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Abstract
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Summary
Why does violence erupt in some areas and not in others? The Hindu-Muslim violence that engulfed Gujarat in 2002 did not spread uniformly throughout the state, as a sizable number of towns and villages remained unaffected by the killing, looting, and raping that took place. This article takes up the different levels of violence within one city as a clue to understand the local dynamics that lead to riots. This ethnographic study of events in a violent and a peaceful locality suggests that violence is more likely in neighborhoods where inhabitants gain access to state institutions through patronage networks that derive electoral gains from communal violence. |