Colonial Institutions and Civil War: Indirect Rule and Maoist Insurgency in India by Shivaji Mukherjee

Abstract

The rise in intrastate conflict since the end of WWII has drawn much attention to the various incentives and opportunities that underpin violent rebellion, often resulting in protracted insurgencies. In his book Colonial Institutions and Civil War, Shivaji Mukherjee explores the breakout of insurgent movements in the era of decolonization since the 1950s. In particular, Mukherjee examines the role played by historical colonial institutions in shaping local socioeconomic and political structures that make the emergence and persistence of insurgencies more likely. Much of the literature focused on exploring the causes of terrorism, insurgencies, and civil war tends to place emphasis on the proximate reasons that trigger political violence by nonstate actors—for example, poverty, ethnic grievances, and exploitable natural resources like drug cultivation. Per Mukherjee, while these factors are important, they are inadequate in providing a comprehensive explanation of the contours of insurgencies, especially their occurrence in specific locations. In his work, Mukherjee takes into account a longer time horizon to move beyond studying proximate reasons of insurgencies and instead places the spotlight on colonial-era policies that established the structural conditions conducive to violent movements.