Paul R. Brass

National Power and Local Politics in India: A Twenty-Year Perspective

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Selected Works

Books

The Politics of Northern India: 1937 to 1987, Volume I: An Indian Political Life: Charan Singh and Congress Politics, 1937 to 1961

An Indian Political Life focuss on the role of Charan Singh in the politics of the period, while providing a broader perspective on the major issues, controveries, and developments of the time.

Forms of Collective Violence: Riots, Pogroms, and Genocide in Modern India

This collection of essays focus on the various forms of collective violence that have occurred in India during the past six decades, which include riots, pogroms, and genocide.

The Production of Hindu-Muslim Violence in Contemporary India

Explains the persistence of Hindu-Muslim rioting in India.

Theft of an Idol:Text and Context in the Representation of Collective Violence

Narratives of incidents of collective violence.

Riots and Pogroms

Case studies of collective violence in the twentieth century.

The Politics of India Since Independence

Second edition, covering Indian politics and political economy from 1947 to 1992.

Ethnicity and Nationalism: Theory and Comparison

Comparative and theoretical studies of ethnic groups and nationalities in India and the Soviet Union.

Ethnic Groups and the State

Comparative studies in ethnic conflict and the interaction of ethnic identity and the state.

Language, Religion, and Politics in North India

History and analysis of the politics of language and religious movements in northern India,

Factional Politics in an Indian State

The first major study of local politics in post-Independence India.

Articles and Essays

False Dichotomies: Truth, Reason, and Morality in Nietzsche, Foucault, and the Contemporary Social Sciences

Critique of the Social Sciences in Light of the Works of Nietzsche and Foucault

The Political Uses of Crisis: The Bihar Famine of 1966-1967

Focuses on three aspects of the Bihar Famine crisis: the process of defining the situation in Bihar; the rehtoric used in labeling it and in distinguishing it from a "normal" situation; and the responses of the authorities to the crisis.

Collective Violence, Human Rights, and the Politics of Curfew

A consideration of the consequences of curfew restrictions for the populations affected by them and the human rights issues raised by extended and punitive curfew restrictions, with special attention to India.

Victims, Heroes, or Martyrs? Partition and the Problem of Memorialization in Contemporary Sikh History

Discusses the problems of memorialization faced by religious/ethnic communities whose members have been subjected to large-scale, traumatic violence.

Review Symposium: The Production of Hindu-Muslim Violence in Contemporary India by Paul R. Brass

Reviews of my book by Thomas Blom Hansen, A. R. Momin, and Roger Petersen, with my response.

Indian Secularism in Practice

Text of article published in the INDIAN JOURNAL OF SECULARISM, Vol. 9 No. 1 (Jan-Mar 2006)

Biographies of Indian political personalities: Indira Gandhi, Jayaprakash Narayan, Vallabhbhai Patel, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Ram Manohar Lohia, Rafi Ahmad Kidwai, and Charan Singh

Biographies of Indira Gandhi, Jayaprakash Narayan, Vallabhbhai Patel, Lal Bahadur Shastri, and Ram Manohar Lohia in the New Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

Development of an Institutionalised Riot System in Meerut City, 1961 to 1982

Text of article published in the ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL WEEKLY (October 30, 2004).

Elite interests, popular passions, and social power in the language politics of India

Text of article published in Ethnic and Racial Studies, Vol. 27 (No. 3) May 2004, pp. 353-375.

"The Body as Symbol in the Production of Hindu-Muslim violence"

Chapter 1 in Ravinder Kaur (ed.), Religion, Violence and Political Mobilisation in South Asia (New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2005), pp. 46-68.

The 1984 Parliamentary Elections in Uttar Pradesh

Analysis of the 1984 parliamentary election results in Uttar Pradesh

Coalition Politics in North India

Text of article published in The American Political Science Review, Vol. 62, No. 4 (Dec., 1968), 1174-1191.

National Power and Local Politics in India: A Twenty-Year Perspective

Text of article published in Modern Asian Studies, XVIII, No. 1 (February, 1984), 89-118.

Muslims in Hindu Nationalist India

Transcript of a discussion with Asghar Ali Engineer at the Center for Ethics and Public Policy, Washington, D. C., held on January 12, 2004

The Gujarat Pogrom of 2002

Analysis of the killings and destruction in the Indian state of Gujarat after February 27, 2002.

Foucault Steals Political Science

Analysis of Foucault's ideas concerning power, knowledge, governing, and governance.

Conference papers

Corruption and Anti-Corruption on the Eve of Indian Independence

Prepared for the Panel on “Corruption as Practice and Discourse in India” at the Annual Conference on South Asia, University of Wisconsin, Madison, October 19-22, 2006

Riots, Pogroms, and Genocide in Contemporary India: From Partition to the Present

Prepared for the Hiroshima Peace Institute Conference on Comparative Research into Genocide and Mass Violence, Hiroshima, Japan, March 22-26, 2004)

On the Study of Riots,Pogroms, and Genocide

Methodology and ideology in the analysis of forms of collective violence

Quick Links

See this site for my SSRC essay on the Gujarat pogrom.

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