BOOK REVIEW:
Published in The Book Review, Volume XL, Number 3, March 2016, pp. 71-72, ISSN: 0970-4175
Deconstructing Terrorist Violence – Faith as a mask
Published in The Book Review, Volume XL, Number 3, March 2016, pp. 71-72, ISSN: 0970-4175
Deconstructing Terrorist Violence – Faith as a mask
Ram Puniyani
Sage Publications India Pvt Ltd, New Delhi, 2015, pp. xxvi+180, 695.00
Lifeblood of Terrorism – Countering
Terrorism Finance
Vivek Chadha
Bloomsbury Publishing India Pvt Ltd, New Delhi, 2015, pp xiv + 258 pages, 509.00
Bloomsbury Publishing India Pvt Ltd, New Delhi, 2015, pp xiv + 258 pages, 509.00
Religious nationalism remains an
important phenomenon in the last three decades, which has manifested itself in
an explicit manner after the fall of the Soviet Union. The books under review seek to study the
phenomena of terror and violence, unleashed across the globe, which the authors
argue, have deep linkages with the advent of religious nationalism.
At the outset, Mark Jurgensmeyer’s argument
about the rise of religious nationalism as the new ideology replacing the
ideological strife of the cold war era, in terms of intensity may be relevant
with reference to Punyani’s book. The
present world order since 9/11 in the USA, the series of terror strikes in
countries like India and various European nations highlight the challenges of
religious terrorism emanating from religious nationalism.
Also, another important development that
bolsters the phenomena of religious centric terrorism is the overwhelming
impact of the globalizing tendencies in the post Bretton Wood world order. They seek a standardization and homogenization
in terms of institutions of governance, trying to promote democracy and free
market economy as an universal ideology along with the movement of labour and
capital.
The works of Ram Puniyani and Vivek Chadha
are sincere attempts to unravel the
complications and challenges to the secular and liberal social order in the
present scenario. The emergence of religious terror as a
predominant discourse sometimes is juxtaposed according to Ram Puniyani, with
the majoritarian sentiments backed by the state apparatus to the detriment of
the minority community.
The challenges of religious terror are
manifold as the authors argue that this phenomenon carries with itself, (a) devastating
potentialities to undo all the major achievements in the modern secular world
and, (b) to blur the geographical and national boundaries, in terms of movement
of capital and support to terror activities in an age of transnationalism. What is more critical is the evolution of
terror networks through faith based organizations and money laundering in the
name of serving the marginalized sections and addressing social evils through
civil society organizations.
The recent trends of corporatization of
terror outfits like the ISIS and the success of NGOs in topping the governments
in some countries is a cause of concern, wherein the western attempts to foist
democracy as an universal ideology has backfired, whilst enraging the various
socio-cultural groups, leading to the mobilization and assertions, as Punyani’s
argument suggests, that western attempts to foist democracy as an universal
ideology has backfired leading to mobilization and assertion, which are
attempts to confront the western hegemony through globalization.
Scholars have sought to trace the historical
evolution of various group identities that fostered faith based terror outfits
and resultant conflicts amongst them in South Asia and other regions. This phenomenon has been aggravated by the
western discourse under the stewardship of the United States to usher in an
‘universal jurisdiction’ to modernize and secularize the traditional societies.
The enterprise of ‘reconstructing’ in
order to contain religious strife’s, is also fraught with its own consequences,
notwithstanding the colonial legacy of major western powers propelled with the
politics of memories, over their obliterating impact on the traditional
societies.
In other words, the financial networks,
money laundering networks and fund raising campaigns have the propensity to
further the cause in the non-western world to establish a ‘high standard of
morality’ in public life, to seek solace in a system wherein religious and
political identities are fused. The
traditional notions of nations and nationalism is coming under severe strain
due to globalization and deep penetrating power of Mcworld institutions. Vivek
Chadha’s insightful assessment of the transformation of terror outfits across
the globe, is akin to the global operations of MNCs seeking s a large number of
background activities to create and launch the final product. Chadha states that the cost of the product
is not merely its market price, but the cumulative cost of its development. This is vindicated by the series of networks
between various terror outfits, drug cartels, and sections of banking and
finance at a global level.
These challenges remain confounded as the
two works suggest,( in wake of an ambivalent State in some nations) lack of
means and will, for a concerted international response to confront the deep
transnational religious linkages and their enormous financial networks. The
networks of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Tablighi Jama’at movements
outside India, after the advent of neoliberal reforms, in many parts of the globe
are significant indicators of adopting different strategies in different places
for fund raising and recruitment. The role of Diasporas in contributing towards
the long distance nationalism and religious terror merits attention.
The post 9/11 world era highlight the
same predicament faced by various nations in addressing the societal
challenges, that seeks to influence the socio-cultural realms and influence their respective markets. The concept of the global village as
propounded by Marshall Mcluhan has become an intrinsic reality of the present
world order. However it has demonstrated
the potentialities of fostering transnational collaboration and networks to
further the cause of faith and terror, and movements against the tide of
cultural homogenization.
The Challenges according to Punyani
are the advent of Hindutva in India and their subsequent attempts for a
strategic alliance, marked by the rise of Christian right across the
globe. This seeks to pursue belligerent
means and goals of confronting the Muslim world and thrust democratic regimes
in their neighbouring states. This
exercise is denounced on the ground that it would only facilitate the imperial
forays of the US in their respective regions, at the cost of undermining the
local, social, and traditional orders, probably falling into the Huntington trap to discredit and vilify
Islamic world.
The traditional understanding of national
security was confined to territorial security but ignored the well being of
citizens as an essential component of national security. In
other words, national security required the safeguarding of national goals. In the Indian scenario, where secularism is a
core value in our national goals, they have been severely challenged by the
series of communal conflagrations in India.
The books are a welcome intervention and
try to bridge the divide between domestic and international politics. The south
Asian region remains Indo-centric in terms of its geographical spread and
asymmetrical power structure. Politicization of religion or fundamentalism of
any kind is not peculiar to any particular country and a broad perspective
needs to be adopted while exploring the linkages between terrorism,
fundamentalism and globalization. Containing the terrorist violence and
countering the lifeblood of terrorism calls for a concerted political will of
all the nations around the globe and the larger question remains about the
complicity of the state in religious conflicts, which could strip them of their
neutrality and legitimacy.