Feminist Peace and the Violence of Communalism

This book examines how narratives of communal conflicts in south India affect Muslims, women, and the lower castes, entrenching complex realities of marginalisation and violence. Through extensive empirical research, it traces a thread connecting the history of communalism in the south Indian city of Hyderabad with the reality of everyday life in so-called "riot-prone" neighbourhoods. The chapters move between political discourse and daily life, bringing attention to how minority voices navigate and mould the space of interfaith relations and community belonging, and emphasising their political significance within a context dominated by narratives of communal conflicts. The book concludes with a reflection on the entanglements of dominant conflict paradigms and the lived experience of marginality across multiple axes of difference, positioning this interplay as crucial for understanding the multiple dimensions of political violence in contemporary societies. This book will be of much interest to students of feminist peace research, political violence, Asian studies, and International Relations.

Emanuela Mangiarotti is a research fellow at the Department of Political and Social Sciences of the University of Pavia, where she is also a faculty member of the MA in African and Asian Studies. She holds a PhD in International Conflict Analysis from the University of Kent (2012) and a PhD in Sociology from the University of Genoa (2022).

Introduction: Communalism Through the Lens of Feminist Peace Research 1. Ethnography of a Communally-Sensitive City 2. Community Boundaries and The Politics of Religious Difference 3. Narrating The Past, Shaping the Present: History in Narratives of Interfaith Relations 4. Communal Violence and the Societal Order in Hyderabad 5. Religious Community as Political Subject 6. Communal Conflicts and Women's Everyday Life Conclusion: Researching Conflict Paradigms in India and Beyond