Demography and Democracy: Reflections on Violence against Women in Genocide or Ethnic Cleansing

Abstract

This paper discusses the violence against women and the genocide or "ethnic cleansing" of Muslim populations employed or encouraged by the State in India to uphold a Hindu way of life. It looks particularly at the massacres in Gujarat in 2002 and explores connections to nation-building by demographics. Various levels of government were complicit in the riots and murders demonstrating the role of national and international bodies in upholding ethnic nationalist hegemonies. (authors)