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Distributed for Zubaan Books

Landscapes of Fear

Understanding Impunity in India

Distributed for Zubaan Books

Landscapes of Fear

Understanding Impunity in India

Landscapes of Fear tackles a set of intricate questions about the workings of impunity in India. Considering why the world’s largest democracy condones systematic violations of some human rights, and questioning how victims of abuse and survivors of sexual violence end up being denied justice, the contributors seek to understand what those on the margins—those of the wrong sex, wrong identity markers, or wrong political leanings—can tell us about violence by state and non-state actors. 

Bringing together senior academics, civil society leaders, and fresh voices from across the subcontinent, Landscapes of Fear offers analysis—contextual, structural, and gendered—that breaks new ground on the underbelly of “India Shining.”  A vital book for understanding the complexity of a fast-changing, often corrupt, and highly unequal rising superpower, the collection contextualizes hard-hitting cases of human rights violations in contemporary India.

600 pages | 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 | © 2014

Gender and Sexuality

Political Science: Political and Social Theory


View all books from Seagull Books

Table of Contents

About the Book
About the Editors
Title Page
Copyright
Note to the Reader
Preface and Acknowledgement
Acronyms
Introduction
Patrick Hoenig & Navsharan Singh

PART 1: Regional Patterns of Impunity

“They Have the Power, They have the Guns: We’d Better Remain Silent”: The Meaning of Impunity on the Ground
Uma Chakravarti

Examining Justic and Accountability in Kashmir
Warisha Farasat

Road to Resentment: Impunity and its Impacts on Notions of Community in Assam
Sanjay Barbora

Violence, Impunity and the Fallout: A Tale from Manipur
Bhagat Oinam

A Refugee Government? Migration and its Nexus with Impunity in Tripura
Sahana Basavapatna

Nellie (1983): A Case Study of Mass Violence and Impunity
Anjuman Ara Begum & Patrick Hoenig

PART 2: Themes of Impunity

The Matter of Mass Cremations in Punjab: A Window into the State of Impunity in India
Ram Narayan Kumar

The Law as a Feminist Horizon: Challenging Impunity, Pursuing Justic
Uma Chakravarti

Survivors of Mass Violence and the Idea of Justic
Harsh Mander

Thinking Reparations in the Context of Impunity
Navsharan Singh

Lurking in the Shadows: Fixer, Peddlers, Stooges and the Political Economy of Impunity
Patrick Hoenig

The Life of a Volunteer: Ram Narayan Kumar
Interview with Satish Jain

PART 3: Case Study from Jammu & Kashmir, Assam, Manipur and Tripura

1. Custodial Deaths, Summary Executions and Secret Killings
2. Enforced Disappearances
3. Torture/Arbitrary Detention/Grievous Harm
4. Sexual Violence

In Lieu of a Conclusion: A Campaign against Impunity
Navsharan Singh & Patrick Hoenig
Glossary
Notes on Contributors

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