Territorial and Associational Politics in Historical Perspective

Abstract

This chapter investigates the historical conditions that led to divergent forms of governance in China and India. It traces early territorial forms of local governance back to imperial China in the thirteenth century and tracks them up to 1911. It also mentions the role of the Confucian gentry in managing local affairs in China. The chapter identifies continuities and ruptures in territorial institutions throughout the republican, socialist, and post-reform eras. It discusses the Indian experience and follows the trajectory of associational forms of governance in India throughout the precolonial, British, and post-independence eras. It highlights how communities have resorted to alliance building to navigate conflicts arising from caste, religious, and ethnic divides. The chapter also assesses the post-independence era as the crucial period for the consolidation of the territorial form of local governance in China and the associational form of local governance in India.