Political competition, relative deprivation, and perceived threat: a research note on anti-Christian violence in India

Abstract

A preliminary subnational statistical analysis of violence against Christians in contemporary India, this article suggests that whereas the data provide very little support for simple, demographic explanations of this violence, they do more robustly support theories emphasizing the relative status of ethnic and religious minorities (vis-à-vis majorities) and the perception, among Hindus, that Christians (and other minorities) represent a threat to their numerical, political and economic strength.

Relative Deprivation, Absolute Deprivation, and Homicide: Testing an Interaction Between Income Inequality and Disadvantage

“…The influence of relative deprivation on crime and deviance has been examined in numerous studies (e.g., Blau & Blau, 1982; Eberts & Sehwirian, 1968; Hagan, 1995; Messner, 1982; Rosenfeld et al, 2001), but an issue that has persisted in this literature is the best way to operationalize the concept relative deprivation. Across studies, relative deprivation has been variously defined as scarcity of health care (Saito et al, 2014), access to electricity (Dugoua & Urpelainen, 2014), perceived social status (Zhang & Chen, 2014), changes in human capital (Bauman & Leech, 2012), and income inequality (Burraston, McCutcheon, & Watts, 2018; Elgar & Aitken, 2011; Krohn, 1976; Messner, 1982; Pridemore, 2008, 2011), with income inequality showing up fairly consistently in this literature.…”

Hindu-Christian Conflict in India: Globalization, Conversion, and the Coterminal Castes and Tribes

“…The BJP and other institutions of the Hindu nationalism-oriented Sangh Parivar ("Family of the Sangh," that is, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh [RSS], or "National Volunteer Organization," about which, more below) have historically been more likely to condone anti-minority violence than their Congress Party rivals (though it should be kept in mind that the anti-Sikh bloodletting after the assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984 occurred under Congress rule). Yet the anti-Christian violence continued long after the BJP was swept out of power in 2004, and my own statistical analyses of anti-Christian violence (conducted with Tamara Leech) do not suggest a strong correlation between anti-Christian violence and BJP rule (Bauman and Leech 2012). Moreover, explanations based on BJP power do not account for why the BJP should have come to power in the first place, or why Christians should displace Muslims as the primary target of Sangh-affiliated anti-minority activities, as Sarkar claims, perhaps with some exaggeration, they did in 1998 (S. Sarkar 1999Sarkar , 1691.…”

Anti-conversion laws and violent Christian persecution in the states of India: a quantitative analysis

“…With the exception of one study, the scholarly literature to date has not attempted to empirically test the causes of anti-Christian persecution in India. The one study that attempts to carry out a subnational analysis of violence against Christians in India relies largely on descriptive analysis and covers only a two-year period (Bauman and Leech, 2012). Existing studies have, nevertheless, posited some explanations for religious conflict in India generally, which theoretically should also apply to anti-Christian violence.…”