ABSTRACT
Chapter 3 demonstrates how the PFI uses the existing psychology of fear among the Muslim community to establish itself as a physical and ideological protector. By analysing ethnographic material from collective action campaigns and movement activities, I show how the leadership creates collective victimhood frames and engages in muscle politics. In order to comprehend the PFI’s politics of victimhood, the chapter further examines the emotional injuries sustained by Indian Muslims after the destruction of the Babri Masjid in 1992 and the election of the Hindu nationalist government in May 2014. Thereby, it addresses the lack of research on emotional pain within the social sciences.
