VIOLENCE, RELIGION, AND MASCULINISM IN CONTEMPORARY INDIA: AN ANALYSIS OF THE WRITINGS OF VIVEKANANDA, GOLWALKAR, AND GANDHI ARPITA CHAKRABORTY PhD 2019 VIOLENCE, RELIGION, AND MASCULINISM IN CONTEMPORARY INDIA: AN ANALYSIS OF THE WRITINGS OF VIVEKANANDA, GOLWALKAR, AND GANDHI THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY FACULTY OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES, SCHOOL OF LAW AND GOVERNMENT, DUBLIN CITY UNIVERSITY BY ARPITA CHAKRABORTY, B.A, M.A RESEARCH SUPERVISOR PROF. MAURA CONWAY JANUARY 2019 ii I hereby certify that this material, which I now submit for assessment on the programme of study leading to the award of Doctor of Philosophy is entirely my own work, that I have exercised reasonable care to ensure that the work is original, and does not to the best of my knowledge breach any law of copyright, and has not been taken from the work of others save and to the extent that such work has been cited and acknowledged within the text of my work. Signed:______________ Arpita Chakraborty ID No: 14211962 1 October, 2018 iii Dedicated to my late grandmother Gita Hazra – the first feminist in my life, and my brother Krishnendu Chakraborty, who have always been more enthusiastic about my academic achievements than anyone else. iv Acknowledgement The last four years of my life, of which writing this thesis was only a part, would not have been possible without the intellectual, emotional, and financial support extended by my supervisorProf. Maura Conway and my mentor Prof. Eileen Connolly. They had not only guided me intellectually, but also stood by me through a difficult phase of my life with patience and understanding. I thank the Ireland India Institute, and all the members of School of Law and Government for the exceptional support system I had since the first day I came to this country – specially Alice Burke, Dr. Ken McDonagh, and Carol Diamond. My sincere thanks also to the Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences, Prof. John Doyle for his help every time I needed it, and not the least for the steady supply of visa letters over the years. I would also like to thank Dr Shiera Malik of DePaul University, Prof. Jeff Hearn of Orebro University, and the other participants of the Summer School on Political Masculinities 2018 at the University of Landau, and Prof.MarysiaZalewski of the International Feminist Journal of Politics for their feedback and comments on different parts of this project. I am grateful to Sweta Chakraborty for being the sounding board for all academic and culinary projects in the past two years. Without Harikrishnan Sasikumar,Joe Kiernan, Bitopi Dutta, Tajma Kapic, Miraji Mohammed, LiridonaVeliu, and Catherine Connolly, Dublin would have been much less happier, and much less warmer. Natasha Yasmin and Shreya Goswami are the longest presence in my life except family, and by choice. Thank you for the long hours over skype and phone, and the occasional visits across the sea that made living in Ireland possible in more ways than anything else. My thanks and gratitude toAzra Naseem for the long walks and stimulating conversations. Grace McDermott, I miss you, and I wish you were still with us today. To my parents, Shikha Chakraborty and Amarnath Chakraborty: those old yellow books you had at home started this journey for me. I hope I will translate this to Bengali one day, and you will read this. My sister-in-law Mumpy Chakraborty has helped with her suggestions, enthusiasm and advice, and her biriyani whenever I visited home. My partner in travel, food, and frustration – Cristian Medina Gambin – your encouragement and patience has made everything easier. Thank you for being my home so far away from home. v Table of Contents LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................... viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................................... ix LIST OF TERMS ............................................................................................................... x ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................................... 1 1. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 2 Organisation and Structure.................................................................................................. 8 Notes fromthe Researcher ................................................................................................. 14 2. BRINGING BOURDIEU AND FEMINIST STANDPOINT TOGETHER: THEORETICAL CHALLENGES .......................................................................................................... 16 Bourdieu: A Brief Overview ............................................................................................... 16 The Bourdieusian Concepts of Field, Habitus, Doxa ....................................................... 19 Symbolic Violence .................................................................................................. 22 Feminist Standpoint Theory: A Brief Introduction ................................................................ 24 Principal Concepts of Feminist Standpoint Theory ......................................................... 25 Critiques of Feminist Standpoint Theory ...................................................................... 26 Dalit Standpoint Theory in India ................................................................................ 28 Confluence of Bourdieu and Feminist Standpoint Theory ...................................................... 30 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 34 3. VIOLENCE AND MASCULINITY ......................................................................... 37 Theorising Masculinity ..................................................................................................... 38 Hegemonic Masculinity ........................................................................................... 40 Masculinism .......................................................................................................... 43 The Global Discourse of Masculinity in Colonies ................................................................. 46 Indian Masculinity and Emasculation in Colonial Times ....................................................... 57 Colonialism, Religion, and Masculinity ............................................................................... 60 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 63 vi 4. FEMINIST RHETORICAL ANALYSIS AS A METHOD: RHETORIC AND POLITICS IN TEXTS ............................................................................................... 66 Methodology ................................................................................................................... 68 Textual Analysis: Feminist Rhetorical Analysis as a Method .............................................. 68 NVivo Data-mining Tool ......................................................................................... 72 The Trio: Vivekananda, Golwalkar, and Gandhi ................................................................... 74 The Global Hindu Missionary: Swami Vivekananda ........................................................ 77 Sarsanghchalak Golwalkar: The Ideologue and His Influence on the RSS ............................. 80 The Father to Only a Fragment of the Nation: Gandhi .................................................... 82 The Bhagavad Gita as the Conceptual Intersection ............................................................... 87 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 92 5. SPIRITUAL MASCULINITY AND REPRODUCTIVE TENSION IN THE WORKS OF VIVEKANANDA .................................................................................. 94 Vivekananda’s Interpretation of the Bhagavad Gita: Karma and Masculinity ............................ 97 The Aryan Appeal of Monotheism: Race, Caste, and Masculinity .......................................... 101 Tension Between the Celibate and the Mother ................................................................... 107 Human and Non-human: Interpretations of Violence and Implications for Masculinity ........... 113 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 116 6. MASCULINITY, NATIONALISM, AND THE NECESSITY OF THE ‘OTHER’: M. S. GOLWALKAR’S LEGACY IN RSS ............................................ 118 Golwalkar’s Gita, Vivekananda’s Gita ............................................................................... 120 Seva as Karma, Violence as Dharma ................................................................................. 125 Defensive Violence, Masculinity, and the Muslim Other ...................................................... 128 Celibacy and the Swayamsevaks ....................................................................................... 133 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 135 7. “THE NON-VIOLENT WAY IS NOT FOR SUCH GIRLS”: INTERROGATING IDEAS OF MASCULINITY AND SEXUAL VIOLENCE