Conceptualizing Mass Violence: Representations, Recollections, and Reinterpretations

288 Pages·2021·9.68 MB·English

by  Navras J. Aafreedi and Priya Singh

Conceptualizing Mass Violence
Conceptualizing Mass Violence draws attention to the conspicuous inability to
inhibit mass violence in myriad forms and considers the plausible reasons for
doing so. Focusing on a postcolonial perspective, the volume seeks to popularize
and institutionalize the study of mass violence in South Asia.
The chapters explore and deliberate upon the varied aspects of mass violence,
namely revisionism, reconstruction, atrocities, trauma, memorialization and lit-
erature, the need for Holocaust education, and the criticality of dialogue and rec-
onciliation. The language, content, and characteristics of mass violence/genocide
explicitly reinforce its aggressive, transmuting, and multifaceted character and
the consequent necessity to understand the same in a nuanced manner. The book
is an attempt to do so as it takes episodes of mass violence for case study from all
inhabited continents, from the twentieth century to the present. The volume stud-
ies “consciously enforced mass violence” through an interdisciplinary approach
and suggests that dialogue aimed at reconciliation is perhaps the singular agency
via which a solution could be achieved from mass violence in the global context.
The volume is essential reading for postgraduate students and scholars from
the interdisciplinary fields of Holocaust and Genocide Studies, History, Political
Science, Sociology, World History, Human Rights, and Global Studies.
Navras J. Aafreedi is Assistant Professor of History at Presidency University,
Kolkata, and Research Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemi-
tism and Policy, New York. His publications include his monograph Jews, Judaiz-
ing Movements and the Traditions of Israelite Descent in South Asia.
Priya Singh is Associate Director at Asia in Global Affairs (www.asiainglo-
balaffairs.in). Priya is a political scientist with an interest in issues pertaining to
geo-politics, nationalism, post-nationalism, identity, state formation and gender.
She has authored, edited, and co-edited books on Israel and the Middle East.
Mass Violence in Modern History
Edited by Alexander Korb (University of Leicester, United Kingdom) and Uğur
Ümit Üngor (Utrecht University, the Netherlands)
Despite the horrors of nineteenth-century conflicts including the US Civil War
and the Napoleonic Wars, it was not until the twentieth century that mass killing
was conducted on an industrialized scale. While the trenches of Flanders and the
atomic bomb were major manifestations of this, mass violence often occurred
outside the context of conventional war or away from the traditional battlefield.
Research has understandably tended to focus on major events and often within
a binary superpower narrative. In fact, instances of mass violence are often hard
to pin down as well as being little known, and involving civilians and citizens of
a wider range of territories than is publicized. The books in this series shed light
on mass violence in the modern era, from Armenia to Rwanda; from Belarus to
Bosnia-Herzegovina and many points in between.
5. The Construction of National Socialist Europe During the Second World
War
Raimund Bauer
6. Cultural Violence and the Destruction of Human Communities: New
theoretical perspectives
Edited by Fiona Greenland and Fatma Müge Göçek
7. Remembering Genocides in Central Africa
Rene Lemarchand
8. Political Violence in Southeast Asia since 1945
Case Studies from Six Countries
Edited by Eve Monique Zucker and Ben Kiernan
9. Conceptualizing Mass Violence
Representations, Recollections, and Reinterpretations
Edited by Navras J. Aafreedi and Priya Singh
For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.routledge.com/
Mass-Violence-in-Modern-History/book-series/MASSVIOLENCE
Conceptualizing Mass Violence
Representations, Recollections, and
Reinterpretations
Edited by Navras J. Aafreedi and
Priya Singh
First published 2021
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2021 selection and editorial matter, Navras J. Aafreedi and Priya Singh;
individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Navras J. Aafreedi and Priya Singh to be identified as the
authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual
chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Aafreedi, Navras Jaat, editor. | Singh, Priya, editor.
Title: Conceptualizing mass violence : representations, recollections, and
reinterpretations / edited by Navras J. Aafreedi and Priya Singh.
Subjects: LCSH: Genocide. | Genocide--South Asia. | Violence--South Asia.
Classification: LCC HV6322.7 .C653 2021 | DDC 304.6/63--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020050905
ISBN: 978-0-367-69997-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-70406-3 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-14613-1 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by SPi Global, India
To
Professor Mahavir Singh
With respect and warm regards

Contents
List of figures x
List of tables xi
List of contributors xii
Acknowledgements xx
Introduction 1
1. Reading mass violence 3
NAVRAS J. AAFREEDI AND PRIYA SINGH
PART 1
Narratives 17
2. Violence and violations: betrayal narratives in atrocity accounts 19
DENNIS B. KLEIN
3. Holocaust survivors in Mexico: intersecting and conflicting
narratives of open doors, welcoming society and
personal hardships 29
DANIELA GLEIZER AND YAEL SIMAN
4. Historical narratives, the perpetuation of trauma, and the
work of Vamık Volkan 45
REUVEN FIRESTONE
PART 2
Revisionism and reconstruction 59
5. Holocaust, propaganda, and the distortion of history in
the former Soviet space 61
CHARLES E. EHRLICH
viii Contents
6. The Genocide of 1971 in Bangladesh: lessons from history 73
SRIMANTI SARKAR
7. Holocaust denial and minimization in the Indian Urdu press 87
MD. MUDDASSIR QUAMAR
PART 3
Education 97
8. Holocaust education and remembrance in Australia: moving
from family and community remembrance to human rights
education 99
SUZANNE D. RUTLAND AND SUZANNE HAMPEL
9. New developments in Holocaust and genocide education in
South Africa: the case study of the Johannesburg
Holocaust & Genocide Centre 114
TALI NATES
10. A case of naive normalization? India’s misbeliefs about
Hitler and schooling on the Holocaust 126
ANUBHAV ROY
11. Holocaust education in India and its challenges 138
NAVRAS J. AAFREEDI
PART 4
Reflections 151
12. Sonderkommando Photo 4 and the portrayal of the invisible 153
DAVID PATTERSON
13. Overcoming “intimate hatreds”: reflections on violence
against Yezidis 167
TUTKU AYHAN AND GÜNEŞ MURAT TEZCÜR
14. The state and its margins: changing notions of
marginality in Turkey 181
ANITA SENGUPTA
Contents ix
PART 5
Trauma 195
15. Pinochet’s dictatorship and reflections on trauma in Chile:
how much have we learned in terms of human rights? 197
NANCY NICHOLLS LOPEANDÍA
PART 6
Memorialization 211
16. “Grassroots” Holocaust museums: revealing untold stories 213
STEPHANIE SHOSH ROTEM
17. Fabric, food, song: the quiet continuities in Bengali life
70 years after partition 224
RITUPARNA ROY
PART 7
Literature 239
18. The failure of secular publics and the rise of the Jewish
religious public in Nathan Englander’s: For the Relief
of Unbearable Urges 241
FUZAIL ASAR SIDDIQI
PART 8
Dialogue and reconciliation 253
19. The 2002 Alexandria Summit and its follow-up 255
DAVID ROSEN
Index 263