Speaker: Adnan Naseemullah (Oxford)
Violence against subaltern ethnic groups is still prevalent, yet the study of such violence remains neglected. In this paper, we frame the distinctiveness and propose an explanation for ethnic violence under conditions of hierarchy. We argue that contestation between hierarchical social norms and formal egalitarian norms, to which subaltern groups appeal, leads to violence by the dominant against the subaltern, to defend hierarchical norms and discourage transgression. We illustrate the distinctiveness of this violence through an original dataset of 2,330 incidents of violence against Dalits, along with cross-national conflict data and hate-crime data: it is one-sided, occurs mostly in rural areas, has particular repertoires, and is not strategically motivated by electoral competition and the gains from ethnic polarization. We provide evidence for our explanation through case-studies of anti-Dalit violence separated by time, geography, and political context. We also present dynamics of hierarchicalization, suggesting that egalitarian change is not inevitable.
Adnan Naseemullah is Professor of Comparative and South Asian Politics and Fellow of Wolfson College, the University of Oxford. He has previously taught at the London School of Economics, Johns Hopkins University and King’s College London. His research focuses on the political economy of national development, state formation and political violence and the politics of populism. He is the author of three books: Development after Statism (Cambridge, 2017), Patchwork States (Cambridge 2022), and Righteous Demagogues (with Pradeep Chhibber, Oxford 2024).
All are welcome
Enquiries: asian@sant.ox.ac.uk or 01865-274559
