ABSTRACT
India is a democratic success story, but one significant and recurring problem in the country has been violence among its many ethnic groups, ranging from Hindu-Muslim riots to Maoist rebellion. This chapter provides a broad overview of the topic of ethnic violence in India. It begins by analyzing what scholars mean when they talk about ethnicity, ethnic groups, and ethnic violence – popular but usually quite ill-defined terms. It then examines the scope of violence across contemporary India. The third section considers four perspectives to help us understand why this ethnic violence occurs: historical, rationalist, psychological, and institutionalist explanations. The fourth section considers an important public policy question: given what we know about ethnic violence, how do we stop it? The final section concludes the analysis and considers avenues for future research.
