THE BIOPOLITICS OF HINDU NATIONALISM Mournings ANGANA P. CHATTERJI California Institute of Integral Studies, United States  ABSTRACT This article maps the incursion of Hindu nationalism in Orissa, eastern India. It interrogates Hindu cultural dominance and nationalist mobilization as it gains momentum in the state. It speaks to majoritarianism in the context of liberal development, the related apparatus of nation making, mediated by issues of religion, caste, class, culture, tribe and gender. The text, as history of a discontinuous present, offers counter-narratives of lives often reduced to ‘lack’ or ‘spectacle’, reciting minority-subaltern claims in rethinking nation, rights and difference. Key Words  caste  gendered violence  Hindu nationalism  India  minorities  Orissa Prologue Your god has no eyes. He cannot have a soul. Your god is violent, just like you are. (A Hindu neighbour indicts Hasina Begum) 1 We know that many Hindus hate Muslims and I know that Hindus are in power. I am afraid for my daughter. I want her to stay at home with me. She does not listen. So many times I am afraid for her, I beat her to make her stay at home. She has marks on her back from my beating her. I am ashamed. I feel isolated. If something happens to us, if someone attacks us, robs us, who will be with us? We are asked, ‘You have no idols, so who is your god? Are you godless?’ I know that we are not welcome here. There are stories about us ‘Pathans’ 2 that circulate in the market place. We have heard about Gujarat. 3 Will it happen here? Who will prevent it? (Hasina Begum) People tell Hasina that nothing has really happened, that she has not been attacked, that she is overreacting. She responds, ‘Fear is attacking me. I feel that they are watching me. This fear is real.’ 4 With her technician husband, Hasina’s is the only Muslim family in a housing society in a small town in 16(2/3): 319–372. [DOI: 10.1177/0921374004047753] www.sagepublications.com Copyright © 2004 SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi) Cultural Dynamics