Collective violence in a provincial city

This book gives an entirely new focus to the concept of collective violence. Drawing on a vast body of sociological literature, Parthasarathy contests the view that violent behaviour is always spontaneous and irrational. On the contrary, he says, violent episodes are based on rational evaluation, and the author emphasizes their premeditated and selective nature.

This translates into the intense caste rivalry that has become a pervasive feature of our small towns. In Vijayawada, the competition between the Kammas, Kapus, Komatis, Rajus, etc. has been marked by violence over the last four or five decades. Riots, arson, looting and swift reprisals for settling old scores have become increasingly common. The frequency with which the dominant classes have resorted to violence has legitimized its use, highlighting the relativistic dimension of the normative order of a city. Viewed in this way, violence in a provincial city is not so much a deviant act as an instrument of hegemonic assertion in different spheres of society.

Parthasarathy carried out fieldwork in Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh, but the problem itself has a general relevance.