Heidelberg Papers in South Asian and Comparative Politics
Heidelberg Papers in South Asian and Comparative Politics This occasional paper series is hosted by the Department of Political Science of the South Asia Institute at the University of Heidelberg. The main objective of the series is to publicise ongoing research on South Asian politics and provide open access to the international community of scholars and policy makers and those interested in the region. The e-papers are available online and can be downloaded at no cost for the user. The series draws on the ongoing research projects at the South Asia Institute in Heidelberg, seminars by visiting scholars and the wide scholarly network engaging with South Asia. The opinions expressed in the series are those of the authors, and do not represent the views of either the University of Heidelberg or the Editorial Staff. Contribution to the Heidelberg Papers is exclusively by invitation.
How Does Growth Affect Everyday Corruption?
Economic growth’s effects on government efforts to combat citizen-facing, public-service corruption varies in a puzzling way across services. Over two high-growth decades in India, those services undergoing the largest increases in demand, and therefore in rent-extraction opportunities, saw more robust anti-corruption reforms than did services experiencing weaker or even negative demand growth. In this paper, the authors build theoretical models that can explain why growth induced the state to more aggressively shut down its fastest-growing rent opportunities. They show that the net effect of growth on anti-corruption efforts in a service depends upon the balance of three growth-induced outcomes – two negative and one positive. Exit of richer, high-voice citizens from the service reduces public pressure for reforms, while entry of poorer low-voice citizens enhances opportunities for rent extraction without increasing accountability. Conversely, growth empowers existing service users to demand anti-corruption reforms. The balance between exit, entry and empowerment forces explains why growth leads government to clean up corruption in services that the middle classes and rich continue to use, and concentrates corruption in the services they leave behind. By inducing stronger anticorruption efforts in the services used by richer citizens, growth makes everyday corruption more of a “tax on the poor”. We illustrate how growth disproportionately empowered richer citizens to successfully demand reforms by analyzing changes to the passport service and the railway reservation system. We also validate the model’s main mechanisms statistically through a case study of India’s rural elementary schools, where anti-corruption reforms have lagged. These results suggest that designing services to discourage exit by their richer users could help to harness the anti-corruption benefits of growth for the rest. Keywords: Corruption, Economic Growth, Public Services, Voice, Exit, Entry, Anti-corruption reforms, Accountability, State Institutions, Passport issuance, Railway Reservation, Teacher Absenteeism. JEL Codes: H11, H42, D73, O12, O17
Copyright (c) 2023 Amit Ahuja, Aashish Mehta http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Identifying 1.3 Billion Indians Biometrically
In 2009, India embarked on a scheme for the biometric identification of its people. This project was conceived by IT companies based in Bengaluru. The programme’s main architect, Nandan Nilekani, was in fact the head of one of these firms. The idea behind the project was to use digital technology – and the data it enables to collect – for economic ends. But to register the entire Indian population, the State had to be persuaded to be involved in the project, later named as "Aadhaar". The rationale that secured the government’s engagement was financial: using Aadhaar would help disburse aid to the poor while minimising "leakages" caused by corruption and duplicates among beneficiaries. Yet, possessing an Aadhaar number gradually became necessary for a number of other things, too, including tax payment. When approached to rule on this matter, the Supreme Court dragged its feet and did not seek to decisively protect people’s privacy. As for the avowed aim of the scheme itself, Aadhaar did not improve the quality of the services rendered to the poor and its economic impact, too, remains to be proven, even if operators who believe that "data is the new oil" consider benefits in a long-term perspective.
Copyright (c) 2021 Nicolas Belorgey, Christophe Jaffrelot http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
In the dominant imaginaire, Indira Gandhi is often portrayed as an absolutist dictator who eliminated free speech, dissent, and liberty. This view, in writing off agency on the part of the rest of the nation, omits mention of the role that a motley coalition of classes and political parties on the one hand, and an ambivalent as well as divided opposition on the other, played in legitimising the Emergency. Contemporary accounts also present a romantic view of the underground – here agency is overdetermined – overlooking its chaotic nature and marginal influence to weave the narrative of a successful democratic movement eventually displacing an autocratic premier in 1977. A more revisionist repertoire, especially popular among Mrs Gandhi’s apologists, describes the Emergency as a social revolution that promoted progressive policies. The Emergency was in fact a far more complex phenomenon. Certainly, it was postcolonial India’s first experiment with authoritarianism. But of what kind? And how may we explain its establishment as well as its place in India’s history?
Copyright (c) 2021 Christophe Jaffrelot, Pratinav Anil http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
UPA (2004-) Globalization and Indian Federalism: a Paradigm Shift?
In this paper the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) (2005-)’s approach to federalism in India is critically examined in the backdrop of India’s ongoing globalization since the early 1990s, and a comparative assessment of the same in relation to the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance’s approach to federalism in India is also offered. The shift is evident in renewed interest in the role of the states, more autonomy to the states, further sub-state level decentralization, and finally, enhancement of the capacity of the states. The appropriate institutional reforms for the same being undertaken are also discussed. It is argued here that the paradigmatic shift evident in the UPA’s approach to federalism in India is in fact partly a continuation of the same from the NDA regime, if not earlier, the common determining factor being the compulsion of structural reforms. It is further argued that coalitional compulsions coupled with the compulsion of carrying out structural reforms have meant that the BJP (NDA) had to mellow down its sharp edge of Hindutva nationhood, and the Congress (UPA) has turned softer on ethno-cultural identity issues in matters of governance. The paper finally maintains some reservations about the long term effect of the market-propelled federal institutional reforms in India on distributional conflicts in a complex multiethnic country of India’s size and diversity.
Copyright (c) 2010 Harihar Bhattacharyya http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
State Interests and Symbolism in India’s Nuclear Build-Up
India’s nuclear build-up, which culminated in the 1998 nuclear tests and India’s subsequent self-declaration as a nuclear power, bears several puzzles for academic research in the field of strategic studies, as it appears difficult to identify clear strategic motives behind it. In its relations to arch rival Pakistan, the introduction of nuclear weapons was strategically rather counter productive for India, as the equalising effects of these weapons diminished much of India’s overwhelming superiority in conventional weaponry. Many academics therefore stress the so-called ‘China factor’, that is, the threat to Indian security posed by the nuclear-armed neighbour in the north, as the reason for India’s acquisition of nuclear weapons. This argument, however, appears to be not sound enough to solely explain the course of India’s nuclearisation, as the conflicting interests at stake are of too little relevance to justify the substantial financial and political sacrifice involved. Thus, a majority of studies on the nuclear build-up in South Asia concludes that a significant, if not dominating part of the explanatory variables lies outside of the classical strategic realm. However, stringent explanatory models which account for the key role of non-strategic motives behind India’s nuclear build-up are largely missing. Prime objective of the present paper is to reduce this gap by sketching a possible model to explain how the interplay of several contradicting national interests at stake, being either strategic or non-strategic in nature, contributed to India’s decision to pass the nuclear threshold. Within the applied model, the structure of the international system in South Asia clearly sets the framework for India’s international action. Structural conditions, however, are not transformed directly into India’ strategic policy formulation, but rather distorted by intervening factors at the national level. The strong threat perception emerging from Pakistan among India’s elite, and, at the same time, the remarkable indifference of the elite as well as public at large towards China, does not correspond to the actual relative power capabilities within the system, nor do these threat perceptions sufficiently explain India’s nuclear course. The present model, which is itself based on the paradigms of Neo-classical Realism, departs from conventional explanatory models in two fundamental aspects: First, state interaction is not exclusively explained by the structure of the international system, but rather by the interplay between systemic variables such as the states’ relative power capabilities, and intervening variables at the unit-level. Second, state interests are not defined exclusively in terms of security maximisation. The emphasis of the present paper on an in-depth analysis of the particular interests at stake appears justified considering the non-security motives behind India’s self-declaration as nuclear weapon state. The paper starts with a general description of the South Asian context within the field of International Relations, and the particularities of this region in regard to the applicability of the conventional IR models. Then, the international system which sets the framework for India’s strategic policy-making is outlined. The central part of the paper is an evaluation of intervening factors on the national level. Several domestic dynamics within India’s policy decision-making process regularly overlap structural conditions in shaping India’s national interest formulation. The most striking interests at stake are India’s aversion to the existing international non-proliferation regime, as well as domestic factors, such as India’s ad hoc, non-institutionalised nuclear decision-making process, dynamics emerging from India’s democratic structure, and the key role of certain pressure groups like the defence scientists and the strategic analysts.
Copyright (c) 2002 Karsten Frey http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
India’s Nuclear Doctrine: Context and Constraints
Ever since India achieved independence in 1947, its response to global nuclear non-proliferation measures has been a dominant theme in the country’s overall evolution of nuclear policy. However, India conducted a nuclear test in 1974, which it termed a ‘peaceful nuclear explosion’ and in 1998, India conducted a full-scale nuclear test and subsequently claimed to have attained nuclear capability. The purpose of this article is to critically evaluate key elements of India’s draft nuclear doctrine. The draft was presented to the Prime Minister and the Cabinet in August 1999 and released later for public debate by the National Security Advisory Board.
Copyright (c) 2002 Mohammed B. Alam http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Blunders in Tigerland: Pape's Muddles on "Suicide Bombers" in Sri Lanka
No study of the LTTE can afford to neglect Sri Lanka's cultural, historical, and georgraphical backdrop. The lack fo existential awareness of religious cross-fertilisation, the either/or foundations of Western reasoning and absence of local knowledge bedevil the scholarship that incorporates Sri Lanka within their global surveys of suicide attacks. Pape's "Dying to Win" is an example. Here, the LTTE's multi-pronged capacities are poorly evaluated. Too much significance is attributed to the coercive success of SMs in bringing the government to the negotiating table at various moments. Religious persecution has not been the main reason for the Tamil struggle. Comparative references to SMs elsewhere are occasionally interspersed in this review of the Sri Lankan scene.
Copyright (c) 2007 Michael Roberts http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Revolutionary marxist politics which from its appearance in the political rhetoric of the Naxalite movement in the 1960s has had a rollercoaster ride. Traveling from the south to the east, returning to the south and then gradually spreading to raise the specter of a north-south red corridor, it has created an apparition of revolution from time to time without being able to realise the dream so far. However, paradoxically Maoism has not only emerged and spread across the country – at present in sixteen states and 194 of the 610 districts – despite socialistic claims of the Indian state and competitive open and transparent election process in the polity in four distinct phases, it has elicited a dominantly security-centric response from the Indian state. The current phase of liberalisation and globalization of the Indian economy has created new contexts for its spread and consolidation. This paper puts this phenomenon and the questions it raises in historical, social, political and economic contexts.
Copyright (c) 2008 Ajay K. Mehra http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Economic Citizenship in India: A Socio-Legal Comparison of Two Cases
The author discusses the evolving concept of Economic Citizenship and relates a socio-legal dimension to transnational migration to and from India. The paper explores economic citizenship by developing the definition first identified by T.H. Marshall and then uses two case studies to show contrasted applications of Marshall’s definition. Marshall states that there are three types of rights needed for an individual’s development so that s/he can exist in, participate in and contribute to society. 1.Civil rights protect personal freedom. One is entitled to exercise freedom of speech, thought and faith, own property, conclude valid contracts, and have recourse to justice. 2.Political rights allow participation and franchise rights in political environments. 3.Social rights are the right to defend and assert all of one’s rights on the same terms as other members of society and by due process of law. They relate to the “whole range from the right to a modicum of economic welfare and security to the right to share to the full in the social heritage and to live the life of a civilised being according to the standards prevailing in the society.” The paper observes that presence alone of economic opportunity in a society does not mean that the state has discharged its responsibilities to its citizens. Economic opportunity should also be legally accessible to the individual. The legal tie between economic and social aims supports the ensuing right for members of society to earn their livelihoods through the right to work. A denial of these rights should let the individual have political recourse to judicial and legislative redress. Case Study One analsyes economic citizenship in the resettlement dispute in Arunachal Pradesh of Chakma and Hajong tribes from the Chittagong Hill Tracts. These residents are indigenous people of India and are entitled to Indian citizenship by the Citizenship Act 1995, but they lack legal recognition as citizens. The State and Central Governments formally and systematically refuse rights to these individuals - in breach of the right to life guaranteed by the Constitution of India. Case Study Two analyses the economic citizenship rights for another group of individuals. It considers the role of economic citizenship as it is exercised by Non Resident Indians (NRIs), Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) and Overseas Citizens of India (OCIs) while they live and work outside India. Some persons are granted Indian citizenship by birth, while others are not. The paper concludes on two perspectives. Today's reality is that India grants economic citizenship without full political and social rights to some categories of Indians abroad and formally and informally denies economic citizenship to political citizens living on Indian territory.
Copyright (c) 2009 Binda Sahni http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
What a long, strange Trip it’s been: Reflections on India’s Economic Growth in the Twentieth Century
The purpose of this paper is to situate India’s recent economic growth in the long sweep of the twentieth century and to understand what is different about the contemporary growth experience from earlier episodes. The paper argues that most interpretations of India’s growth acceleration tend to privilege one dimension of the growth experience over another, and that the causes of India’s growth suggest a more complex causal story and that no single perspective can provide a convincing explanation of India’s growth phenomenon. The paper also argues that in contrast to the previous growth success stories of the developing world, especially those originating from Asia, India’s pattern of growth has followed a non-standard route that privileges knowledge-intensive services and capital-intensive manufacturing over labour-intensive manufacturing, which is not in India’s long-term interests, either from viewpoints of efficiency or equity.
Copyright (c) 2009 Kunal Sen http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
The History of Institutional Change in the Kingdom of Bhutan: A Tale of Vision, Resolve, and Power
The Kingdom of Bhutan is probably the most understudied country in South Asia, and yet its unique history holds plenty of intriguing and scientifically important facts and aspects. In this paper due attention will be given to the development of Bhutanese institutions from the establishment of a Buddhist theocracy in the 17th century, through the establishment of hereditary monarchy at the beginning of the 20th century to the transition to democracy at the turning of the millenniums. Contextualizing the more recent events within the broader continuity of political developments in the world’s last Buddhist kingdom is of crucial importance in understanding the underlying trajectories that account for change. These trajectories, it is argued, are primarily shaped by perceptions of threat to national security, unity, and sovereignty, which manifest themselves in critical junctures upon which Bhutan’s farsighted rulers have repeatedly and deliberately come up with innovative institutional changes while at the same time retaining a crucial link with the nation’s history and tradition.
Copyright (c) 2011 Marian Gallenkamp http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Emergence of Independent Candidates: A Negative Binomial Regression Model of an Indian Parliamentary Election
The paper specifies a model of the first-past-the-post (FPTP) electoral system in which political parties themselves float independent candidates to gain electoral advantage, leading to a Prisoners’ Dilemma type game where each party tries to out-maneuver one another. Imposing some intuitively appealing assumptions on this game, we show that the total number of independent candidates across constituencies would follow a Negative Binomial distribution. Empirical results for the 2004 parliamentary election in India reveal a good fit of the Negative Binomial model to data. Results also help to identify a few major determinants of the spatial distribution of independent candidates in India. Results point out that the number of independent candidates across constituencies in a State in India is strongly influenced by political fractionalization in that State, with metropolitan and urban constituencies on an average having more independent candidates. We also find that elite politicians and their family members, ceteris paribus, face more independent candidates. Finally, results establish that number of independent candidates is typically less in reserved constituencies due to reduced number of potential candidates. Our results suggest that FPTP electoral systems as in India need to put appropriate institutional constraints that increase transaction costs of electoral participation for independent candidates.
Copyright (c) 2010 Kaushik Bhattacharya http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Which Road to Social Revolution? Liberalization and Constitutional Reform in India
This article explores the constitutional ideology of the social revolution in the context of liberal economic reforms in India. While India’s new economic policies emphasize the benefits of competition and free markets her constitutional preferences remain embedded in legal provisions and traditions that favor social engineering in the name of economic, political and social equality. As liberalization as well as the global marketplace have become firmly established in the rhetoric and practice of elite politics, the political momentum towards economic change falls short of the numerical majorities to amend the Constitution. Consequently, India’s Supreme Court judges are taking centre-stage in the field of economic liberalization, having the power to either stall or accelerate the reform process by means of judicial review. Unrestrained by the political obstacles of democratic politics the court has sketched a dialectical reform of the constitutional political economy exercising judicial restraint as the means and modes of production are freed from state control and exposing judicial activism as the judges advocate the interweaving of the distribution and consumption of wealth with the goals of the social revolution. Based on an analysis of judicial policies as well as constitutional reform debates the article maintains that the constitutional ideology of the social revolution acts as an important, if not constructive, constraint and guideline as India’s policies are shifting from “empirical gradualist” socialism to empirical gradualist liberalization and globalization.
Copyright (c) 2007 Alexander Fischer http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
The Politics of the Punjab Boundary Award
According to the partition plan of June 3, 1947, the redrawing of the boundaries of the Punjab and Bengal was to be undertaken by the newly set up Boundary Commission after the provincial assemblies had taken a decision to this effect. The verdict started an intense controversy. In many ways no man made boundary has caused so much trouble and effectively impeded the advent of peace in South Asia as has been done by the Punjab boundary resulting from the Commission's verdict. For both the Pakistanis and the Indians the boundary resulting from the partition of Punjab has proved to be a source of constant headaches and periodic convulsions. Just as the problematic border of the North Western Frontier Province (NWFP) elicited constant British vigilance, the Indo-Pak border in the Punjab area has kept the two nations continuously preoccupied throughout their independent existence. The hasty British departure along with unimaginative surgical partition of the Punjab left many complicated problems for the successor nations of British India. The inability of the British to partition the province in congruence with principles of justice and fair play produced unnecessarily a large pile of complex problems. This article is an attempt to understand the basic principles governing the division of Punjab along with the politics that caused the undesired departure from the adopted principles.
Copyright (c) 2000 Pervaiz Iqbal Cheema http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Governance Issues in Economic Development
The Chinese developmental model has seven distinctive characteristics: First is an essentially capitalist development under decisive authoritarian leadership and purposive governance. Second is a vertical production structure where basic capital goods are produced in monopoly state-owned enterprises and the much-larger rest of the economy is under private ownership often connected with local party officials dispensing local monopoly rights. Third, at least in the post-Mao decades China is politically stable in relative terms. Fourth, the model is characterized by state-guided nationalist industrial policy and finance, subsidized access to land and credit for business, repression of labor rights and of yield on household financial savings. Fifth, there are massive investments in infrastructure funded by a very high national savings rate (particularly because of large undistributed profits of companies). Notably, per capita stock of government investment in fixed assets in 2017 was larger than that in Germany or UK, and five times that in India. Sixth, one notes rural industrialization in a decentralized framework with acute competition over jurisdiction, particularly in the early decades after reform. Seventh, there is openness to foreign trade and acquisitions and learning from foreign technology.
Copyright (c) 2020 Pranab Bardhan http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Rethinking India’s Nuclear Policy: Credible Minimum Nuclear Deterrence as a Dynamic Transformation of Nuclear Option Open
After its 1998 nuclear test, India’s nuclear doctrine was described as ‘credible minimum nuclear deterrence’. India’s nuclear doctrine and policy are often characterized, in the academic discourse, as if the country pursues an assertive military doctrine and policy. Has the Indian National Congress (INC)-led government that has been in place since 2004 altered the nuclear policy formulated by the former Bharatiya Jhanata Party (BJP)-led government? Although the BJP-led government led India towards nuclearization in 1998, in practice, it appears to have maintained a posture of restraint. To clarify India’s nuclear policy under the INC-led government that has been in power since 2004, this paper analyzes continuities and discontinuities between the two governments. It argues that the present government has endorsed a nuclear policy that resembles the 1999 Draft on Nuclear Doctrine, reflecting a traditional policy called ‘nuclear option open’.
Copyright (c) 2013 Hiroaki Nakanishi http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
The West Bengal Panchayat Model in Peril? A Survey-based Appraisal of West Bengal Panchayats
The Panchayati Raj System was aimed to be a tool for democratisation and development of the rural parts of India. The state of West Bengal was long time considered a model for a efficient and exemplary implementation of local self- government. Especially the early successes of the Communist government in land reforms and social justice during the late 1970s and the 1980s sparked academic interest in this model. This paper intends to examine this view on the base of a survey amongst the rural populace in the West Bengal district of Burdwan about the perception of the Panchayat institutions itself and their perceived performance. The aim is to prove or disprove West Bengals perceived model character by investigating the view of the ordinary citizen on the Panchayats and the impression he/she has about the institutions performance in various fields, e.g. infrastructure. The paper also looks into the roles of both leading political parties, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) and the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC), in the West Bengal Panchayats and how these roles are perceived.
Copyright (c) 2010 Kai Fürstenberg http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Leadership, Economic Reforms and Policy Processes in an Indian State: The Regime of ‘JB’ (Chief Minister Janaki Ballav Patnaik) in Odisha
In Indian society, political leaders play a creative role in the process of modernization by integrating diverse social groups. Mobilization of diverse social groups under effective leadership channelizes the energy of these groups into the political system. Dialogue among these groups, the political leadership, the bureaucracy and the civil society bring synergy. This synergy gets articulated in the policy-making process. Constant dialogue and feedback processes make these policies work and produce positive results. JB Patnaik, a leader of the Provincial Congress Party, succeeded in creating an environment of giving impetus to the development of a traditional society like that of Odisha. He remained the Chief Minister of the State for three terms. A stable political regime supported the State government to move ahead in the process of modernization. However, his leadership style and the venality and corruption at the core of his regime, led ultimately to the decline of the Congress Party in Odisha.
Copyright (c) 2014 Radhakanta Barik http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Discourses of Transculturality: Ideas, Institutions and Practices in India and China
Transculturality, though conceptualized differently depending on the intellectual context, is broadly understood here as a research perspective that while challenging universalism, acknowledges the existence of ideas, institutions and practices across different cultural settings as a result of asymmetrical cultural flows. This perspective allows for transcending disciplinary boundaries by deploying concepts such as flow, asymmetry, hybridity, structure and agency as heuristic tools which are crucial in critically analyzing the meta-narratives of Euro-centrism, and their implications for understanding non-Western societies in their own terms, rather than along the lines of Western parameters. Each of these conceptual categories becomes an important tool to address the particular contexts of a society in its entirety rather than fitting them into a given model. This does not imply a theoretical and methodological exoticism of non-Western societies, but constitutes an attempt to generalize from these societies in a more inclusive manner. As the title suggests, this Special Issue strives to comprehend discourses of transculturality as an emerging and alternative paradigm to analyze concrete concepts, such as citizenship, governance, identity, bureaucracy, diplomacy, and tourism networks in the specific contexts of India and China.
Copyright (c) 2012 Bidisha Chaudhuri, Lion König http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Kauṭilya's Arthaśāstra: A Classic Text of Statecraft and an Untapped Political Science Resource
The Kauṭilīya Arthaśāstra – written at the turn of the 4th to the 3rd century BC – is a classical work of political theory and International Relation theory. However, Kauṭilya has so far remained on the sidelines of the international political science discourse in spite of Max Weber's repeated references to the Arthaśāstra and Hans J. Morgenthau's own statement that his theory of political realism is (also) based on ancient Indian philosophy. The Arthaśāstra is a theoretical and normative work which features six pivotal idea clusters: 1) state power, 2) raison d'état, 3) correlation of forces between competing states based on 4) the saptāṅga theory of the seven “state factors” (prakr̥ti). The correlation of forces predetermines which of six alternative foreign policy options – the 5) ṣāḍguṇya theory – will be selected. The background of Kauṭilya's 'realist' statecraft is 6) matsya-nyāya theory – a political anthropology which features anarchy, conflicts of interest and power struggle. Kauṭilya's idea of political realism anticipates much of the modern notion which is associated not only with Machiavelli and Hobbes, but particularly with Hans J. Morgenthau and also with Max Weber, Helmuth Plessner and Friedrich Meinecke. The Kauṭilīya Arthaśāstra is an untapped conceptional resource for theory building with respect to political theory, theorized statecraft and IR theory. The Kauṭilīya Arthaśāstra is also key for understanding the politico-strategic culture of modern India.
Copyright (c) 2014 Michael Liebig http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Afghanistan: The Western Withdrawal and its Implications for Security and Economy
This article attempts to explain the implications of withdrawal of foreign military forces from Afghanistan in 2014 onwards. The implications for regional security and economy are explained with the help of proposed rational choice model which, it is posited, is applicable to the case of Afghanistan. Methodologically, this study used qualitative methods approach to collect primary data in terms of interviews and survey. Besides, the study aims at testing its hypotheses, namely, lack of planning in the post-war period leads to more conflicts, and collaboration among regional powers can help achieve peace and economic stability. As a result of its model-guided empirical analysis, this study finds the post-withdrawal situation in Afghanistan, to be more complicated. This complexity could be (re)solved positively if the engaged actors prefer to negotiate. If not, divergence of interests would lead to more confrontation and, hence, chaos beyond the South Asian region.
Copyright (c) 2015 Ejaz Hussain, Muhammad Jahanzaib http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Communalism and Identity among South Asians in Diaspora
"Communalism" is a term used in India, but invented by colonial rulers in the nineteenth century, to refer to the use and manipulation of religious and/or ethnic differences for "political" ends antithetical to the national (or colonial) interest. It is related to, but very different from, the idea of "community". Arguably, the rise of "communalism" was partly a reaction to the undermining of older, more local communities by rapid economic and social change. During the period of colonial occupation alternative outlets for popular unease and discontent included the Indian nationalist movement, but the division of this movement into Muslim, Hindu, Brahmin, non-Brahmin and other fractions, encouraged by the colonial power for strategic reasons, became a hall-mark of Indian politics and social life in the late colonial period. The secularist consensus established in the early years after Independence for a while promised a new future for India. However, during the past decade, the decline of secularism, the decline of the Congress Party, and the emergence of fundamentalist parties and organisations has made communalism once more a prominent feature of Indian life. Communalism has also spread beyond the subcontinent, the political conflicts within India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka increasingly being found mirrored amongst the substantial communities of Indians and Pakistanis living abroad. For historians the question of how the twentieth century's conception of community and contemporary ideas of communalism came about is one of considerable controversy. However, among contemporary sociologists studying community or "race relations" (as they used to be termed) in the United States, the Caribbean, Africa, the U.K. or Indian Ocean States it is often assumed that the identities of migrant communities are largely brought with them, and that they are based upon primordial and age-old forms of identity and conflict to be found in the Indian subcontinent. To put it simply, the fact that communalism is endemic in the Indian subcontinent today, means that it is considered an "essential" feature of Indian society, and it's appearance elsewhere is therefore regarded as unproblematic. The international activities of militant political and religious organisations such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad or Jammia Islamia are likewise predicated upon this assumption, that the interests and identities of Hindus and Muslims everywhere are essentially the same. When looked at more closely however, and in comparative perspective, it soon becomes apparent that to "be a Hindu" in Leicester, in England, for example, is very different from "being a Hindu" in Durban South Africa, and that even within the subcontinent the identities of, for example, Muslims in Bombay, and those in Hyderabad, Lucknow or Bangladesh are very different from one another. This article questions some of the assumptions of fundamentalists and western sociologists. It attempts to explain the divergent historical circumstances that have led to the various outcomes in terms of community relations amongst migrant groups in Asia. The article also examines the origins and consequences of the widely varying identities that have emerged among migrant communities within South Asia, and amongst the many communities of South Asians scattered beyond the subcontinent in the former territories of Britain's colonial empire.
Copyright (c) 2000 Crispin Bates http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Democratic Institution Building Process in Bangladesh: South Asian Experience of a New Model of a 'Care-taker Government' in a Parliamentary Framework
What did necessitate the constitutional arrangement of an interim government to hold parliamentary elections in Bangladesh? Customarily the incumbent government holds the election and the power is transferred accordingly. In Bangladesh, however, the governments since 1973 ‘managed’ all elections in favour of their own parties. The right of the people to vote freely, fairly, fearlessly and judiciously was undermined by the coercion and terrorism perpetuated by ruling parties or military rulers. As a consequence, an interim care-taker government was designed in order to oversee free and fair elections for a sovereign parliament. The arrangement of a non-partisan care-taker government is the outcome of a long political movement in Bangladesh. Both in 1991 and 1996 the care-taker government made credible strides in the effort of building democratic institutions. Critics in Bangladesh opined, of course, the institution of care-taker government is deemed to a slur on the efficiency and capability of the politicians to be the trustee of the nation; it signals their inability to be worthy to hold a free and fair election; it diminishes people’s confidence in them as well as purports ‘the politicians to become unscrupulous during election time’. Notwithstanding all possible odds, it is fair to count plus points of a non-partisan caretaker government in the following ways: (1) Right of people to vote freely and fairly is established; the voters are not intimidated; elections are not rigged; therefore electoral process attains transparency; (2) Election Commission functions with full freedom to conduct elections; (3) During election time equal facilities are ensured to all political parties; (4) Elections under non-partisan care-taker government keep the government of the day under pressure to be responsive to the nation; and (5) The institution of caretaker government will, above all, act as catalytic agent to help the people of Bangladesh to "learn by practice" democratic culture.
Copyright (c) 2000 Gyasuddin Molla http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Constitutional Design, Democratic Vote Counting, and India's Fortuitous Multiculturalism
Following independence, the Indian state, with fresh memories of the communal violence that marked the partition of the subcontinent, committed itself to an unprecedented experiment of actualising the ideal of multiculturalism as a cornerstone of the nation and the most important basis of its legitimacy. The legitimacy of the state structure was based on the twin principle of individual rights and protection of minorities. This entailed a constitutional design committed to denying hegemony to any religion. Subsequently, as the message of democracy spread, this gave rise to many new problematic issues. Ethnic and national minorities challenged the state and its capacity to accommodate conflicting identities by demanding neutrality as well as genuine recognition and active support for their culture and religion. The essay examines this contested character of India's constitutionally guaranteed multiculturalism on the basis of the history of state formation, the freedom movement, the uncertainty of the ultimate nature of divinity in Hinduism, and thereby, illustrates how post-colonial India was able to devise a series of concrete institutions and policies in order to work her way towards new conceptions of the rights and status of minorities. Thus, the specific case of India’s theoretically fuzzy multiculturalism and the abstract issue of accommodation are juxtaposed to some existing measures of the Constitution of India as well as some survey data of about ten thousand men and women shortly after the parliamentary elections of 1996. Drawing on aspects of India's political culture and the debate on Hindu theology, the essay suggests that contrary to the spectre of the rise of Hindu 'fundamentalism', India presents a relatively successful case of the growth of a multicultural nation, ensconced within of a post-colonial, democratic state.
Copyright (c) 2001 Subrata K. Mitra http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Untouchability has always been a key problem of Indian anthropology; but like many other issues, it has been treated as an abstract concept that existed outside time. The first theoreticians of caste had no first-hand knowledge of Untouchables, and tended to base their theories on sacred Hindu texts that had little to do with contemporary life. They stressed the integration of Untouchables into Indian society. Later on, the first village studies concentrated on multi-caste settlements and approached the Untouchables’ reality in the presence of high-caste villagers. They were again biased towards a harmonious view of the problem. Srinivas himself was honest enough to recognize that his knowledge of the Untouchables was on the whole unsatisfactory: “Though I knew several Muslims and Harijans well, I did not know these two sections of village society as intimately as I wanted to. I would have obtained a new angle on the village if I had spent more time in their areas”. Those first ethnographers largely confirmed the views of the theoreticians of castes and Sanskritists, who emphasized the rather harmonious character of village society and the perfect integration of Untouchables into the social organization. Then came a new generation of scholars, who studied the Untouchables for themselves. In a famous study, Moffatt made an important – though largely unnoticed – point: he notices that these scholars were on the whole quite sympathetic to the Untouchables and wished to emphasize the distance between the latter and the rest of society. Psychologically, this is quite understandable. Researchers wish to show that their study has contributed something new, and, in this particular case, they set up what Moffatt calls “models of separation,” in other words models that implied a great distance between Untouchables and the rest of society. There was thus a tendency to foreground the persistence of discrimination. This was particularly true of studies led by Westerners, since Indian anthropologists were much more preoccupied with social change and the way untouchability was – slowly but surely – disappearing. Unfortunately, the numerous studies entitled Social Change in India did not always match what one could expect from modern anthropological research, and they tended to be neglected in a debate that, in the West, remained largely dominated by structuralist considerations, caring little about social change. Yet, those studies made some important points: they assumed firstly that Indian society was changing, and secondly, in a very post-Independence fashion, that untouchability had to disappear sooner or later. As I said, the problem of those studies was that they often relied upon inadequate evidence, very often tables compiled from a simple, even a simplistic, questionnaire. That is perhaps one of the reasons that explain their lack of impact. Yet, their assumptions were right, as they were concerned with a changing reality. Having devoted a great deal of my time to the study of Untouchables, I now think it is time to stop considering things as if caste and untouchability were unchanging institutions. For instance, it seems pretty obvious to me that social realities are no longer what they were (or what they were supposed to have been): high castes have changed, Untouchables have changed, the society at large has changed and castes, in particular, have also changed. I would go further, and claim that, fifty years after Independence, Indian Untouchables have come a long way and made remarkable progress. True enough, the vast majority of them remain poor; but poverty is an economic, not a caste, condition. The problem of poverty in India cannot be reduced to caste and one finds poor people basically in all caste groups: according to the various estimates, between 30 and 60 per cent of the Indian population live under the so-called “poverty line,” whereas Untouchables are only 15 per cent. In any case, the question of ritual pollution no longer plays a major role in maintaining them at the bottom of society. Finally they form less than ever a homogeneous social category: owing to the state’s protective measures, but also to their own dynamism and courage, many among them have climbed the social ladder. The fact remains that caste tends to play a growing role in contemporary India. However, this situation is perhaps less the continuity of tradition than a recent outcome linked to the post-Independence situation. In modern India, it is not relative purity that lies at the basis of caste struggles. Castes now fight because they have to compete for limited economic and political resources. This is also true of Untouchables, who may become a major force within Indian politics.
Copyright (c) 2002 Robert Deliège http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Political Representation and Empowerment: Women in the Institutions of Local Government in Orissa after the 73rd Amendment to the Indian Constitution
The strengthening of women's participation in all spheres of life has become a major issue in the discourse of economic and social development in the last decades. Virtually every international and bilateral development agency has proclaimed policies to integrate women better into economic and social processes. The promotion of women in politics, however, especially if it is supposed to be implemented through affirmative action is still contested. This is in spite of the fact that women, who form around 50% of total world population, share a considerably lower presence in elected political bodies: Women made up only 11.6% of MPs in 176 parliaments in 1995 (IDEA 2002). Apparently universal franchise is inadequate to overcome structural constraints that impede female presence in political offices. Thus, despite their numerical strength, women are still a minority in respect to political power and positions occupied. Interestingly enough India is one of the countries where a women's quota of 33% was introduced at least at the local level. The same strategy for the State Assemblies and the National Parliament is still highly contested and the so-called "Women's Bill" failed thrice to be passed so far. At the same time, some readers might be astonished that India has realised a women's quota at all, since India is often portrayed as backward in regard to women's position in society. News on dowry deaths, widow burning, and the abortion of female foetuses still dominate the rather undifferentiated public image of India. Nevertheless, in 1992 the 73rd Amendment to the Indian Constitution laid down new rules for the establishment and design of rural local government (called Panchayati Raj). This Amendment also stipulates that at least 33% of the seats and positions have to be filled by women. Proponents of this measure believe that the quota for women will lead to their empowerment, whereas critics claim that those women will be mere "proxies" for influential males and will be mainly drawn from the elite. The opponents furthermore point out that women in rural India are not equipped for participating in politics, since they lack basic qualifications. Indeed, India's rural social structure can still be characterized as being predominantly patriarchal. Women face restricted mobility in the public space; yet, this differs with respect to caste, class, religion as well as age and family status. As already mentioned, treating women as a political group with common concerns provokes the question in how far gender actually transcends caste, class or ethnic affiliation. Which interests should the elected women represent - those of other women, of their caste, clan or religious community? How can rural women, who are initially without doubt less equipped for political office (lower formal education, less political experience, less public exposure etc.), overcome these inhibitions? And how do male colleagues, officials and the village communities react if they are forced to elect and deal with female representatives? In order to pay tribute to the contextual nature of empowerment this study was conducted in a single State of the Indian Union. Orissa was selected because it is in one of the most "backward" States in the Indian Union and thus presents an environment that is not very conducive for women's empowerment to begin with. If one can prove that empowerment happens in such a setting, it is fair to assume that it should definitely take place in a location which provides better conditions, like, e.g. in a State like Kerala. Therefore, the selection of a "worst-case scenario" permits to draw more general conclusions. A quantitative survey was conducted with 105 women and 80 men mainly at the gram panchayat and few at the panchayat samiti level during the first field trip in 1998/99. In the second round in 1999/2000, selected female representatives, male panchayat members, officials, villagers and women's groups were interviewed in intensive semi-structured interviews.
Copyright (c) 2002 Evelin Hust http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
From Legalism to Realism in Kashmir: Internationalising the Line of Control
In 2002, Kashmir once again virtually led the two countries, India and Pakistan, to another war. And this time the fear was that it could even escalate into a nuclear war. Had it not been for the enormous pressure built upon both the states by the international community, most notably the United States, the matters could have gone out of hand. But the problem of deep distrust with which both the states seem to be congenitally afflicted still remains. Drawing upon historical sources and current politics, the article explores the recognition of the line of control that separates India controlled parts of Jammu and Kashmir from the areas under Pakistani control as a possible solution to this vexed issue.
Copyright (c) 2002 Partha S. Ghosh http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Emerging Major Powers and the International System: Significance of the Indian View
India's new and contested status as a nuclear power, the scale of her arms purchases, her investment in missile technology and the huge deployment of ground troops on the western front against Pakistan are issues of immediate concern to her South Asian neighbours. Since tension feeds on tension, war in Afghanistan, terrorist attacks in Kolkata, Delhi, Jammu and Srinagar, mounting tension between India and Pakistan over the issue of cross-border terrorism in Kashmir and the recent threat by General Pervez Musharraf to consider the first strike option as part of Pakistan’s strategic response to Indian mobilisation have contributed to the seriousness of the situation. The probability of the regional conflict escalating into large scale nuclear war, or weapons of mass destruction finding their way into the hands of non-state actors, have drawn world attention to South Asia, which has had visits in quick succession by political leaders and military delegations from the United States, UK, Germany, France, China and Russia. The paper, focused on India’s capacities, perceptions and institutional arrangements for the management of security, seeks to evaluate the significance of her status as an ?emerging? power for the security environment in Asia, and its implication for the international system. It analyses the main objective both empirically, and theoretically. The empirical aspect concerns the measurement of India’s economic and military resources according to the conventional indicators of power. These facts, based on experts’ accounts, are supplemented by political and institutional factors which are significant for the estimation of the power of a country. In addition, the analysis seeks to juxtapose the views of observers and actors, and locate the strategic perception of the Indian voter, an important factor in her political landscape in view of her active democratic process. These factors of contemporary politics are to be seen in the larger context of India’s political and security culture, history, the structure of the political system. The issue of contextualisation needs to be understood in terms of its methodological implication at the outset, because, while all states are members of the international system, the use to which they put international politics varies from one context to another. Western nation states, products of a long process of nation building, industrialisation and state-formation, seek the promotion of national interest through their strategic initiatives. Post-colonial state-nations, engaged in the process of nation-creation, are more complex in their rhetoric. For these actors, international politics, in addition to being used as an instrument of national interest, also plays a symbolic role in the building of a national profile. The paper seeks to combine both the material and symbolic aspects of Indian policy in the concept of a security doctrine, one that can bring potential power into an effective focus, in the absence of which mere appurtenances of power like guns and ships are just that and not much more. Since the stability of the doctrine, in addition to its coherence is an important parameter of the significance of Indian power, the paper also takes into account the problems of implementation as well. Though there is considerable force to the argument that South Asian security is crucially contingent on the India-China-Pakistan triangle, India remains the biggest power in South Asia, and her significance, in terms of how India sees herself and how others see her, is a key consideration for regional politics. The need for a sophisticated methodological analysis arises paradoxically from the fact that India is a democratic state and an open society, both of which give a false sense of visibility to India’s security profile. Foreign observers, depending on their own national origin and the context, place their bets on predictions of India’s next move either as the ?regional bully? or the ?regional push-over?, and India, Janus-like, often proves both speculations to be right, appearing in the process to be either mystical-moral, or utterly devoid of principle or doctrine. The paper is in three parts. The first examines the state of play by ranking India with reference to her strategic resource endowments. The second part examines India’s strategic doctrine and the organigram of security, and evaluates her potential power in the light of her doctrine. The third part makes a prognosis of the challenging path ahead for India with reference to the unsolved problems concerning her national security. The conclusion reconsiders the main issue posed in the introduction in the light of the analysis undertaken here.
Copyright (c) 2002 Subrata K. Mitra http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
One-Party-Dominance in Changing Societies: The ANC and INC in Comparative Perspective
India and South Africa share a similar historical outcome as concerns their party systems albeit within very different temporal and spatial contexts. India’s system of one-party-dominance (OPD) was electorally terminated in 1977 when for the first time in the country’s history the Indian National Congress was ousted from office and power by the Janata Party, a multi-party electoral platform comprising four major opposition parties. South Africa so far had only two general (democratic) elections (1994 and 1999) wherein the African National Congress won an overwhelming share of the popular vote (62,65% and 66,35% respectively), but which do not allow to make an assessment of the country’s party system without some qualifications regarding the dynamic nature of a pattern of party competition still in the making. What are the causal factors that made the emergence of a system of OPD in India after independence possible and make it likely in the South Africa of today? Why was it that a single party in a competitive democratic environment succeeded in winning one election after another amidst processes of massive social change, and, why is it that a single party is still able to do so at the end of the twentieth century? What did OPD do to the political and socio-economic development in the world’s largest democracy, and, what will be the effects of its working in the world’s most amazing democracy? Taking India as the locus classicus of OPD in changing societies, this paper is an attempt to draw advantage from a diachronic comparison between the Indian party system after independence and the emerging one in South Africa in order to free the political phenomenon of ‘OPD’ from some of the theoretical and conceptual flaws surrounding it, to examine common thinking about a party systems’ emergence and working on the basis of two regional realities, and, finally, to enrich the current scholarly hypothesising about the correlation between the nature of the party system and processes of democratic consolidation and socio-economic development with some empirical backing.
Copyright (c) 2002 Clemens Spieß http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Measuring Conflicts in South Asian Countries (1945-2002)
In this contribution I would like to focus on the four countries in South Asia, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh as a region of conflicts, ask questions about the specific conflict constellations existing in the region and by applying indicator oriented empirical research to the four countries I try to explain the political confrontations occurring during the period between 1945 and 2002. This article is structured according to the following logic: First of all, the structural reality of a country’s endangerment/insecurity and support/security as well as - deduced from this - its ability to resolve conflicts are operationalized and put into measurable quantities. In this way we identify the regime’s political management capabilities and, independent of the measurements mentioned before, its character. Then, the variable ‘conflict’, which is to be explained, is presented and the modality of resolving conflicts is considered. Finally, an index of resolution is calculated that shows which states and which regimes can or could respectively best deal with conflicts. At the same time, the index serves to identify specifically endangered states and through pointing out the supporting factors to discuss the possibilities of non-violent ways to resolve conflicts.
Copyright (c) 2002 Frank R. Pfetsch http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0