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SUMMARY:Double Book Launch: Contemporary Hindu Nationalism and the Politic
 s of Predatory Capitalism in Karachi
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260616T120000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260616T140000
DTSTAMP:20260522T052402Z
UID:f4c623c9-9153-f111-bec7-6045bd12f634
CREATED:20260519T144830Z
DESCRIPTION:Christophe Jaffrelot and Laurent Gayer will be presenting thei
 r latest books\, respectively Gujarat Under Modi: Laboratory of Today’s 
 India (Hurst\, 2024)\, following Modi’s India: Hindu Nationalism and the
  Rise of Ethnic Democracy (Princeton University Press\, 2021)\, and Gunpoi
 nt Capitalism: Enforcing Industrial Order in Karachi (Hurst and Oxford Uni
 versity Press\, 2025).\n\n \nChristophe Jaffrelot\, Gujarat Under Modi: La
 boratory of Today’s India\, Hurst\, 2024\n\nIn 2012 Narendra Modi became
  the first Hindu nationalist politician thrice elected to lead a state of 
 the Indian Union\, his stewardship as Chief Minister of Gujarat being the 
 longest in that state’s history. Modi and his BJP supporters explained h
 is achievement by pointing to economic growth under his leadership\, yet d
 etractors point out that Modi has been more business-friendly than market-
 friendly—to the benefit of large industrial corporations\, and at the co
 st of great social polarisation.\n\nIn 2002\, an anti-Muslim pogrom of unp
 aralleled ferocity occurred in Gujarat\, leading to the biggest number of 
 Muslim deaths since Partition. The state’s Hindu majority immediately ra
 llied around Modi. No serious riot has occurred in Gujarat since\, but pol
 arisation was key to Modi’s strategy there\, and he has deployed that st
 rategy again and again since he became Prime Minister of India in 2014. Fo
 r Modi has cultivated a communal image. A marketing genius\, his messaging
  combines the politics of Hindutva with economic modernisation\, to the cl
 ear appreciation of Gujarat’s middle class.\n\nChristophe Jaffrelot’s 
 revealing book shows how Modi’s Gujarat served as the laboratory of Modi
 ’s India\, not only in terms of Hindu majoritarianism and national popul
 ism\, but also of caste and class politics.\n\n\nLaurent Gayer\, Gunpoint 
 Capitalism: Enforcing Industrial Order in Karachi\, Hurst and Oxford Unive
 rsity Press\, 2025\n\nOn 11 September 2012\, over 250 workers of Ali Enter
 prises\, which produced jeans for the German discount retailer KiK\, peris
 hed in a fire in their Karachi factory. Was this an accident or an arson a
 ttack? Straight away\, the tragedy gave rise to contradictory interpretati
 ons. While some blamed the exploitative logics of fast fashion\, others su
 spected foul play by the political parties preying on the city and its bus
 iness class.\n\nTaking as a starting point the controversy caused by this 
 disaster\, Gunpoint Capitalismplunges us into the murky waters of globalis
 ation. Exploring the back alleys of Pakistan’s industrial capital city\,
  it shows how the manufacturing economy makes order out of disorder\, and 
 profit out of conflict–to the detriment of workers. In Karachi\, as else
 where\, petty criminals and ex-servicemen prove to be formidable enforcers
  of economic order. A comparison with Europe\, the United States and Latin
  America confirms the central place of such henchmen in the dynamics of ca
 pitalism. These shock troops of anti-unionism are now participating in the
  dismantling of the social state.\n\nThis probing\, sometimes shocking\, b
 ook sheds new light on the power structures\, organised violence and daily
  labour struggles underpinning the production of our consumer goods.\n\n\n
 Christophe Jaffrelot is CNRS Senior Research Professor at CERI-Sciences Po
 \, and Avantha Chair and Professor of Indian Politics and Sociology at the
  King’s India Institute. He recently published Modi’s India\, Gujarat 
 Under Modi\, India’s First Dictatorship: The Emergency\, 1975 -1977 (co-
 authored with Pratinav Anil)\, as well as The Pakistan Paradox: Instabilit
 y and Resilience.\n\nLaurent Gayer is CNRS Senior Research Professor at CE
 RI-Sciences Po. He focuses on political conflict and urban transformations
  in India and Pakistan. He is the author of Gunpoint Capitalism: Enforcing
  Industrial Order in Karachi (2025) and Karachi: Ordered Disorder and the 
 Struggle for the City (2014)\, as well as the co-editor of Shared Sacred S
 ites in South Asia (2026)\, Muslims in Indian Cities: Trajectories of Marg
 inalisation (2011)\, and Armed Militias of South Asia (2009). He is also t
 he co-author of Proud to Punish: The Global Landscapes of Rough Justice (S
 tanford University Press\, 2023).\n\nhttps://mfo.web.ox.ac.uk/event/double
 -book-launch-contemporary-hindu-nationalism-and-politics-predatory-capital
 ism-karachi
LAST-MODIFIED:20260519T145633Z
LOCATION:Maison Française d'Oxford\, 2-10 Norham Rd   Oxford  OX2 6SE
SPEAKER:Christophe Jaffrelot (Sciences Po)\, Laurent Gayer (Sciences Po)
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