Nationalist Constructions and the Enactment of Violence : The Case of Gujarat, 2002

The burning of a train coach carrying Hindu religious pilgrims in Godhra, Gujarat on 27 Feb 2002 led to some of the most horrific communal violence that independent India has ever seen. It has been alleged that even the police and other state representatives were complicit in the massacre of the state's Muslim population. In this context, this research seeks to uncover the ways in which nationalist constructs play a role in human suffering and gross violations of human rights, by analysing the links between the constructions of the Hindu nationalist movement and the way that violence was enacted in Gujarat in 2002. This research examines the ideological rationale of the movement, its characteristic features, and its visualization and manufacture of the Hindu identity. It then argues that the violence, as it manifested itself, would have been impossible in the absence of the particular nationalist myths reified by the Hindu nationalist movement. This analysis would be useful to students of nationalism and identity construction, their relationship with violence and genocide, as well as to the layman interested in Hindu nationalism or the 2002 Gujarat carnage.