Precolonial Ethnic Violence: The Case of Hindu-Muslim Conflict in India

CURA Colloquium cosponsored with the School of Theology and the the Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights Studies Program with Ajay Verghase, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of California, Riverside Political scientists studying the origins of ethnic conflict in the nonwestern world often focus on European colonialism. However, few studies systematically engage with precolonial history. This article examines the influential case of Hindu-Muslim violence in India, often portrayed as the outcome of British “divide-and-rule” policies. We construct a new dataset of all conflicts between Hindu and Muslim polities from 1000–1850 A.D. and use it to show that historical violence correlates with contemporary riots beginning around 1700 A.D. – before the British ruled the subcontinent. *Reading the paper in advance is required for attendance. Email cura@bu.edu for the .pdf.* Bring your own lunch and we'll supply some cookies and coffee.