Violence/Non-Violence: Some Hindu Perspectives

Published in association with Centre de Sciences Humaines, New DelhiHow do we understand those ascetics who have developed an extremely elaborate martial tradition and yet have taken strict vows of non-violence, especially when, for some ascetics today that tradition has been put at the service of the most extreme forms of Hindu militancy? And how is that tough union leaders can, with conviction, share the same ideas as Gandhi, or that Brahmins scarcely hesitate before using the stick, even though they loudly and insistently advertise their faith in non-violence? These ways of acting may in fact allow us to reconsider the understanding of the concepts of violence and non-violence in Hinduism, for there are many aspects of Indian society and culture which effectively contradict ideas, often taken for granted since Gandhi, about the role of violence in it. In reality, how the concepts of violence and non-violence are defined in different aspects of the Hindu tradition cannot be understood if they are dissociated from each other. Rather, as the articles in this volume show, violence very frequently legitimates itself in the name of non-violence as well.

Table of Contents:
On the Concepts of Violence & Non-Violence in Hinduism & Indian Society; The Violence of the Non-Violent, or Ascetics in Combat; On the Rhetoric of Violence; Ancient Brahminism, or Impossible Non-Violence; The Violences of a Hindu Village. The Suicide of a Young Woman: Legitimate Violence & Dominant Castes in Central India; The Initiation of Devi: Violence & Non-Violence in a Vaishnavite Tale; The So-called 'Criminal Tribes' of British India: Colonial Violence & Traditional Violence; Non-Violence in the Country of Violence: Lessons from the Dhanbad Mining Belt; Remarks on Dissuasion in Ancient India; Magical Violence & Non-Violence: Witchcraft in Kerala; The End of a Feud; Community & Violence in Contemporary Punjab; Opposing Gandhi: Hindu Nationalism & Political Violence; Index.

About the Author :
Denis Vidal, Ph.D. in Social Anthropology, is currently working and teaching about the visual anthropology of South Asia. He is the author of Violence and Truth: A Rajasthani Kingdom Confronts Colonial Authority (1997) and he has co-edited two other volumes in India: in collaboration with Philippe Cadène: Webs of Trade: Dynamics of Business Communities in Western India (1997); in collaboration with E. Tarlo and V. Dupont: Delhi: Urban?Space?and?Human?Destinies?(2000).

Gilles Tarabout, Ph.D. in Social Anthropology, has specialised in the study of Kerala's society and popular religious practices. Apart from his own publications in the field, he has co-edited volumes bearing on various themes: Islam and Christianity in India, Religious Possession in South Asia, Conceptions of the Body in Hinduism.

Eric Meyer, has focused in works on the interaction between colonial capitalism and rural society in South Asia with particular reference to peasants, planters and the State in modern Sri Lanka. He is the author of Sri Lanka. Entre particularismes et mondialisation (2001).