This panel examines how violence is sacralized and legitimized through religious, nationalist, and gendered narratives. Rather than viewing violence as a rupture, panelists analyze it as a central tool in constructing moral, political, and cultural order. Drawing on case studies from Nepal, Bangladesh, Cold War America, and the mid-century NYPD, the papers explore how religious symbolism and rhetoric justify coercion, secure state power, and shape public imaginaries. Themes include Hindu nationalism and martial myth in Nepal; the gendered pathways of female jihadist radicalization in South Asia; religious panic and surveillance in U.S. educational policy; and Catholic fascist networks within American policing as documented by minoritized press. The panel interrogates how violence is moralized through appeals to purity, protection, and divine mission—especially where gender and race are central to defining freedom or threat. Together, these papers reflect CARV’s commitment to analyzing how religion and violence co-produce structures of authority and exclusion.
This presentation focuses on Yiddish and Black press coverage of white Christian fascism in the NYPD at the outbreak of World War Two. The Christian Front was a nominally ecumenical, but mostly Catholic, political formation inspired by celebrity right-wing “radio priest” Father Coughlin. This presentation returns to the history of Christian Front influence within the NYPD in the ‘40s and ‘50s in order to argue that 1) Yiddish and African American media sources offer more perceptive analyses of Christianity and politics in this period than the white-dominanted English language press, and 2) Catholic fascism endures both through and beyond the Christian Front, facilitated by multifaceted ties between the police and the Church. The white Christian nationalist paramilitaries of the mid-century may have ceased to exist as specific organizations, but the alignments they reinforced between police, far-right politics, and white Christianity have been far more durable than any individual group.
This paper examines the Hindu nationalist rhetoric of Yogī Naraharināth (1913/15–2003), a key proponent of Nepal’s identity as the world’s last Hindu kingdom. Naraharināth reinterpreted Nepalese history to align with Hindutva ideology, casting Prithvi Narayan Shah as an anti-colonial defender of dharma and the Gorkhas as symbols of Hindu martial valor. His text Jaya Gorkhā reframes Nepal’s military conquests as religious victories, positioning the khukri (the traditional knife of the Gorkhali warriors) as an emblem of Hindu militancy and highlighting the protection of the cow as central to the ethos of the kingdom. Unlike India’s Hindutva discourse, which justifies its calls for violence as a reaction to a past of colonial subjugation that has defiled the nation, Nepal’s nationalist rhetoric proposed a narrative of invincibility and religious purity. This paper explores how Naraharināth’s vision adapts Hindutva to Nepal’s historical context, reinforcing a legitimization of Hindu violence in a nationalist perspective.
This article provides a comprehensive analysis of the intricate dynamics surrounding female involvement in jihadism in Bangladesh. Drawing on expert interviews and surveys, the study uncovers a multifaceted picture of this phenomenon. Three distinct categories of factors – push, pull, and facilitating – emerge as central in explaining the surge in female participation within militant groups in the region. Push factors, which encompass grievances and vulnerabilities arising from personal crises, poverty, and family breakdown, as well as the narratives of global Muslim victimization create an environment ripe for radicalization. Pull factors reveal that ideological allure, the pursuit of glory, adventure, and the evolving gender roles offered by groups like the Islamic State play a significant role in attracting women to extremist ideologies. Facilitating factors, such as influential family members and online platforms, are pivotal in shaping female radicalization. The internet acts as a powerful tool, facilitating exposure to radical ideologies and creating virtual group bonding that reinforce extremist beliefs.