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Book reviews and notices : MADHU KISHWAR, Religion at the service of nationalism and other essays. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1998. xix + 323 pp. Notes. Rs. 495 (hardback)
Amrita Shodhan Contributions to Indian Sociology 2000 34: 274 DOI: 10.1177/006996670003400206 The online version of this article can be found at: http://cis.sagepub.com/content/34/2/274.citation

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Sayyid Ahmad Khan. Swatos does not have any articles on countries. Significantly, neither encyclopaedia has an article on secularism, but secularisation 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 useful information on professional bodies and journals. It is not always clear, however, why topics and personalities that have no direct relevance to the study of religion have been included. As examples, I might mention Adolescence/Youth Culture and George Homans. I have noted one factual error in the article on Sikhism in Swatos: the Khalsa was established in 1699, and not in 1708 which is the year of Guru Gobind Singhs death (p. 468). Both encyclopaedias are useful and will prove to be immensely so for students of 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 in India. One would hope that Sage India might take the necessary steps to have the Swatos encyclopaedia made available at a special, substantially lower, price in this country. Institute Delhi

of Economic Growth

T.N. MADAN

MADHU KISHWAR, Religion at the service Oxford University Press, 1998. xix

of nationalism and other essays.

+

Delhi: 323 pp. Notes. Rs. 495 (hardback).

The book is a collection of a decade of Kishwars writings on major events concerning communal and human rights abuses in India. Beginning with the massacre of the Sikhs in 1984 in Delhi and experiences with Punjab politics till 1986, she covers the ground of the VHP-BJP-Shiv Sena inspired riots around the destruction 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 source to explore Indian secularist and activist critiques of the events under study, as the author has been a leading figure and opinion-maker. Her vision is consistent without major changes or breaks in her understanding of communal politics and the 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 the first person, with names, places and sources. She personalises the terror unlike the 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 in Ayodhya and proceeded to celebrate their victory through aarti and bhajan more people might have accepted their claim that they were motivated by religious sentiment (p. 134). However, the BJP, she says, is a threat because it resorts to criminal acts of violence (p. 134). There is a demonisation of the BJP-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 hatefilled, 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 ideology they espouse? The moral dilemma today is how to face the right wing and hold it responsible for violence and not alienate their violence from their ideology. Is it better for the right wing to seem to pose no physical threat or is it more effective to have them expose themselves, so to say, by indulging in their extremism of targeted violence? Kishwars thesis regarding religion is clearly stated in the essay called In defence of our dharma, that there is no religion in the politics of the so-called religious parties-the BJP-VHP In fact, their politics represents the takeover of religious institutions by politicians and a homogenising secular nationalism. For her, the truly religious identities are the source of resistance to homogenising nationalist identities. She describes the nature of VHP-BJP-inspired violence as against a Hindu/Indian ethic. This kind of glorification of Hinduism and hope in the innate pluralism of Hinduism is all-pervasive but highly unfortunate and ahistorical. It feeds into the very communal rhetoric that she has so vigorously criticised. Her attitude to problems remains extremely positive throughout. There is a refreshing absence of cynicism and despair regarding the possibility of change. A consistent recognition is that the middle-class elite, her readers, can and should do something. They have been capable of challenging such problems in the past and should attempt to do so again. Her ideas contravene the fundamental Marxist 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 fundamentalists will lose their violent sting. Such recognition must be given to the Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims through decentralisation and working out institutional safeguards against the use and abuse of power. It is in her masterly analysis of the ills of centralised government that we may seek further solutions for current problems. She traces how the centralisation of power and incomplete representation of various cultural groups create conditions for 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 even more 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 document some of the most important events in the history of communal violence in the country. The introduction by the author could have spoken of her own journey into this field of investigative journalism and reporting. ln fact, it is hard to
write 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 they describe happened and the authors political analysis. What it does not say is how she came to participate in the events. The evolution of her own perspective and the changes she sees in her own understanding remain unaddressed. Obviously, however, evolution of thought is not the main purpose of the book as the essays are not arranged chronologically but thematically. Together they are a welcome documentation of the excesses of both the BJP (and associates) and the Congress (I). Whether we agree or disagree with her analysis, Madhu Kishwar has surely put her finger on the confounding problems of contemporary politics and the human rights agenda. Mumbai AMRITA SHODHAN

J.S. GREWAL, The Sikhs of the Punjab (The new Cambridge history of India II. 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 prevailing in Punjab. In the present edition the author is more explicitly sympathetic towards the regional aspirations of the Sikhs and forthrightly critical of the role of the Congress Sikhs and their methods in the restoration of democracy and peaceful 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 spirit
of cultural pluralism and accommodation rather than national integration imposed from above. Grewals survey of Sikh history has already found its place among the outstanding works on the subject. With credentials of a high order as historian and author, he presents an excellent narrative within the available space, highlighting some of the major events and personalities of Sikh history. His approach is non-controversial. While this is largely welcome, it does play down some of the debate and discussion regarding Sikh history. The fact that this history covers only 500 years does not at all mean that the record is complete, straight, or reliable. The oral tradition has often tended to overshadow known (or unknown) facts.

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