Full Description
In Cleansing the Nation, Raka Shome explores the logics of governmentality of contemporary Hindu Nationalism in India by advancing the concept "Hindu Modern." Analyzing a national cleanliness program and other development projects, Shome shows how the Hindu Modern - a form of national governmentality that disciplines and regulates individual subjects to create desirable "clean" citizens - inscribes Hindu nationalism in India. Focused on security, progress, and development while celebrating and protecting the figure of the upper caste Hindu woman, the Hindu Modern works toward a religious and casteist cleansing of the nation that rewrites Indian modernity as a purified and cleansed Hindu modernity. It shores up caste and religious inequalities around who is authentically Indian, reproducing historical violence and exclusions of caste, gender, and religious minorities, especially toward Muslims, Dalits, and Adivasis. By outlining how the Hindu Modern sutures Hindu-ness to the contemporary Indian national project of modernity, Shome helps further understand projects of national purification and cleanliness within global populist authoritarian movements.
Contents
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xv
1. Cleansing the Nation: Hindu Nationalism, the Hindu Modern, and Gender 1
2. Purifying Bharat Mata 57
3. "Women's Empowerment" Through Toilet Modernity: The No Toilet, No Bride Campaign 107
4. Swachh Violence: The Will to Punish 158
5. From Cleansing to Cleaning: An Alternative (Clean) India 205
Notes 221
References 231
Index
