From the mid-20th century onwards, diverse groups – whether formerly enslaved populations or victims of mass atrocities – have demanded reparations as part of a wider struggle for justice. In the current global climate of right-wing resurgence, however, both the recognition of victimhood and demands for justice are in danger of being subverted and hijacked. These developments create additional obstacles in the way of genuine reparation demands. This happens in at least three ways. First, there is a new and selective application of victimhood status and recognition, often along old fault lines of race or religion, such that the oppression of some groups is no longer recognized as a legitimate object of reparations; indeed their demands for justice are seen as unfair claims against dominant groups. Second, we see the naked continuation of the very practices which the reparations movement has sought to establish as wrongs. Third, not content with negating existing demands for reparations from below, powerful groups are going a step further and claiming reparations for themselves as part of a supremacist project. In doing this, they use the language and moral claims of reparations and decolonization that have emerged through the global reparations movement. This essay seeks to illustrate this through the examples of India and Israel, including the demand for ‘restoration’ of sacred sites to Hindus and Jews.
Keywords: Reparations, Majoritarianism, Victimhood, India, Israel, Sacred Sites
Published in Development and Change, 17 April 2024
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/dech.12822
