Hurt Sentiments: Secularism and Belonging in South Asia

350 Pages·2023·5.399 MB·English

by  Neeti Nair

HURT SENTIMENTS

HURT
SENTIMENTS
SECULARISM AND BELONGING IN SOUTH ASIA
NEETI NAIR
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Cambridge, Mas sac hu setts &   London, England  |  2023
"Copyright © 2023 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of Amer ic a
First printing
Cover art: Alona Horkova
Cover design: Annamarie McMahon Why
9780674292864 (EPUB)
97806742928671 (PDF)
The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
Names: Nair, Neeti, 1978– author.
Title: Hurt sentiments : secularism and belonging in South Asia /
#Neeti Nair.
Description: Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press,
#2023. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022018054 | ISBN 9780674238275 (cloth)
Subjects: LCSH: Religion and state—India—History. | Religion and state—
#Pakistan—History. | Religion and state—Bangladesh—History. |
#Religious minorities—India—History. | Religious minorities—
#Pakistan—History. | Religious minorities—Bangladesh—History. |
#Secularism—India—History. | Secularism—Pakistan—History. |
#Secularism—Bangladesh—History. | India—History—Partition, 1947.
Classification: LCC BL65.S8 N24 2023 | DDC 201/.720954—dc23/
#eng20220927
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022018054
Contents
Introduction: After Partition 1
Hurt Sentiments, Hate Speech, and the Shaping of State
Ideology • Resisting and Revisiting the State
1 Gandhi’s Assassination, Godse’s Defense, and the
Minority Question 19
Gandhi’s Way • The Workings of the Congress • Ishvar Allah
Tere Naam • Doing and Dying • The Hindu Mahasabha
and the RSS • Hurt Sentiments, Muslim Appeasement •
Organiser vs. The State • Gandhi as a Brave Hindu • Inside
the Constituent Assembly • Secularism and the Minority
Question after the Mahatma
2 “Hindu Hurt” and the Case for Secularism in India 76
The Sangh Way • Indianization and Its Critics • Riots and
Reactions • 1971 and the Case for Secularism • Indira’s Way •
“Neither Anti- God nor Anti- Religion” • “Secularism Must
Be Our Way Of Life” • Rama Retellings, Riddles, Recitations •
Hum Sab Ayodhya, a Festival for Secularism • Sahmat vs.
The Government • Secularism and the Minority Question
a fter Babri
3 Debating the “Islamic State” in Pakistan 149
Inside the Constituent Assembly • Interpreting the
Objectives Resolution • Rashtro Bhasha Bangla Chai • The
Debates of 1956 • The “Islamic Republic of Pakistan” •
vi!!CONTENTS
Detention without Trial • Separate Electorates • “The
Ideology of Pakistan” • Punjab Religious Book Society vs.
The State • Secularism and the Meaning of an Islamic State
a fter Jinnah
4 Islam and the Secular in Bangladesh and Pakistan 198
East Bengal’s Way • Integration or Autonomy in 1966? •
The Elections of 1970 • The Way of the War • 1971 and the
Case for Secularism • Inside the Constituent Assembly •
Bangladeshi Secularism Was “Not against Religion” • Sard
Lash and a Secular Sindhi Ethos • The “Blasphemy Laws”
of Pakistan • Islam, Secularism, and the Minority Question
a fter 1971
Epilogue: Secularism as Belonging 242
On a South Asian Secularism
Abbreviations 253
Notes 255
Glossary 313
Bibliography 317
Acknowle dgments 325
Index 329
!kal dukh se socā kartī thī
socā kih bahut hansī āj āyī
tum bilkul ham jaise nikle
ham do qaum nahīn the bhāī!
in the past I used to think with sadness
today I laughed a lot as I thought
you turned out exactly like us
we were not two nations, brother!
— Fahmida Riaz, Tum Bilkul Ham Jaise Nikle

HURT SENTIMENTS