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    <title>South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal</title>
    <link>http://samaj.revues.org</link>
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      <title>Stephen Cohen, The Idea of Pakistan</title>
      <link>http://samaj.revues.org/index214.html</link>
      <description><![CDATA[]]></description><author>samajonline@gmail.com (Mariam Mufti)</author>
      <pubDate>Wed, 08 Apr 2009 00:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
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      <title>Indian elections 2009: Contests in Context</title>
      <link>http://samaj.revues.org/index2674.html</link>
      <description><![CDATA[]]></description><author>samajonline@gmail.com </author>
      <pubDate>Thu, 02 Apr 2009 00:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
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      <title>The Controversy over the Buddhas of Bamiyan</title>
      <link>http://samaj.revues.org/index992.html</link>
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        <![CDATA[
        <r2r:section1>Introduction: From Artemis temple at Ephesus to Bamiyan</r2r:section1>
        <p class="texte" lang="fr-FR" dir="ltr">In 1840, <em>La Revue des Deux Mondes</em> published an amazing and satirical poem titled <em>Érostrate au temple d’Ephèse</em>. Written by the then well-known poet Auguste Barbier (1805-1882), it was meant, according to a contemporary critic, to ‘castigate the ambitious mediocrity that stops at nothing even at crime, when ambition and celebrity are at stake’<sup></sup>. My idea is precisely to start with the famous iconoclast Erostrate and with the destruction of the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus in 356 BC as a paradigmatic way to speak about the destruction of the Buddhas in Bamiyan (Afghanistan), some 2,357 years later<span  style="font-family:Times;"><strong><sup></sup></strong></span>.</p>
        <p class="texte" lang="fr-FR" dir="ltr">Barbier does not put the monument itself at the centre of the poem, but he definitely hints at the very person of the iconoclast, fascinated by the sacrilege and the outrage he was to commit, a sacrilege that future generations will recall tirelessly<span  style="font-family:Times;  font-size:12.0pt;"><strong></strong></span> In the poem, the outrage consists first in an offence to the deities, or rather to </p> (...)]]>
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      <author>samajonline@gmail.com (Pierre Centlivres)</author>
      <pubDate>Wed, 31 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://samaj.revues.org/index992.html</guid>
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      <title>From Protesters to MartyrsHow to Become a 'True' Sikh</title>
      <link>http://samaj.revues.org/index1532.html</link>
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        <![CDATA[
        <p class="abstract" dir="ltr">This article studies the protest which started in Punjab in May 2007 following a ceremony performed by Baba Gurmeet Ram Raheem Singh (GRRS), head of Dera Sacha Sauda, which was considered as blasphemous by a section of the Sikh community. The aim of this article is to understand the motivation of the actors of the protest itself: How did the Sikh protesters legitimate their reaction one year later? What kinds of reasons have led hundreds of Sikhs from very different social background to take the streets?What kind of emotions played a role in the Sikhs’ mobilization?</p>]]>
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      <author>samajonline@gmail.com (Lionel Baixas et Charlène Simon)</author>
      <pubDate>Wed, 31 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://samaj.revues.org/index1532.html</guid>
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      <title>Outrageous State, Sectarianized Citizens:Deconstructing the ‘Textbook Controversy’ in the Northern Areas, Pakistan</title>
      <link>http://samaj.revues.org/index1172.html</link>
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        <p class="abstract" dir="ltr">This paper examines the ‘textbook controversy’ (2000-2005) that arose when the Pakistan state introduced new, overtly Sunni textbooks in the Northern Areas, and the local Shia population began to agitate for a more balanced curriculum. The conflict reached an acute stage during 2004-2005, as violent confrontations took place between Shia and Sunni communities, and a constant curfew paralyzed daily life in Gilgit for eleven months. I argue that the Shia mobilization against textbook Islam was not just a form of “sectarian” outrage; rather, it symbolized a broader political claim to inclusion in a context of long-standing regional subordination and religious suppression. The politics of sectarian emotions in the Northern Areas must therefore be understood in relation to the regulatory processes of state-making, which are the very source and embodiment of ‘sectarianism’ and ‘outrage’ in the region. </p>]]>
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      <author>samajonline@gmail.com (Nosheen Ali)</author>
      <pubDate>Wed, 31 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://samaj.revues.org/index1172.html</guid>
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      <title>Constructing Outraged Communities and State Responses:The Taslima Nasreen Saga in 1994 and 2007</title>
      <link>http://samaj.revues.org/index1262.html</link>
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        <![CDATA[
        <p class="abstract" dir="ltr">Taslima Nasreen, the exiled Bangladeshi author, was forced to leave India, her adopted homeland, in March 2008 after being under ‘security protection’ for months following street agitation against her writings in Kolkata. The events between August 2007, when she was physically attacked in Hyderabad, and March 2008, when she left the country, were reminiscent of those in Bangladesh in 1994 which led to her departure from there. In both instances, the states’ responses were her forced removal from the country to placate the agitators. In this paper I analyze the events on the ground and the responses of the states. I argue that these events demonstrate how ‘outraged communities’ are constructed, and symbols are invented to mobilize the community. The role of state has received little attention in the extant discussions while I contend that states bear a significant responsibility in engendering the controversy.</p>]]>
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      <author>samajonline@gmail.com (Ali Riaz)</author>
      <pubDate>Wed, 31 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://samaj.revues.org/index1262.html</guid>
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      <title>The Political Theology of Violence in Contemporary India</title>
      <link>http://samaj.revues.org/index1872.html</link>
      <description>
        <![CDATA[
        <p class="abstract" lang="fr-FR" dir="ltr">What are we to make of the fact that most violence in India rarely has any visible or clear actors? Why is most violence represented as 'pure events' without identifiable actors – but as 'mobs', as spontaneous combustion, as spontaneous rage that arises from perceived collective grievances and insults? Why in a country saturated in political rhetoric is it that acts of violence have acquired their own semiotic register, a singular form of 'political communication'? Fire and incidents of arson are at the heart of this naturalization of violence, as events without actors. Fire is not only one of the densest cultural signifiers in India, it also is at the heart of the transgressions, the exceptions, the taboos, the sacrifices, the agency, the sense of <em>communitas</em> that unfold in times of heightened conflict and violent clashes with the state or other communities. Drawing on examples from Mumbai and elsewhere, the paper attempts to theorize and elaborate the nexus between fire, violence and collective sentiments.</p>]]>
      </description>
      <author>samajonline@gmail.com (Thomas Blom Hansen)</author>
      <pubDate>Wed, 31 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://samaj.revues.org/index1872.html</guid>
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      <title>Hindu Nationalism and the (Not So Easy) Art of Being OutragedThe Ram Setu Controversy</title>
      <link>http://samaj.revues.org/index1372.html</link>
      <description>
        <![CDATA[
        <p class="abstract" dir="ltr">Hindu nationalists have become experts in the art of being outraged after the crystallization of the <em>Hindutva</em> ideology in the 1920s. Articulating a deep rooted inferiority complex, they have tried hard to denounce the disrespectful behaviour of the minorities they feared most – especially the Muslims – in order to mobilize new followers. Such a process was likely to trigger riots and to polarise society along communal lines – and eventually to translate into votes. However, a purely instrumentalist interpretation of the Hindu nationalist use of outrage would be too simplistic. The use of sacred symbols is not that easy, as evident from the case of the <em>Ram Setu</em> movement. It shows that the <em>Sangh Parivar</em> finds it more difficult to mobilize followers when the culprits are not Muslims. It also shows that the exploitation of the outrage is more complicated when its instigators are born Hindus. In any case, the holy character of the outraged symbol is not enough: it has to be historical; and it has to be useful too.</p>]]>
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      <author>samajonline@gmail.com (Christophe Jaffrelot)</author>
      <pubDate>Wed, 31 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://samaj.revues.org/index1372.html</guid>
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      <title>The 2006 Anti-‘Danish Cartoons’ Riot in LahoreOutrage and the Emotional Landscape of Pakistani Politics</title>
      <link>http://samaj.revues.org/index1652.html</link>
      <description>
        <![CDATA[
        <p class="abstract" dir="ltr">How can a long-distance outrage provoke social protest, even riots? The street demonstration against the 'Danish cartoons' that took place in Lahore on 14<sup>th</sup> February 2006 was primarily an expressive protest, publicly voicing its anger and moral discontent. As such, it offers a fruitful micropolitical site to understand how emotions contribute to shape the culture of dissent in contemporary Pakistan. Based on interviews with protestors, this article elaborates, first, on the linkages between anger, honour, the cognitively framed belief of being 'provoked', and biographical emotional repertoires. Second, it looks at the conflicting emotions displayed in the public arena: a desire of <em>communitas</em> yet destruction, an expression of compulsory feeling but subversive emotions as well. Finally, it argues that this protest has to be replaced in the larger framework of the state's singular politics of emotion that informs public debates in Pakistan, and particularly so in Punjab. Hence, the article focuses on a dimension often neglected in the literature on emotions and social movements: the emotional-institutional context.</p>]]>
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      <author>samajonline@gmail.com (Amélie Blom)</author>
      <pubDate>Wed, 31 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://samaj.revues.org/index1652.html</guid>
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    <item>
      <title>The 'Righteous Anger' of the PowerlessInvestigating Dalit Outrage over Caste Violence</title>
      <link>http://samaj.revues.org/index1892.html</link>
      <description>
        <![CDATA[
        <p class="abstract" dir="ltr">This contribution brings to our attention a Dalit ('untouchable') protest movement against caste violence (the 2006 Khairlanji massacre). Although anger is supposedly an emotion used in an open and demonstrative manner by the powerful as a means to enact their domination, the Dalit movement engaged in acts of ‘emotion work’ that upset such a social mapping of emotions. The paper engages critically with the sterile and biased concept of ‘axiological neutrality’ and advocates instead the heuristic possibilities enabled by the ethnographers’ personal exposure to the emotion work performed by social movements. The protest’s ideological stance illustrates the politically marginalised Dalits’ appropriation of democratic conceptions through the language of injustice and outrage. Two different sets of actors involved in the protest are distinguished: human rights and progressive activists of the peasant NGO movement on the one hand, and the local anti-caste movement of Dalits on the other. The distinct kinds of emotion work each set of actors performed, and the framing of the massacre as an outrage to moral values, highlights how, in the mobilisation for Dalit rights, the popular language of communal outrage and the language of democratic rights articulate with and support one another.</p>]]>
      </description>
      <author>samajonline@gmail.com (Nicolas Jaoul)</author>
      <pubDate>Wed, 31 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://samaj.revues.org/index1892.html</guid>
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