Friday, November 1, 2013,
2:30 pm to 5:00 pm
This workshop will investigate the history of violence and sexual violence against minorities, particularly associated with the Gujarat Pogrom of 2002. During this pogrom, Muslims were the target of brutal violence at the hands of Hindus, with Muslim women and children suffering horrific acts of sexual violence. The Chief Minister of the state of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, under whose tenure this spate of violence occurred, was never formally tried. Yet his administration is popularly seen to have condoned the violence and perhaps even encouraged it. In spite of this, Modi has been popular with the Hindu majority in the country and is heralded as the face of the new economic policy regime in India. He has been recently anointed as the Prime Minister candidate of the current opposition party in the country. This workshop builds upon the example of Narendra Modi to discuss the implications for Indian democracy. Guest speakers are Mytheli Sreenivas (History & Women's Studies, Ohio State University) and Biju Mathew (Rider University, NJ).