Votes and Violence: Electoral Competition and Ethnic Riots in India

This book explains why Hindu-Muslim riots in India break out when and where they do, and shows why some state governments in India prevent Hindu-Muslim riots while others do not or even help to incite violence. It shows that riots are fomented to help win elections, and that state governments decide whether to stop them or not depending on electoral calculations about whether doing so will win or lose them voters. It tests this general explanation for riots using a dataset on riots and their causes as well as case studies of several Indian states.
 
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