+ Demonstrating State Memory The Politics of Tribe and Counterinsurgency in Mizoram and Chhattisgarh Vasundhara Sirnate University of California, Berkeley
+ Demonstrating State Memory The Politics of Tribe and Counterinsurgency in Mizoram and Chhattisgarh Vasundhara Sirnate University of California, Berkeley.
Dec 15, 2015
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Demonstrating State Memory
The Politics of Tribe and Counterinsurgency in Mizoram and ChhattisgarhVasundhara SirnateUniversity of California, Berkeley
+INSURGENCY DEFINED…
“An organized movement aimed at the overthrow of a constituted government through the use of subversion and armed conflict”.
US Army, COIN Manual
Counterinsurgency in India Vasundhara Sirnate
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+ 3
+COIN personnel speak…
Chhattisgarh
“They eat grass…Tribes have no medicines. Their average survival age is 40 years at the maximum. They still go to local “jhad-pooch” wallahs (witch doctors).”
“How will they handle things on their own?”
(signalling primitivity)
Mizoram
“We could never have won against the Mizos, we can never win against the Nagas. They are too well disciplined. Like an army.”
“They have their own institutions, justice systems, people believe in them.”
Counterinsurgency in India Vasundhara Sirnate
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+Pacting in Mizoram and Chhattisgarh?
Chhattisgarh
“May not work”
“How can you pact with these people?”
“Out of the question”
“Need to be kept in line”
Mizoram
“Good warriors”
“They know how to negotiate”
“Well organized”
“What else can you do, fighting with them is tough”
“They already have local parliaments.”
Counterinsurgency in India Vasundhara Sirnate
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+Countering Insurgency
Why does the Indian state pursue different counterinsurgency strategies in different regions of India?
Use heavy coercion (Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir) Pact with insurgents (Tripura, Mizoram, Nagaland) Sub-contract force to private militias (Chhattisgarh)
Counterinsurgency in India Vasundhara Sirnate
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+Research Design
• Qualitative, two years, deep-tissue fieldwork.
• 120 interviews, snowball sample.
• Extensive interviews with counterinsurgency personnel
• Paired comparisons, comparative historical analysis
• Lok Sabha debates, Constituent Assembly Debates, NDC dissertations, Census from 1891, anthropological works on tribes.
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+Research Design- II
• Data collection from Asian Recorder and the Asian News Digest (1955-2008). Currently doing this from The Hindu newspaper.
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0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
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Attacks and Deaths By YearTotal Killed
Security Killed
Attacks1009
Kill
ed b
y
Insu
rgents
Kill
ed b
y
Insu
rgents
Att
ack
s
9
10
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+Countering Insurgency
Why does the Indian state pursue different counterinsurgency strategies in different regions of India?
Use heavy coercion (Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir) Pact with insurgents (Tripura, Mizoram, Nagaland) Sub-contract force to private militias (Chhattisgarh)
Counterinsurgency in India Vasundhara Sirnate
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+Explaining variation
State-memory
Location of state (border or not)
Counterinsurgency in India Vasundhara Sirnate
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+State Memory
Perception of groups by the state maintained over time. “beliefs, perceptions, histories and ideas about groups”
“territory” (how has a group been located geographically over time, Eg. “frontier” tribesmen)
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+Demonstrating State Memory
Do tribes located in different geographical regions receive different political treatment?
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+‘Ungovernable’ Tribes
Idea of ‘primitivity’ allows for legislations like the Criminal Tribes Act.
127 ‘communities’ notified. (across India and Pakistan).
Counterinsurgency in India Vasundhara Sirnate
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+Perceiving ‘Tribe’
State ‘identifies’ tribes (groups located in inaccessible areas, nomadic)
Tribe as a residual category in the Census.
Anthropologists see tribe as a concept in opposition to ‘civilization’.
Tribes are in an intermediate state of civilization.
Primitive, inferior, lacking skills or alternatively ‘noble savages’.
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+
“People from time immemorial have been pursuing the caste system defined job-positions: weaving, carpentry and such were hereditary jobs. So there must have been hereditary criminals also who pursued their forefathers’ profession…”
- James Fitzjames Stephen
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+Tribes in India
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+But not all tribes are thought of as primitive
Counterinsurgency in India Vasundhara Sirnate
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+How do we know this?
Two Constitutional Schedules – the Fifth and Sixth
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+Sixth Schedule
Provides for Autonomous District Councils
Highest expression of tribal sovereignty
Has allowed many groups to scale down their demands
Mostly for northeastern states (save Manipur)
Counterinsurgency in India Vasundhara Sirnate
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+Fifth Schedule
Allows for only a Tribes Advisory Council (no territorial powers given)
Applicable to central India (and Manipur)
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+ 30
+Counterinsurgency in Mizoram
Operation Jericho in 1966 by the Mizo National Front
Political negotiations on the cards almost immediately after
Pact in 1987 with the center.
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+Counterinsurgency in Chhattisgarh against Maoists
Predominantly based on force
Subcontracted force to the Salwa Judum (purification hunt)
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+Case 2: Chhattisgarh
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+
+ Brigadier PonwarCounterinsurgency and Jungle Warfare college
+Theoretical contributions of project
State memory affects political treatment
Insurgent group contagion
States function in competitive institutional environments, generated by‘credible rivals’ (different from threats).
Counterinsurgency in India Vasundhara Sirnate
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