India Quarterly, Volume 79, Issue 3, Page 293-303, September 2023.
Pakistan continues to face multiple sources of internal and external conflicts. Its all-powerful military is engaged in a subterranean battle to maintain its power. Economically, the country persisted in troubled waters as it has been for most of its recent history. In domestic politics, the failed experiment of a hybrid regime under Ex-Prime Minister Imran Khan forced the military to part ways with Mr Khan and install a coalition government of 13 political parties through a no-confidence vote in parliament in April 2022. Mr Khan’s political party is facing a severe crackdown in Pakistan after he accused the powerful military of his ouster from power. At the regional level, a favourable outcome in Afghanistan in the shape of the Taliban’s takeover has not yielded any significant positive results for Pakistan. After concluding the Afghan conflict on a favourable note, paradoxically, the military establishment hints at a desire to shift away from geo-security to geo-economics in its foreign policy goals. At the extra-regional level, the military is walking a tightrope to balance its ties between the USA and China to offset any adverse consequences arising from its strategic partnerships with China over China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). In this article, we explain a series of issues confronting Pakistan currently—including a deep economic crisis, political paralysis, and a resurgent terror threat—focusing on the military’s ambitions in the region and beyond.
The Materiality of Space: Infrastructuring the Border Space in Arunachal Pradesh
India Quarterly, Volume 79, Issue 3, Page 387-404, September 2023.
The materiality of space refers to the material constituents determining the space. The spatial imagination of the borderland, characterised by critical spatiality, is materially constituted. The fact of being materially constituted means to be infrastructurally configured. The infrastructures here include hydro projects, highways, railroads, bridges, tunnels, airports, digital connectivity and other defence-related installations. These projects combine a two-pronged approach: security and development. The security challenges that the border space embodies compel the state to adopt an approach of competitive infrastructure building. The nature of this competition is determined by the competing other’s approach towards the border space. Arunachal Pradesh is a very critical border state that shares its crucial border space of 1,080 km with China, 160 km with Bhutan and 440 km with Myanmar. China’s increasing geopolitical clout in the region intensifies its spatial and material prominence. India under its Act East Policy (AEP) formulation in 2014 has taken up a very determined approach to accelerating infrastructure growth in the northeast and more particularly in Arunachal Pradesh for its border spatiality. Therefore, the border space loses its inferential, conjectural and abstract character and becomes materially determined. This imperative for materiality embodies, on the one hand, development, modernity, capitalist social space and mainstreaming of the neglected and, on the other hand, protectionism and upgradation of security architecture along critical geography known as the border space. Therefore, this study examines the development of materiality, meaning infrastructure, in a complex border space like Arunachal Pradesh. It decodes the economic logic of the systematic development of border space by the Indian nation-state from the point of view of the growth of the region and security urgency. It uses Henri Lefebvre’s theoretical formulations of spatiality to understand the convoluted category of border space and the introduction of material forces to achieve security and developmental objectives.
The materiality of space refers to the material constituents determining the space. The spatial imagination of the borderland, characterised by critical spatiality, is materially constituted. The fact of being materially constituted means to be infrastructurally configured. The infrastructures here include hydro projects, highways, railroads, bridges, tunnels, airports, digital connectivity and other defence-related installations. These projects combine a two-pronged approach: security and development. The security challenges that the border space embodies compel the state to adopt an approach of competitive infrastructure building. The nature of this competition is determined by the competing other’s approach towards the border space. Arunachal Pradesh is a very critical border state that shares its crucial border space of 1,080 km with China, 160 km with Bhutan and 440 km with Myanmar. China’s increasing geopolitical clout in the region intensifies its spatial and material prominence. India under its Act East Policy (AEP) formulation in 2014 has taken up a very determined approach to accelerating infrastructure growth in the northeast and more particularly in Arunachal Pradesh for its border spatiality. Therefore, the border space loses its inferential, conjectural and abstract character and becomes materially determined. This imperative for materiality embodies, on the one hand, development, modernity, capitalist social space and mainstreaming of the neglected and, on the other hand, protectionism and upgradation of security architecture along critical geography known as the border space. Therefore, this study examines the development of materiality, meaning infrastructure, in a complex border space like Arunachal Pradesh. It decodes the economic logic of the systematic development of border space by the Indian nation-state from the point of view of the growth of the region and security urgency. It uses Henri Lefebvre’s theoretical formulations of spatiality to understand the convoluted category of border space and the introduction of material forces to achieve security and developmental objectives.
The Vanguard Brigade: An Appraisal of the United Nations’ Rapid Deployment Capabilities
India Quarterly, Volume 79, Issue 3, Page 405-424, September 2023.
Seventy-six years after its establishment, the United Nations (UN) today stands at a critical juncture where it must undertake radical reforms to remain relevant in the changing face of the twenty-first century. Such reforms are essential to prevent the UN from becoming redundant and being pushed to the sidelines of great power politics in the emerging multipolar world. While there has been much political clamour among the international community calling for the restructuring of the UN Security Council, which is also in the interest of India, an appraisal of the UN’s military capability to intervene in Contemporary Armed Conflicts under Chapter VII of its Charter needs to be assessed. The absence of a standing reserve and the procedural complexities involved in deriving the manpower for peacekeeping operations from the member states have undermined the UN’s capability to swiftly intervene in an escalating armed conflict even after getting approval from the Security Council. At present, a plethora of factors have resulted in the increasing volatility of contemporary armed conflicts. Under these circumstances, the UN’s capacity for swift intervention after the outbreak of a conflict has become even more relevant today than in the past. The creation of a UN Vanguard Brigade based on the recommendations given by the 2015 High-Level Independent Panel on Peace Operations is a major step in that direction. Using a case analysis of the Rwandan genocide, this article critically examines the challenges of the vanguard brigade to optimise the UN’s capability for rapid deployment of peacekeepers for swift intervention in an escalating Armed Conflict. The article is largely descriptive and analytical, using predominantly secondary sources and UN documents.
Seventy-six years after its establishment, the United Nations (UN) today stands at a critical juncture where it must undertake radical reforms to remain relevant in the changing face of the twenty-first century. Such reforms are essential to prevent the UN from becoming redundant and being pushed to the sidelines of great power politics in the emerging multipolar world. While there has been much political clamour among the international community calling for the restructuring of the UN Security Council, which is also in the interest of India, an appraisal of the UN’s military capability to intervene in Contemporary Armed Conflicts under Chapter VII of its Charter needs to be assessed. The absence of a standing reserve and the procedural complexities involved in deriving the manpower for peacekeeping operations from the member states have undermined the UN’s capability to swiftly intervene in an escalating armed conflict even after getting approval from the Security Council. At present, a plethora of factors have resulted in the increasing volatility of contemporary armed conflicts. Under these circumstances, the UN’s capacity for swift intervention after the outbreak of a conflict has become even more relevant today than in the past. The creation of a UN Vanguard Brigade based on the recommendations given by the 2015 High-Level Independent Panel on Peace Operations is a major step in that direction. Using a case analysis of the Rwandan genocide, this article critically examines the challenges of the vanguard brigade to optimise the UN’s capability for rapid deployment of peacekeepers for swift intervention in an escalating Armed Conflict. The article is largely descriptive and analytical, using predominantly secondary sources and UN documents.
Pakistan in 2023: On the Brink of a Full-Blown Crisis
India Quarterly, Volume 79, Issue 3, Page 293-303, September 2023.
Pakistan continues to face multiple sources of internal and external conflicts. Its all-powerful military is engaged in a subterranean battle to maintain its power. Economically, the country persisted in troubled waters as it has been for most of its recent history. In domestic politics, the failed experiment of a hybrid regime under Ex-Prime Minister Imran Khan forced the military to part ways with Mr Khan and install a coalition government of 13 political parties through a no-confidence vote in parliament in April 2022. Mr Khan’s political party is facing a severe crackdown in Pakistan after he accused the powerful military of his ouster from power. At the regional level, a favourable outcome in Afghanistan in the shape of the Taliban’s takeover has not yielded any significant positive results for Pakistan. After concluding the Afghan conflict on a favourable note, paradoxically, the military establishment hints at a desire to shift away from geo-security to geo-economics in its foreign policy goals. At the extra-regional level, the military is walking a tightrope to balance its ties between the USA and China to offset any adverse consequences arising from its strategic partnerships with China over China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). In this article, we explain a series of issues confronting Pakistan currently—including a deep economic crisis, political paralysis, and a resurgent terror threat—focusing on the military’s ambitions in the region and beyond.
Pakistan continues to face multiple sources of internal and external conflicts. Its all-powerful military is engaged in a subterranean battle to maintain its power. Economically, the country persisted in troubled waters as it has been for most of its recent history. In domestic politics, the failed experiment of a hybrid regime under Ex-Prime Minister Imran Khan forced the military to part ways with Mr Khan and install a coalition government of 13 political parties through a no-confidence vote in parliament in April 2022. Mr Khan’s political party is facing a severe crackdown in Pakistan after he accused the powerful military of his ouster from power. At the regional level, a favourable outcome in Afghanistan in the shape of the Taliban’s takeover has not yielded any significant positive results for Pakistan. After concluding the Afghan conflict on a favourable note, paradoxically, the military establishment hints at a desire to shift away from geo-security to geo-economics in its foreign policy goals. At the extra-regional level, the military is walking a tightrope to balance its ties between the USA and China to offset any adverse consequences arising from its strategic partnerships with China over China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). In this article, we explain a series of issues confronting Pakistan currently—including a deep economic crisis, political paralysis, and a resurgent terror threat—focusing on the military’s ambitions in the region and beyond.
The Materiality of Space: Infrastructuring the Border Space in Arunachal Pradesh
India Quarterly, Volume 79, Issue 3, Page 387-404, September 2023.
The materiality of space refers to the material constituents determining the space. The spatial imagination of the borderland, characterised by critical spatiality, is materially constituted. The fact of being materially constituted means to be infrastructurally configured. The infrastructures here include hydro projects, highways, railroads, bridges, tunnels, airports, digital connectivity and other defence-related installations. These projects combine a two-pronged approach: security and development. The security challenges that the border space embodies compel the state to adopt an approach of competitive infrastructure building. The nature of this competition is determined by the competing other’s approach towards the border space. Arunachal Pradesh is a very critical border state that shares its crucial border space of 1,080 km with China, 160 km with Bhutan and 440 km with Myanmar. China’s increasing geopolitical clout in the region intensifies its spatial and material prominence. India under its Act East Policy (AEP) formulation in 2014 has taken up a very determined approach to accelerating infrastructure growth in the northeast and more particularly in Arunachal Pradesh for its border spatiality. Therefore, the border space loses its inferential, conjectural and abstract character and becomes materially determined. This imperative for materiality embodies, on the one hand, development, modernity, capitalist social space and mainstreaming of the neglected and, on the other hand, protectionism and upgradation of security architecture along critical geography known as the border space. Therefore, this study examines the development of materiality, meaning infrastructure, in a complex border space like Arunachal Pradesh. It decodes the economic logic of the systematic development of border space by the Indian nation-state from the point of view of the growth of the region and security urgency. It uses Henri Lefebvre’s theoretical formulations of spatiality to understand the convoluted category of border space and the introduction of material forces to achieve security and developmental objectives.
The materiality of space refers to the material constituents determining the space. The spatial imagination of the borderland, characterised by critical spatiality, is materially constituted. The fact of being materially constituted means to be infrastructurally configured. The infrastructures here include hydro projects, highways, railroads, bridges, tunnels, airports, digital connectivity and other defence-related installations. These projects combine a two-pronged approach: security and development. The security challenges that the border space embodies compel the state to adopt an approach of competitive infrastructure building. The nature of this competition is determined by the competing other’s approach towards the border space. Arunachal Pradesh is a very critical border state that shares its crucial border space of 1,080 km with China, 160 km with Bhutan and 440 km with Myanmar. China’s increasing geopolitical clout in the region intensifies its spatial and material prominence. India under its Act East Policy (AEP) formulation in 2014 has taken up a very determined approach to accelerating infrastructure growth in the northeast and more particularly in Arunachal Pradesh for its border spatiality. Therefore, the border space loses its inferential, conjectural and abstract character and becomes materially determined. This imperative for materiality embodies, on the one hand, development, modernity, capitalist social space and mainstreaming of the neglected and, on the other hand, protectionism and upgradation of security architecture along critical geography known as the border space. Therefore, this study examines the development of materiality, meaning infrastructure, in a complex border space like Arunachal Pradesh. It decodes the economic logic of the systematic development of border space by the Indian nation-state from the point of view of the growth of the region and security urgency. It uses Henri Lefebvre’s theoretical formulations of spatiality to understand the convoluted category of border space and the introduction of material forces to achieve security and developmental objectives.
Worlds from the Periphery: A Multilingual Reading of Saurav Kumar Chaliha and Anjum Hasan
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Linguistic minorities and strategic mobilisation in eastern India: Bengali-Biharis during the era of linguistic territorialism (1935–57)
The Indian Economic & Social History Review, Volume 60, Issue 3, Page 275-300, July–September 2023.
This article analyses how linguistic minorities in the province of Bihar navigated the era of linguistic territorialism, when mainstream political organisations and figures within India largely agreed that specific linguistic communities ‘belonged’ in particular regions. Indian scholarship has tended to focus on the mechanisms that brought about the linguistic reorganisation of states in India, therefore, concentrating largely on the ways in which territory and language became intrinsically connected. This article will examine the link of language and belonging with regard to a ‘community’, which demanded that states remain linguistically and culturally heterogenous. It focuses on the section of Biharis that identified Bengali as their ‘mother-tongue’ and tracks the transformation of Bengali politics within the province/state during the transition from colonial rule to independence. It explores the ways in which narratives of historical Bengali settlement were deployed for different reasons across this period, and argues that Bengalis in Bihar conceptualised the ordering of the Indian nation in a way that was inherently different from mainstream understandings of how the country should be ordered during this period. Bengali-Bihari figures and publications deployed rhetoric that attached much greater value to territorial belonging than to linguistic or cultural belonging. This article demonstrates that contrary to common assumptions, there were large groups of people who conceptualised India not just as a linguistically heterogenous nation, but one that consisted of linguistically heterogenous states that protected minority linguistic communities.
This article analyses how linguistic minorities in the province of Bihar navigated the era of linguistic territorialism, when mainstream political organisations and figures within India largely agreed that specific linguistic communities ‘belonged’ in particular regions. Indian scholarship has tended to focus on the mechanisms that brought about the linguistic reorganisation of states in India, therefore, concentrating largely on the ways in which territory and language became intrinsically connected. This article will examine the link of language and belonging with regard to a ‘community’, which demanded that states remain linguistically and culturally heterogenous. It focuses on the section of Biharis that identified Bengali as their ‘mother-tongue’ and tracks the transformation of Bengali politics within the province/state during the transition from colonial rule to independence. It explores the ways in which narratives of historical Bengali settlement were deployed for different reasons across this period, and argues that Bengalis in Bihar conceptualised the ordering of the Indian nation in a way that was inherently different from mainstream understandings of how the country should be ordered during this period. Bengali-Bihari figures and publications deployed rhetoric that attached much greater value to territorial belonging than to linguistic or cultural belonging. This article demonstrates that contrary to common assumptions, there were large groups of people who conceptualised India not just as a linguistically heterogenous nation, but one that consisted of linguistically heterogenous states that protected minority linguistic communities.
The idea of competition: Contextualising the debate over changing methods of recruitment in the Indian civil service during company rule
The Indian Economic & Social History Review, Volume 60, Issue 3, Page 335-363, July–September 2023.
Public examinations were one of the great initiatives of the nineteenth-century Englishmen. The idea of a competitive examination, which was first implemented in the Indian civil service during East India Company rule, was shaped in post-industrial Britain by liberal-utilitarian thinkers like Adam Smith, Jeremy Bentham, J. S. Mill, and others. The idea of competition, initially implemented in the field of economics, soon came to be applied to administration and governance. Studies on the Indian Civil Service have mainly focussed on its administrative and bureaucratic development. However, the historiography is silent about the role of English liberal-utilitarians, political-economists, and parliamentarians in applying the idea of competition to public services. In this context, this article tries to understand the concept of competition, as well as the ideological background and parliamentary debates behind the introduction of competitive examinations, and their impact on the socio-educational structure of colonial India during the three stages of foundation (1757–813), discourse (1814–53) and institutionalisation (1854 onwards).
Public examinations were one of the great initiatives of the nineteenth-century Englishmen. The idea of a competitive examination, which was first implemented in the Indian civil service during East India Company rule, was shaped in post-industrial Britain by liberal-utilitarian thinkers like Adam Smith, Jeremy Bentham, J. S. Mill, and others. The idea of competition, initially implemented in the field of economics, soon came to be applied to administration and governance. Studies on the Indian Civil Service have mainly focussed on its administrative and bureaucratic development. However, the historiography is silent about the role of English liberal-utilitarians, political-economists, and parliamentarians in applying the idea of competition to public services. In this context, this article tries to understand the concept of competition, as well as the ideological background and parliamentary debates behind the introduction of competitive examinations, and their impact on the socio-educational structure of colonial India during the three stages of foundation (1757–813), discourse (1814–53) and institutionalisation (1854 onwards).
The idea of competition: Contextualising the debate over changing methods of recruitment in the Indian civil service during company rule
The Indian Economic &Social History Review, Volume 60, Issue 3, Page 335-363, July–September 2023.
Public examinations were one of the great initiatives of the nineteenth-century Englishmen. The idea of a competitive examination, which was first implemented in the Indian civil service during East India Company rule, was shaped in post-industrial Britain by liberal-utilitarian thinkers like Adam Smith, Jeremy Bentham, J. S. Mill, and others. The idea of competition, initially implemented in the field of economics, soon came to be applied to administration and governance. Studies on the Indian Civil Service have mainly focussed on its administrative and bureaucratic development. However, the historiography is silent about the role of English liberal-utilitarians, political-economists, and parliamentarians in applying the idea of competition to public services. In this context, this article tries to understand the concept of competition, as well as the ideological background and parliamentary debates behind the introduction of competitive examinations, and their impact on the socio-educational structure of colonial India during the three stages of foundation (1757–813), discourse (1814–53) and institutionalisation (1854 onwards).
Public examinations were one of the great initiatives of the nineteenth-century Englishmen. The idea of a competitive examination, which was first implemented in the Indian civil service during East India Company rule, was shaped in post-industrial Britain by liberal-utilitarian thinkers like Adam Smith, Jeremy Bentham, J. S. Mill, and others. The idea of competition, initially implemented in the field of economics, soon came to be applied to administration and governance. Studies on the Indian Civil Service have mainly focussed on its administrative and bureaucratic development. However, the historiography is silent about the role of English liberal-utilitarians, political-economists, and parliamentarians in applying the idea of competition to public services. In this context, this article tries to understand the concept of competition, as well as the ideological background and parliamentary debates behind the introduction of competitive examinations, and their impact on the socio-educational structure of colonial India during the three stages of foundation (1757–813), discourse (1814–53) and institutionalisation (1854 onwards).
Linguistic minorities and strategic mobilisation in eastern India: Bengali-Biharis during the era of linguistic territorialism (1935–57)
The Indian Economic &Social History Review, Volume 60, Issue 3, Page 275-300, July–September 2023.
This article analyses how linguistic minorities in the province of Bihar navigated the era of linguistic territorialism, when mainstream political organisations and figures within India largely agreed that specific linguistic communities ‘belonged’ in particular regions. Indian scholarship has tended to focus on the mechanisms that brought about the linguistic reorganisation of states in India, therefore, concentrating largely on the ways in which territory and language became intrinsically connected. This article will examine the link of language and belonging with regard to a ‘community’, which demanded that states remain linguistically and culturally heterogenous. It focuses on the section of Biharis that identified Bengali as their ‘mother-tongue’ and tracks the transformation of Bengali politics within the province/state during the transition from colonial rule to independence. It explores the ways in which narratives of historical Bengali settlement were deployed for different reasons across this period, and argues that Bengalis in Bihar conceptualised the ordering of the Indian nation in a way that was inherently different from mainstream understandings of how the country should be ordered during this period. Bengali-Bihari figures and publications deployed rhetoric that attached much greater value to territorial belonging than to linguistic or cultural belonging. This article demonstrates that contrary to common assumptions, there were large groups of people who conceptualised India not just as a linguistically heterogenous nation, but one that consisted of linguistically heterogenous states that protected minority linguistic communities.
This article analyses how linguistic minorities in the province of Bihar navigated the era of linguistic territorialism, when mainstream political organisations and figures within India largely agreed that specific linguistic communities ‘belonged’ in particular regions. Indian scholarship has tended to focus on the mechanisms that brought about the linguistic reorganisation of states in India, therefore, concentrating largely on the ways in which territory and language became intrinsically connected. This article will examine the link of language and belonging with regard to a ‘community’, which demanded that states remain linguistically and culturally heterogenous. It focuses on the section of Biharis that identified Bengali as their ‘mother-tongue’ and tracks the transformation of Bengali politics within the province/state during the transition from colonial rule to independence. It explores the ways in which narratives of historical Bengali settlement were deployed for different reasons across this period, and argues that Bengalis in Bihar conceptualised the ordering of the Indian nation in a way that was inherently different from mainstream understandings of how the country should be ordered during this period. Bengali-Bihari figures and publications deployed rhetoric that attached much greater value to territorial belonging than to linguistic or cultural belonging. This article demonstrates that contrary to common assumptions, there were large groups of people who conceptualised India not just as a linguistically heterogenous nation, but one that consisted of linguistically heterogenous states that protected minority linguistic communities.