Votes and Violence Electoral Competition and Ethnic Riots in India [Hardcover]

This book explains the relationship between Hindu-Muslim riots and elections in India.This book explains why Hindu-Muslim riots in India break out when and where they do, and shows why some state governments in India prevent Hindu-Muslim riots while others do not or even help to incite violence. It shows that riots are fomented to help win elections, and that state governments decide whether to stop them or not depending on electoral calculations about whether doing so will win or lose them voters. It tests this general explanation for riots using a dataset on riots and their causes as well as case studies of several Indian states.This book explains why Hindu-Muslim riots in India break out when and where they do, and shows why some state governments in India prevent Hindu-Muslim riots while others do not or even help to incite violence. It shows that riots are fomented to help win elections, and that state governments decide whether to stop them or not depending on electoral calculations about whether doing so will win or lose them voters. It tests this general explanation for riots using a dataset on riots and their causes as well as case studies of several Indian states.Revealing why Hindu-Muslim riots in India break out when and where they do, Steven Wilkinson demonstrates why some state governments in India prevent Hindu-Muslim riots while others do not or even help to incite violence. Wilkinson asserts that riots are manipulated to help win elections, and that state governments decide whether to stop them--depending on electoral calculations concerning the loss or gain of votes. He tests this claim using a dataset on riots and their causes as well as case studies of several Indian states.List of figures; List of tables; Acknowledgments; 1. The electoral incentives for ethnic violence; 2. Explaining town-level variation in Hindu-Muslim violence; 3. State capacity explanations for Hindu-Muslim violence; 4. The consociational explanation for Hindu-Muslim violl"