Feminist Peace and the Violence of Communalism Community, Gender and Caste in India

This book examines how narratives of communal conflicts in south India affect Muslims, women, and the lower castes, entrenching complex realities of marginalisation and violence.

This book investigates how specific conceptions of community, gender, and caste shape political repertoires and social practices, entrenching complex layers of marginalisation that particularly affect Muslims, women, and the lower castes. Through extensive empirical research, this book traces a thread, connecting Hyderabad’s history of communalism with the reality of everyday life in so-called “riot-prone” neighbourhoods. The book moves between political discourse and daily life, bringing attention to how minority voices navigate and mould the space of interfaith relations and community belonging and emphasising their political significance within a context dominated by narratives of communal conflicts. The book concludes with a reflection on the entanglements of dominant conflict paradigms and the lived experience of marginality across multiple axes of difference, positioning this interplay as crucial for understanding the various dimensions of political violence in contemporary societies.

This book will be of much interest to students of feminist peace research, political violence, Asian studies, and International Relations.