6 research outputs found
Inequality, Elections, and Communal Riots in India
How does inequality within and between ethno-religious groups influence the likelihood
andfrequencyofcommunalriots?UsingevidencefromIndia,this article findsthat low
within-group and high between-group inequality dampens the likelihood and frequency
of communal riots. Theoretically, the article suggests that the instrumental logic,
which posits that ethno-nationalist politicians use violence to stoke ethnic cleavages
and mobilize support, best accounts for this finding. We argue thattobe politically
competitive, ethno-nationalist politicians need theirsupporters to identify foremost
with their ethnic identity. When inequality within groups is high and/or inequality
between groups is low, citizens are less likely to focus on ethnicity as their primary
identity. In such contexts, politicians may use communal riots to improve their
electoral prospects by reinforcing the salience of ethnicity. Empirically, the article
relies on a time-series cross-district analysis of inequality and Hindu-Muslim riotsin
India to test the instrumental argument against theoretical alternatives. To illustrate
the causal logic, the article also uses the analysis of a communal riot that occurred
in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh. Analyzing three aspects of the riot—background
conditions, timing, targets of propaganda—we evaluate the different predictions of
the instrumental argument. The article concludes with the suggestion that
communal riots are distinct from cases of mass violence—such as civil wars,
genocide, and ethnic cleansing—and could be conceptualized, along with other
types of small-scale political violence, as a separate class of events with their own
internal logic