Dissentiments: Non-religion, Violence and the Politics of Visibility in South Asia

by Jacob Copeman, Amelie Blom, Ben Laws

In 2013 and the years that followed, a series of attacks unfolded across India, Pakistan and Bangladesh – attributed to militant Hindu nationalist, Islamist, and sometimes complicit state actors – targeting irreligious dissenters. These included the murder of rationalist leader Narendra Dabholkar in India, the machete attacks on 'atheist bloggers' in Bangladesh, and the death sentence imposed on academic Junaid Hafeez in Pakistan. Amid a vast literature on Hindutva, militant Islam, communal politics and the legal regimes that surround them, Dissentiments approaches these dynamics from a distinctive their fraught and sometimes violent relationship with people labelled as non-religious. Drawing on extensive ethnographic research in Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and Europe, it examines how these individuals navigate the risks of public expression where religion remains intertwined with nationalism and political authority, and perspectives on how non-religious critique becomes both vulnerable and politically productive. This title is also available as open access on Cambridge Core.

285 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication November 30, 2026