndiaII. 3), revised edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. xxv +277 pp. Maps, notes, appendices, bibliography, glossary, index. $15.95

(paperback)/$24.95 (hardback).

First published in 1990 (and reprinted in 1994), the book under review has a new

epilogue covering the years 1984 to 1997 (pp. 228-41). The earlier edition had

concluded on a somewhat non-committal note regarding the situation then pre-vailing in Punjab. In the present edition the author is more explicitly sympathetictowards the regional aspirations of the Sikhs and forthrightly critical of the role ofthe Congress Sikhs and their methods in the restoration of democracy and peace-ful life in the state of Punjab. For Professor Grewal (as for the present reviewer)what is at issue is the genuineness of the federal structure in the country-the spiritof cultural pluralism and accommodation rather than national integration imposedfrom above.

Grewals survey of Sikh

historyhas

alreadyfound its

placeamong the out-

standing works on the subject. With credentials of a high order as historian and

author, he presents an excellent narrative within the available space, highlight-ing some of the major events and personalities of Sikh history. His approach isnon-controversial. While this is largely welcome, it does play down some of thedebate and discussion regarding Sikh history. The fact that this history covers only500 years does not at all mean that the record is complete, straight, or reliable. Theoral tradition has often tended to overshadow known (or unknown) facts.

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