Internal Security in India: Violence, Order, and the State(MODERN SOUTH ASIA SERIES)

An overarching exploration of the Indian state's approaches, laws, and organizations that maintain order and contain violence. Maintaining order and containing violence-the core constituents of internal security-are fundamental responsibilities of any government. Yet, developing countries find this task especially challenging. In Internal Security in India, Amit Ahuja, Devesh Kapur, and a cast of leading scholars on the subject focus on India's security and the threats it faces. Since Independence, the Indian state has grappled with a variety of internal security challenges, including insurgencies, terrorist attacks, caste and communal violence, riots, and electoral violence. Their toll has claimed more lives than all of India's five external wars put together. As the contributors in this volume analyze how the Indian State has managed the core concern of internal security over time, they address three broad questions: How well has India contained violence and preserved order? How have the approaches and capacity of the State evolved to attain these twin objectives? And what implications do the State's approach towards internal security have for civil liberties and the quality of democracy? A major reinterpretation of order and internal security in India, this book sheds light on an underanalyzed issue of global import given the changing nature of threats that states face.

Table of Contents:
List of Figures List of Tables Acknowledgments Abbreviations and Acronyms Contributors Chapter 1 The State and Internal Security in India Amit Ahuja and Devesh Kapur Chapter 2 Internal Security and India's Constitution Raeesa Vakil Chapter 3 The Persistence of the AFSPA Anubha Bhonsle Chapter 4 Role of MHA in Internal Security Shakti Sinha Chapter 5 Public Finances of Internal Security in India Nirvikar Singh Chapter 6 India's Internal Security in Comparative Perspective Paul Staniland Chapter 7 India's Internal Security Doctrine in Practice Sushant Singh Chapter 8 Military in Internal Security Amit Ahuja and Srinath Raghavan Chapter 9 Role of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) in India Yashovardhan Azad Chapter 10 The Indian Police: Managing Dilemmas of Internal Security Akshay Mangla Chapter 11 Riots & Rapid Action: The Special Wing of the Central Reserve Police Nirvikar Jassal and Hanif Qureshi Chapter 12 Protective Labor and its Correlates: A Statistical Portrait Paaritosh Nath and Arjun Jayadev Chapter 13 India's Intelligence in Internal Security Saikat Datta Chapter 14 Included but not Equal? Debating Gender and Labor Reforms within the Border Security Force Sahana Ghosh Chapter 15 Security Labor and State Suppression of Police Worker Politics Beatrice Jauregui Notes Index

About the Author :
Amit Ahuja is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Devesh Kapur is Starr Foundation South Asia Studies Professor at the Paul H Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.

Review :
India's internal security is a subject of such immediate political and social relevance that it is not often the subject of rigorous academic study. That gap has been filled by this volume edited by Amit Ahuja and Devesh Kapur, two scholars with outstanding credentials, covering the institutional, doctrinal, organizational, and other aspects of this contentious subject. The volume thus takes an integrated view of India's internal security. Its strength lies in its reliance on data, the coherence of its arguments, and the reliance on academic disciplines honed in other contexts. All in all, a significant book on an important subject that will become ever more relevant as the pace of change in India accelerates in years to come. The carefully researched essays in this book document the decline in many measures of internal violence in India but also disturbing changes in the use of force by the state. It should be read by any person interested in India today. This is an extraordinarily good volume, bringing together experts on all aspects of India's internal security: from its expanding private security businesses, to its overstretched police forces, to the complex structures through which India's political, military, and intelligence leaders respond to internal security challenges. This volume goes far beyond description, to analyze the larger strategies behind these responses, and the ways in which India's internal security state affects Indian democracy, federalism, and the rights of all its citizens. Indispensable.