Ongoing Research Projects on South Asia

• The Search for Ontological Security: Globalization and Religious Nationalism in India, (forthcoming).
• Author: Catarina Kinnvall

• "Nationalism and Religious Conflict: Comparing Sikh and Hindu Identity Constructions", (2001), Ethnicities, No. 1, 2002.

This book (and article) studies the relationship between globalization, group conflict and democracy in India. In particular it compares and contrasts the Hindu-Muslim conflict with the Sikh conflict from a socio-psychological perspective. The book is intended for an academic inter-disciplinary audience. It is a monograph that explores critical social and political theory in relation to Indian identity politics. It is interesting for a variety of scholars in political science, political and social theory, international relations, sociology and psychology as well as those more specifically interested in Indian politics, and in particular in the Hindu-Muslim conflict and Sikh nationalism. The empirical chapters and the article provide a deeper understanding of the theoretical issues of identity, the construction of the other, the effects of globalization on individuals and groups, and religious nationalism. However, they are written in such a way that they can be read separately if one is mainly interested in understanding the differences between Hindu and Muslim relations on the one hand and Sikh and Hindu relations, on the other, or if one is predominantly concerned with the relationship between Sikh/Hindu/Muslim identity constructions and globalization. The empirical chapters also explain the reasons for the relative success of Hindu nationalism as compared to Sikh nationalism and can thus be read by a broader readership of people interested in explaining contemporary Indian politics, such as those active in politics or journal and newspaper research.

• Globalization and Democratization in Asia: The Construction of Identity, (2002), London Routledge.

Editors: Catarina Kinnvall and Kristina Jönsson

This book discusses both theoretically and empirically the relationship between globalization, identity and democratic developments in Asia. It shows how global--local linkages may be constructed in various ways and produce a number of different results depending on context. The book takes an interdisciplinary approach and aims at understanding how economic, political and social forces interact and are mutually reinforced in Asian societies. By including studies of East and Southeast Asia as well as of South Asia, the empirical focus is broader than is the case in much current literature. As a result, the book provides both a general overview of these regions and a number of in-depth analyses of particular states, such as China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam.

• In the Name of Tradition: Globalization and Dislocation in Postcolonial Societies

This project is more specifically concerned with the relationship between globalization, religion, nationalism and gender in India. It deals with issues of religion, secularization and minority rights, where the main concern has to do with group rights in relation to gender (who talks in the name of the group/minority/religion and which implications do such representations have for women as members of the group?). Many of these questions have to do with issues of globalization, modernity, tradition, multiculturalism, nationalism and religion in today's India and the intention is to conduct a number of field studies and interviews in northern India. The study is meant to analyze how the politicization of religion and nationalism has affected conflicts between groups as well as conflicts within groups and the extent to which women come to constitute the most politicized subject in the struggle between various religious and nationalist discourses.