ABSTRACT
The Rationale and the Context The present study was motivated by a desire to understand the phenomenon of communalism, particularly as it unfolded since the 1990s. The politicisation of the question of Hindu-Muslim relations, which has resurfaced in a particularly sharp way since the mid-1980s, with its focus on the Babri Masjid and the Shah Bano cases, made one alert to the tenuous and fragile situation of Muslim Indians as citizens in general, and Muslim women in particular, as most acutely epitomising the vulnerability of the community. The destruction of the Babri Masjid in 1992 symbolised the convergence of the advent of politicised religion (i.e., the coming into political dominance of the forces of Hindutva) and the initiation of the neo-liberal paradigm, along with attendant social processes, with serious implications for the situation of the Muslims in India, as is evident in the worst ‘riots’. The convergence, at least temporally, of these two processes has led to an increase and intensification of various forms of social and civil strife. Chossudovsky (1997) has analysed the exacerbation of social and ethnic strife under the impact of globalisation.
