Changing conceptions of terrorism

Abstract

This paper looks at the changing conceptions of causality and characteristics of terrorism within the framework of liberal philosophy, democracy and the market economies. It takes the position that the liberal world‐view has to blame itself for terrorism and the new warlords that have emerged in the current moment. The liberal ontology, democratic political process and games that nations have played like state‐sponsored terrorism are responsible for the current delineation of terror, which as a word, has meant different moral things at different times since the emergence of the modern state in the West. Given the writings of philosophers from Thomas Hobbes downward and the killing of a passenger of IC‐814 flight, terror has been linked first, to right to property and, then to right to life alone. The analyses of terrorism in India look at the causes partially. They ascribe its characteristics either to religion or ideology. They further look at the causality in terms of ad‐hoc administrative response of the political class. It is necessary to adopt a holistic view and look at the political process within democratic structures.