ABSTRACT
Politics in contemporary South Asian states is marked by significant outbreaks of violence, mostly sparked by religious conflict. The violence that marked the partition of British India into two independent states of Pakistan and India on the basis of religion has had its sequel in terms of a string of violent clashes between Hindus and Muslims. The civil war in Sri Lanka that lasted almost 30 years shows how the pattern of communal violence repeats elsewhere. Breakaway fringe groups from political parties, or radical elements of society, often launch violent struggles against the state and religious establishments of opponents in the name of religion. Parties remain helpless, either to rein in their renegade supporters, or to express themselves firmly on the issues of militant groups acting in the name of religion. In India, Muslims were targeted for alleged illegal transportation or slaughter of cows. In Sri Lanka, anti-halal and cattle slaughter campaigns have been launched by such elements. In both post-colonial societies, these activities were accompanied by violence and death. The Buddhist–Muslim clashes in Aluthgama (2013), Galle (2017) and Kandy (2018) 1 and the lynching of Muslims in cow-related violence in India, 2 are only the most recent examples of the violence that lurks under the surface of democratic politics and breaks out sporadically. These political acts have pushed the states towards specialised agencies of security, bureaucracy and taken recourse to appeals to civil society. Political parties – the main, significant actors of democratic politics – besides expressing politically ineffectual homilies, have been conspicuously absent from the scene in terms of articulation of the issue, or its aggregation into their political agendas. When interests are ‘negotiated’ in the streets, rather than in parliament, or put on the hustings as electoral issues, for all practical purposes, parties have failed.
