ABSTRACT
Independent India is no stranger to communal violence. Religion-based conflict has been a sporadic but enduring feature of Indian history reaching back to colonial times and even before that to the Mughal period. There was a short respite from Hindu-Muslim violence after independence, but the cycle of religious violence resumed its course in the 1960s. Almost any small incident – a procession through other community's neighborhood, loud speakers screaming Hindu or Muslim religious messages or songs, eating of beef by Muslim neighbors – can lead to a riot. Can common economic interests of Hindus and Muslims triumph over the votaries of violence? Jagpal Singh's field study tells us how economic transformation can weaken economic interdependence between Hindus and Muslims. Brass's seminal work on Hindu-Muslim violence underscores the importance of such an anti-riot coalition in which the state forges a partnership with the civic associations and anti-violence constituencies.
