Routine Violence: Nations, Fragments, Histories

by Gyanendra Pandey (ed.)

Much has been written about the “extraordinary” violence of recent history, its brutality, and the impossibility of describing it. Routine Violence focuses on the violence of much more routine political practices—the drawing up of political categories and the writing of national histories.The book takes its material from the history of twentieth-century the land of Gandhi and of effective nonviolent resistance to British colonial rule. It asks questions about how particular histories are claimed as the “real” histories of a nation; how the “sacred” nation, and its (“mainstream”) culture and politics, come to be constructed; and how a certain inducement to violence, and a collective amnesia regarding that violence, follow from all of this.This is the first book to engage in a sustained investigation of the routine political violence of our times.No sales in India, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan.

Genres: India, History, Nonfiction

Hardcover

First published November 2, 2005

Reviews

[Melody Kernan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The use of the phrase "routine violence" brings to the light the effects of the labels we create for groups in our everyday language without taking a closer look at how they identify. Pandey creates the connection between routine violence (language, implicit bias) and spectacular violence (physical acts of violence) to show how the smallest choices in our language can have social and psychological effects on a group of people. This is a must-read!

[Vincent Gaddis · Rating 3 out of 5]

An important analysis of marginalization and the way historians and states frame violence. It is an important text. Casual readers may find it too 'high brow' and some knowledge of Indian history is helpful.

[Devin Creed · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very poignant analysis/critique of modern state and nationalism, but I wanted more on the creation of routine violence and what it means for the state.

[Caleb · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the text for my 'Religion and Politics of South Asia' class. I really enjoyed the ideas put forth about fragments and routine violence. I would recommend this to anyone looking at subaltern groups around the world.