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Abstract

This paper examines the challenges and possibilities of combiningarchival and ethnographic methods in thefield of‘communal’violence studies in India. Drawing insights from debates amonghistorians and anthropologists on the multifarious interactionsbetween archives and ethnography and reflecting on the empiricalcase of persistent violence between Muslims and Christians insouthern India, it argues for a creative synthesis of these two modesof inquiry for an adequate understanding of‘communal’violenceand riot inquiry commissions in India. First, the paper critiques howcolonial and postcolonial Indian archival reports problematicallyinscribe violence between any religious communities (such asMuslims and Christians) in the same narrative as the predominantcase of Hindu-Muslim conflict. Second, it illuminates how archivalethnography can be an effective way of studying violence betweenreligious communities and thus transcend conventional disciplinaryboundaries. Finally, the paper introduces a nuanced approach,called‘ethnography of archiving’, to detail the judicial andnonjudicial discourses and bureaucratic manoeuvring involved inthe creation of an archival report, thereby unravelling the powerrelations, mediating processes, manipulations and bureaucraticperformances thatmakecommission reports problematic eventoday.