53rd Annual South Asia Conference 2025 Madison, Wisconsin, 22-25 October 2025

Majoritarianism and Community Resilience in Modern India: Histories, Modalities, Futures

Submission Deadline: Monday, February 17, 2025

The South Asian Muslim Studies Association (SAMSA) invites paper submissions for a full-day symposium examining the complex dimensions of anti-Muslim violence in contemporary India. The symposium seeks to foster interdisciplinary dialogue on the intersections of religious nationalism, state power, and minority experiences in South Asia. We welcome contributions from a range of disciplinary backgrounds and methods, including but not limited to history, anthropology, religious studies, literature, media studies, politics, and area studies. 

We welcome papers addressing the following themes:

• Historical genealogies of anti-Muslim violence and their relationship to contemporary Hindutva politics

• Institutional mechanisms of marginalization across bureaucratic, legal, and social domains

• Geographical variations in the manifestation and intensity of anti-Muslim violence

• The role of family, community, social movements, and religious institutions in either facilitating, negotiating, or resisting violence

• Muslim subjectivities and lived experiences under conditions of systematic marginalization

• Forms of resistance, community resilience, and strategies for social reconstruction

• Critical and diachronic analysis of concepts that have come to dominate the conversation like religion, nationalism, and the majoritarian state 

• Critical analyses of conceptions of citizenship, religious identity, and syncretic traditions that press upon communalist boundaries

• Theoretical frameworks for understanding state power and minority rights in South Asia

Papers should engage with one or more of these themes while contributing to broader theoretical discussions about religious nationalism, minority rights, and state power in South Asia.

Submission Guidelines:

• Abstract length: 300 words maximum

• Include a brief bio: 150 words 

• Submit all materials as a single Word file

• Email submissions to: ysaikia@asu.edu  and robbme@upenn.edu

• Deadline: Monday, February 17, 2025, 11:59 PM EST

The symposium organizers plan to develop selected papers into an edited volume or special journal issue. We encourage graduate students and early-career scholars to apply. 

Note: The symposium will be held in person at the University of Wisconsin-Madison as part of the Annual South Asia Conference 2025.