Thomas Blom Hansen

Bio: Thomas Blom Hansen is an academic researcher from Stanford University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Politics & Sovereignty. The author has an hindex of 21, co-authored 41 publications receiving 2899 citations. Previous affiliations of Thomas Blom Hansen include Yale University & Roskilde University.

Recuperating Masculinity: Hindu nationalism, violence and the exorcism of the Muslim 'Other'

Abstract: Le nationalisme hindou a Thane City au Nord de Bombay est represente par le RSS (Organisation volontaire nationale) et le Shiv Sena (Armee de Shivaji). Ce nationalisme culturel exalte la force physique et le controle de soi. Les nationalistes militants sont les fils de la nation-Mere. Le nationalisme vise a une semitisation et a inverser la vision orientaliste trop feministe. Les deux mouvements nationalistes considerent le Musulman comme l'Autre qui empeche le developpement national et considerent l'idee de l'activisme, de l'unite et de la discipline comme la route a suivre pour recuperer la masculinite hindoue. Le RSS promet harmonie, cooperation, activisme collectif organise et reconciliation et il recrute davantage dans les classes moyennes, tandis que le Shiv Sena prone la violence et le conflit dans un discours populiste. Ce dernier est plus proche du dadaisme (les membres sont freres) que du ma-baapisme dans lequel une relation parent-enfant est affirmee

The BJP and the compulsions of politics in India

Abstract: This text has been updated by merging and editing the earlier introduction and afterword as well as presenting a new afterword The new afterword accounts for the last Lok Sabha elections in 1999 when BJP came back to power, and the not-so-good performance of the party in the assembly elections in Feb-March 2000 This book demonstrates how the BJP is not the national monolith as which it may like to present itself The BJP and its present dilemmas and problems are analyzed systematically in a regional perspective, and some of the dilemmas of the BJP at the national level are also explored in a critical perspective

Predicaments of secularism: Muslim identities and politics in Mumbai

Abstract: Dans son ensemble le debat sur le secularisme et l'etat seculier en Inde est reste a un niveau general, laissant de nombreuses lacunes dans nos connaissances des significations et des pratiques qui sont actuellement associees au secularisme en Inde. L'A. soutient que le secularisme en Inde est fonde sur une separation instable entre un domaine de la politique et un domaine de la culture qui est soi-disant apolitique, ainsi que sur une representation des communautes en termes plutot statiques et non-differencies. Par une discussion de donnees ethnographiques tirees des quartiers musulmans de Mumbai, l'A. montre comment la separation entre la culture pure et la politique sale s'effrite devant la nouvelle assurance politique des musulmans ordinaires de bas statut. Cela menace la position des chefs religieux et remet aussi en question les hypotheses tres repandues sur la cohesion relative de la communaute musulmane.

Sovereigns beyond the State: On Legality and Authority in Urban India

Abstract: “Legal consciousness,” the awareness of rights and the use of litigation, have for decades been integral parts of everyday life of millions of people across India. Yet, events over the past decade suggest that the awe of the law in India, and its corollary, the sovereignty of the state, are in sharp decline. Successive governments seem unable to curb, or prevent, clashes between religious communities and attacks on minority communities in the country; the police force is widely regarded as brutal and incompetent; a large number of crimes and murders are never reported or investigated; the courts are overburdened and ineffective with conviction rates below ten per cent; political parties, movements and criminal rackets routinely subvert the law, commit crimes with impunity, and so on. In his study of communal violence and social order in North India, Paul Brass points out that the state and the police force, are not seen as constituting public resources enforcing impartial justice. The use of courts and litigation is but one among several means in the battle over authority and resources in the North Indian countryside where “. . . the use of force and violence is, if not routine, at least not something unexpected or exceptional” (Brass 1997, 275). The disregard of rules, the expectation of being able to “fix things” by pulling a few strings, or by merely asserting one’s importance, education and command of English vis-à-vis poorly educated policemen and officials are practices at the heart of the Indian middle-class world. Although the open contempt of courts by public figures elicit moral condemnation, few educated Indians will rely solely on courts, even fewer will trust a hallowed “civic sense” in their everyday lives. How do we understand the coexistence of both a widespread endorsement of legality and a proliferation of legal arguments in India’s public

The culture of control: crime and social order in contemporary, society

Abstract: Nos últimos trinta trinta anos, houve profundas mudanças na forma como compreendemos o crime e a justiça criminal. O crime tornou-se um evento simbólico, um verdadeiro teste para a ordem social e para as políticas governamentais, um desafio para a sociedade civil, para a democracia e para os direitos humanos. Segundo David Garland, professor da Faculdade de Direito da New York University, um dos principais autores no campo da Sociologia da Punição e com artigo publicado na Revista de Sociologia e Política , número 13, na modernidade tardia houve uma verdadeira obsessão securitária, direcionando as políticas criminais para um maior rigor em relação às penas e maior intolerância com o criminoso. Há trinta anos, nos EUA e na Inglaterra essa tendência era insuspeita. O livro mostra que os dois países compartilham intrigantes similaridades em suas práticas criminais, a despeito da divisão racial, das desigualdades econômicas e da letalidade violenta que marcam fortemente o cenário americano. Segundo David Garland, encontram-se nos dois países os “mesmos tipos de riscos e inseguranças, a mesma percepção a respeito dos problemas de um controle social não-efetivo, as mesmas críticas da justiça criminal tradicional, e as mesmas ansiedades recorrentes sobre mudança e ordem sociais”1 (GARLAND, 2001, p. 2). O argumento principal da obra é o seguinte: a modernidade tardia, esse distintivo padrão de relações sociais, econômicas e culturais, trouxe consigo um conjunto de riscos, inseguranças e problemas de controle social que deram uma configuração específica às nossas respostas ao crime, ao garantir os altos custos das políticas criminais, o grau máximo de duração das penas e a excessivas taxas de encarceramento.

The Politics of the Governed: Reflections on Popular Politics in Most of the World

Abstract: PrefaceThe Leonard Hastings Schoff Memorial Lectures 2001The Nation in Heterogeneous TimePopulations and Political SocietyThe Politics of the GovernedGlobal/Local: Before and After September 11The Great PeaceBattle HymnThe Contradictions of SecularismAre Indian Cities Becoming Bourgeois At Last?Bibliography

Transnational Migration Studies: Past Developments and Future Trends

Abstract: The past two decades have witnessed a sea change in migration scholarship. Most scholars now recognize that many contemporary migrants and their predecessors maintain various kinds of ties to their homelands at the same time that they are incorporated into the countries that receive them. Increasingly, social life takes place across borders, even as the political and cultural salience of nation-state boundaries remains strong. Transnational migration studies has emerged as an inherently interdisciplinary field, made up of scholars around the world, seeking to describe and analyze these dynamics and invent new methodological tools with which to do so. In this review, we offer a short history of theoretical developments, outlining the different ways in which scholars have defined and approached transnational migration. We then summarize what is known about migrant transnationalism in different arenas—economics, politics, the social, the cultural, and the religious. Finally, we discuss methodological...

Whiteness of a Different Color: European Immigrants and the Alchemy of Race

Abstract: MC 281 is the second in the required sophomore sequence for Social Relations and Policy. In this course, we will explore the interactions and experiences between and among various groups in American history. We will consider how Americans both defended and contested prevailing definitions of fitness for citizenship and inclusion in the political process and American life, and how groups sought to gain access to social and political equality. This course focuses on the history of relationships within and between different groups in the United States, and explores the complexities of those relations. Rarely centered solely on race or ethnicity, such interactions were also affected by gender, sexuality, religion, nation, and class. We will also explore the shifting definitions of race and ethnicity. Students will analyze not only the experiences of the different groups, but also the connections between them to assess the larger dynamics and their implications for public policy.