Review: The Clash Within
| Published date | 01 September 2008 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070200806300329 |
| Author | Reeta Chowdhari Tremblay |
| Date | 01 September 2008 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
| Reviews |
| 792 | International Journal | Summer 2008 |
THE CLASH WITHIN
Democracy, Religious Violence, and India’s Future
Martha C. Nussbaum
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007. 403pp, US$29.95 cloth
(ISBN 978-0674024823)
The acts of genocide that were th e Gujarat pogroms of 2002 are arguably
the most shameful events in India’s recent past. In response to a fire that
had consumed a railway coach and killed 58 Hindu passengers returning
from a religious pilgrimage, Hindus set out on a horrendously brutal ram-
page. In an organized and orchestrated manner, Hindu nationalists, with
the blessing of the ruling party, targeted Muslim neighbourhoods, killing
more than a thousand Muslims, raping and sexually torturing Muslim
women, and burning and looting Muslim houses. The cause of the railway
coach fire is still unknown, but while initially there were rumours that it had
been set by Muslims, it is now speculated that kerosene oil stoves used by the
pilgrims themselves were likely to blame. In her most recent book, Martha
Nussbaum centres two important arguments around this particular episode:
one relating to the resiliency of Indian democracy in the face of a crisis of re-
ligious minority accommodation,and the other suggesting that North Amer-
ican and European democracies might learn from India’s experiences of
accepting its pluralism and the complexities and tensions embedded in ac-
commodating differences. In a perceptive examination of the Indian case,
she points out that Huntington’s thesis of a clash of civilizations—Islam ver-
sus the west—does not hold. Instead, she argues that the clash is fundamen-
tally at two levels: at the macro level of the nation and at the micro level of
the individual. In all nations, according to this view, there is a constant ten-
sion between those who accept differences and accord equal respect to oth-
ers, and those, particularly among the majority, who seek homogenization
and a single worldview. For the individual, the clash is between, on the one
hand, the desire and urge to dominate and, on the other, the willingness and
the obligation to live with others on equal terms, respecting differences what-
ever the consequences.
In this passionately written and engaging book, Nussbaum takes us
through a thorough analysis of the Gujarat pogroms. She explains why Gu-
jarat was the site of this tragedy: it borders on Pakistan, has a more educated
and urbanized Muslim population compared with the rest of India, was ex-
periencing increased foreign investment and a weak labour movement, and
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