Composing Violence

More about the book

The book explores the 2002 Gujarat riots, where armed Hindu mobs targeted Muslims, resulting in over a thousand deaths. It argues that such state-sanctioned violence catalyzes significant shifts in law and public culture, paving the way for a Hindu supremacist state. Through an analysis of legal activism, media coverage, and police archives, the author presents violence as a governance tool that shapes societal structures, revealing how modern democracy can produce a hierarchy of majorities and minorities, with violence as an intrinsic element.