Ronojoy Sen
National University of Singapore, Singapore
Keywords: India, violence, Gandhi, Savarkar, non-violence, Hindutva, Hinduism, Gita
DOI: 10.5509/2024973-art8
ELUSIVE NONVIOLENCE: The Making and Unmaking of Gandhi’s Religion of Ahimsa. By Jyotirmaya Sharma. New Delhi: Westland Books, 2021. Rs 499, paper. 268 pp. ISBN 9390679605.
HINDUTVA AND VIOLENCE: V. D. Sarvarkar and the Politics of History. By Vinayak Chaturvedi. Albany: SUNY Press, 2022. xiii, 463 pp. (Tables, B&W photos.) US$95.00, cloth. ISBN 9781438488776.
VIOLENT FRATERNITY: Indian Political Thought in the Global Age. By Shruti Kapila. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2021. 328 pp. US$35.00, cloth. ISBN 9780691195223.
This essay briefly discusses accounts of violence in India before reviewing three recent books that examine the place of violence in Indian political thought. All three books provide insights into the minds of some of the thinkers who have shaped modern India. While two of the authors focus on Mahatma Gandhi and V. D. Savarkar, respectively, the third is more wide-ranging in focus. All three books are important contributions to the study of violence in India, but also a reminder that India’s founding figures remain the objects of contestation and appropriation by political parties and movements.
书评： 关于印度暴力的对话
关键词: 印度、暴力、甘地、萨瓦卡、非暴力、印度教特性、印度教、吉塔。
本文在简要讨论了印度的暴力事件之后，评论了最近三本考察暴力在印度政治思想中的地位的著作。三本书都为理解塑造了现代印度的一些思想家提供了洞见。其中两位作者分别关注了圣雄甘地和V.D.萨瓦卡，而第三位作者的考察对象范围更广泛。三本著作对于研究印度的暴力都有重大的贡献，但是也提醒我们，印度的奠基人物仍然是政党和政治运动所争议和挪用的对象。