"This work brings together essays on incidences of religious violence from the period of the partition of the subcontinent in 1947, down to the 2002 Gujarat pogrom. The individual chapters, written by leading experts and research students, provide important comparative studies into sectarian and communal violence in India and Pakistan. The political uses of violence and the role of the state in abetting or mitigating conflict are discussed in the case-study chapters which cover the regions of Punjab, UP, Gujarat, and Delhi at the time of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. The studies provide a depth of historical and comparative interpretation which is lacking in many existing research works. Thus, the book makes important contributions towards both the provision of empirical data and the theory of the interconnection between religion, politics and violence on the subcontinent."--BOOK JACKET.

Based on presentations at a workshop on Mar. 26, 2004; organized by the Centre for South Asian Studies at Coventry University and Balliol College, University of Oxford.

1.The 1947 Violence in the Punjab / Ian Talbot -- 2. Partition and the Absence of Communal Violence in Malerkotla / Pippa Virdee -- 3. Out of Control? Partition Violence and the State in Uttar Pradesh / Yasmin Khan -- 4. The State and Religious Diversity in Post-Independence India / Gurharpal Singh -- 5. The Development of an Institutionalized Riot System in Meerut City, 1961 to 1982 / Paul R. Brass -- 6. The 1984 Anti-Sikh Riots in Delhi / Angela Harlock -- 7. The Gujarat Carnage / Asghar Ali Engineer -- 8. Political Sources of Islamic Militancy in Pakistan / Mohammad Waseem -- 9. Islamic Militancy and Violence in Pakistan / Yunas Samad.