Conquest and Conflict: The Colonial Roots of Maoist Violence in India

Abstract

Does colonialism have long-term effects on political stability? We address this question through a study of India’s Naxalite insurgency, a Maoist rebellion that has been characterized by its left-wing proponents as having roots in the colonial period. We highlight three mechanisms linking colonialism with contemporary Naxalite violence–land inequality, discriminatory policies toward low-caste and tribal groups, and upper-caste dominated administrative institutions. We then analyze how the degree of British influence relates to Naxalite conflict in 589 districts from 1980-2011. We find a positive association between British influence and the strength of the Naxalite rebellion across all of India, within the “Red Corridor” region itself, and within former princely states. Our results are robust to a coarsened exact matching analysis and a wide array of robustness checks. The findings call into question whether the supposedly beneficial administrative and institutional legacies of colonialism can be evaluated without reference to their social costs.