Genocide: - DIIS

The Punjab 1937-47 - A Case of Genocide?
of the feud was rendered obsolete”. 14 It was a case of genocidal violence.
This distinction between traditional and genocidal violence is essential in
understanding the transformation of violence in the Punjab and the implicit
genocidal features therein. One could argue that the violence in 1937
was mainly a case of consensual violence, since the aim was to reinforce
the communal territories among the three communities. However, in 1947
the violence had changed into non-consensual violence and appropriated
genocidal features, because the aim of the violence turned into an act of
survival.
According to the UN convention of 1948: Genocide is “acts committed
with intent to destroy in whole or in part a national, ethnical, racial or
religious group”. 15 The focusing on intent as well as the omission of other
groups than in the above mentioned defi nition has resulted in several
attempts to redefi ne genocide. 16 There is thus far from consensus within
genocide studies on the defi nition. Helen Fein has argued that genocide
“is sustained purposeful action by the perpetrator to physically destroy
a collectivity directly or through interdiction of the biological and social
reproduction of group members”. 17 Frank Chalk and Kurt Jonassohn have
defi ned genocide as “a form of one-sided killing in which a state or other
authority intends to destroy a group, as that group and member-ship of
it are defi ned by the perpetrator”. 18 Mark Levene has similarly argued
14 Ibid., p. 143.
15 United Nations Genocide Convention, 1948.
16 For a critique of the convention, especially on the convention‘s omission of political groups,
see Kuper (1981), p. 19-39 and B. Whitaker (1985), Report on the Question of the Prevention and
Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, United Nations Economic and Social Council. For the
debate concerning intent; see George J. Andropoulos (1994), “Introduction: The Calculus of
Genocide”, in George J. Andreopoulos (ed.): Genocide: Conceptual and Historical Dimensions.
Philadelphia.
17 Helen Fein (1990), “Genocide – A Sociological Perspective“, Current Sociology 38, no. 1, p.
24.
18 Frank Chalk and Kurt Jonassohn (1990), The History and Sociology of Genocide. Analyses and
Case Studies. New Haven. By strongly focusing on ‘one-sided killing’ they exclude victims
of civil war and in principle cases like Rwanda and Bosnia, as well as partition violence, as
genocides.
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