Tambiah analyzes some general features of ethnic riots in South Asia by looking at the Sinhala-Muslim riots (1915), the Sinhala-Tamil riots in Colombo (1983), the Sikh-Hindu eruptions in Delhi (1984), the Pathan-Bihari clashes in Karachi (1986), and the Sindhi-Muhajir encounters (1988-90), as case studies.

It is true that the riots he identifies involved urban populations, both the ones who engaged in physical acts of violence and the ones who mobilized the violence. However, he counters the opinion held by middle-class apologists and bureaucrats that the main perpetrators behind riots in big cities are usually the “lumpenproletariat” (the unemployed, petty criminals, and dwellers of slums and shantytowns). While they may be the most common “faces in the crowd”, ethnic riots emerge from a larger context of social and political tensions. He explains the phenomenon behind why most riots occur in the big cities such as Karachi, Bombay, Delhi, Dhaka, Colombo, Kuala Lumpur, and Jakarta, which are densely populated by a wide array of social classes and people of varied professions from engineers and academics to clerical workers and subcontractors to factory workers, unskilled labor and the unemployed. Another factor is that these cities are also concentrated by schools and colleges in addition to factories which are places where large numbers of people routinely congregate, exchange news, and organize political action.

A lot of literature on “crowd psychology” emphasizes charismatic leadership. However, Tambiah argues that the crowds in ethnic riots in South Asia are mobilized by local leaders and lesser politicians, unlike the crowds of mass movements orchestrated by charismatic leaders such as during Gandhi’s independence movement, Khomeini’s Islamic fundamentalism, and Hitler’s Nazi expansion. These ethnic riots are also repetitive but short-lived and, in most cases, the civilian rioters just return back to everyday life after a cycle of orgasmic violence and spent energies, often after the police/ army assert their dominance. Interestingly, these riots often also involve representatives of law and order such as the police force and public officials. With these thoughts in mind, I’m unsure how accountable we can hold the state and politicians.