Violence and Democracy in India examines the relationship between the extreme violence of riots, pogroms, acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing and the ordinary, everyday, often invisible structures and practices of violence in India. Usually, these exceptional, extreme moments of state-sponsored violence are treated as aberrations, quite separate from the everyday world of politics-as-usual, particularly when the norm in question is that of liberal democracy. In contrast, Violence and Democracy explores the ways in which democracy enables violence, and how violence in turn transforms the practices and pursuit of democracy.