Perspectives on Violence and Othering in India

This volume brings together important and original perspectives from South Asia on the relationship between violence---an increasingly important issue in multicultural societies---and the process of othering. The contributors state that societies create ’others’ through deliberate acts of selection over a period of time. The objective of the process of othering is to deny rights and privileges that one sets for one’s own group. This volume affirms that central to the understanding of violence in any society is the understanding of othering processes. Violence and nonviolence are influenced by the nature of othering processes as well as the kinds of others in a society. Groups engaged in mutual othering are also the ones that are often involved in violent relationships.

Renowned scholars from diverse fields provide multidisciplinary perspectives on violence and othering, discussing the concepts of violence and nonviolence in multicultural societies, communal harmony, constructions of the other, truth commissions, state censorship of ’sensitive’ issues, fundamentalism and secularism in multifaith societies, and specific cases from recent violence-prone areas. This volume focuses on the South Asian, and more specifically, the Indian context, but is relevant for researchers seeking to understand these issues anywhere in the world.

R.C. Tripathi is a former Director and Professor, G.B. Pant Social Science Institute, Allahabad; Professor and Head, Center of Advanced Study in Psychology, University of Allahabad; and Director, Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies, University of Allahabad. Presently, he is National Fellow of the Indian Council of Social Science Research. He is on the editorial board of the Indian Journal of Psychology, World Psychology, Psychological Studies, Indian Journal of Applied Psychology, and Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. He is the editor-in-chief of Psychology and Developing Societies (1990-2002, 2011 to the present). During his long and distinguished academic career, Professor Tripathi has been a senior Fulbright Fellow at the University of Michigan, member of the University Grants Commission, India, and member of the Indian Council for Social Science Research. He has published five volumes and numerous papers in edited volumes, besides numerous articles in journals.

Purnima Singh is Professor of Psychology at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. Earlier, she had been Professor at the Department of Psychology, University of Allahabad. She is also the current President of the National Academy of Psychology, India and Executive Committee Member of the Asian Association of Social Psychology, as well as Regional Representative, South Asia, of the International Associa

tion of Cross-Cultural Psychology. She is an Associate Editor of the journal Psychological Studies, and earlier an Associate Editor of Psychology and Developing Societies. She is also on the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Psychology. Professor Singh had received the Commonwealth Academic Staff Fellowship from the Commonwealth Association of Universities at the University of Bristol, UK. She has to her credit numerous papers in edited volumes, articles in journals and conference presentations.