The Social Construction of Kandhamal’s Violence

This chapter talks about Paul Brass, who has argued against the academic inclination to seek the “causes” of riots in his book The Production of Hindu-Muslim Violence in Contemporary India from 2003. It discusses the causal explanations of riots that are always overly simplistic and do not take into account the fact that all kinds of violent actions take place under the cover of the discourse of communalism. It also suggests that analysts should focus instead on the forms of violence and on the specific question of who is served by communal conflict. The chapter identifies the groups that benefited from the riots in Kandhamal which supported the Sangh Parivar's project of religious homogenization. It outlines the significant effects of riots on the religious landscape of Kandhamal.