National Democratic Alliance Research Articles

Diaspora Policy of NDA (National Democratic Alliance) Government of India

Diaspora Policy of NDA (National Democratic Alliance) Government of India

Poor choices: de-alignment, development and Dalit/Adivasi voting patterns in Indian states

The surprising loss of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led national government in India's 2004 general elections has been generally understood as a rejection of the National Democratic Alliance's campaign that celebrated a ‘Shining India’ among voters who had not shared in the wealth produced by India's recent growth boom—especially Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe electorates. A close look at the empirical evidence demonstrates that Dalit and Adivasi communities were by no means the homogeneous voting block portrayed in many post-election analyses. Nor did the BJP consistently lose in these constituencies. Both findings undermine the currently popular conceptualization of Indian electoral and party behavior as identity-based or ethnic. Instead, the 2004 results confirmed a growing trend for these disadvantaged populations to vote for radically dissimilar parties across different states—from the Communist Party of India (Marxist), to the Congress, to the Bahujan Samaj Party, or indeed to the BJP itself—driven by plausible calculation of interests. Using national election data from the 1999 and 2004 elections, this paper examines the theoretical puzzle this divergent electoral behavior presents to both the comparative literature on cleavage-based party systems and the scholarship on caste and identity politics in India. We argue that at least some of this variance can be explained by the fact that differences in state-level conditions influence which of the array of strategies used by Indian parties to recruit Dalit and Adivasi voters is likely to be successful. We then analyze the specific puzzle of differential BJP success among Adivasi/Dalit communities. We conclude that the embedded nature of the BJP as a party with social movement characteristics, combined with the poor developmental performance of many Indian states for their most disadvantaged populations, opens a spatially and politically differentiated niche for a social-provisioning electoral strategy. Developing this strategy has aided the BJP in overcoming at least partially its legacy as a Brahmin-Bania party.

Secularism, Democracy, and Hindu Nationalism in India

This paper systematically analyzes the origins and emergence of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Indian politics, and its impact on secularism, domestic politics, and foreign policy. We contend that it was the institutional context of Indian politics in the 1980s, and not Hindu nationalist political ideology per se, that facilitated the emergence of the BJP. India's democratic institutions, particularly coalition politics, have moderated the BJP's radical policy goals. As such, the BJP does not pose a threat to the functioning of the Indian democracy. However, with its long-term goal to redefine Indian nationhood, and its dependence on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) cadre for electoral success, the party's militant and violent agenda against minorities, especially Muslims, remains intact. The BJP's single major success has been the communalization of Indian politics by changing the discourse on secularism. In spite of its nationalist and aggressive rhetoric, there was no substantive change in India's foreign and security policies under the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (1999–2004). More broadly, this paper demonstrates that religion and democracy have always been in a dialectic in the Indian context. After all, India's nominally secular Congress party has used religious symbolism for electoral gains. As such, the equilibrium between religion and democracy needs to be constantly negotiated in India.

Estimating Demographic Indicators in a Conflict-Affected Population in Eastern Sudan

Although the international community currently is focused on Darfur, it is important that the status of other conflict-affected populations throughout Sudan are not overlooked. For the past decade, the Beja population, located along the Sudan-Eritrea border, has been affected by a conflict that has drawn little attention from the international community. This study assessed crude mortality rates and other demographic characteristics using a mortality study nested within a nutrition assessment using cluster sampling methods. The crude mortality rate among the Beja population in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA)-controlled territories between October 2003 and October 2004 was estimated at 1.4/10,000/day (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.2-1.6); the under five years of age mortality rate was estimated at 2.7/10,000/day (95% CI: 2.2-3.3). Both of these are elevated rates that exceed the accepted threshold to declare a humanitarian emergency. When considered with recent reports of elevated malnutrition rates, the status of Beja is critical by international standards. Study findings suggest that: (1) nesting demographic objectives into other planned assessments (such as nutrition) are a feasible and cost-effective means for non-governmental organizations to characterize beneficiary populations; and (2) the Beja residing in the NDA-controlled territories are facing elevated mortality and are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.

The Silent Erosion: Anti-Terror Laws and Shifting Contours of Jurisprudence in India

The repeal of the Prevention of Terrorism Act, 2002 (POTA) figured prominently in the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), the coalition that replaced the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government in May 2004. On 21 September 2004, the President promulgated an Ordinance repealing POTA a month before it was to come up for legislative review. The Ordinance was approved by the Parliament in its winter session confirming the removal of POTA from the statute books.

Explaining the phenomenon of change in Indian foreign policy under the National Democratic Alliance Government

This paper seeks to explain the conditions under which governments decide to change the course of their foreign policy using the National Democratic Alliance regime of India as a case study. The foreign policy change literature is rich in insights about the sources, conditions and consequences of change. The relevant findings from the literature are used to analyse the nature and degree of change in Indian foreign policy under the National Democratic Alliance government in two areas: nuclear policy and Indo-US relations. While it is generally conceded that India changed the course and content of its policy in the late 1990s, the reasons and impact of the change are still a matter of debate. There is also no agreement on whether India has just made some adjustment changes or a fundamental shift in its orientation. This paper uses relevant indicators to establish the nature, level and degree of change in India's policy, and examines whether policy alterations were merely reactive, incremental and ad hoc, or whether they represented a conscious design comprising clear objectives and supportive strategies.

Confessional cousins and the rest: The structure of Islamic toleration

This article is an expanded version of a paper given on 22 November 2003 in a session of the American Anthropological Association Annual Meetings in Chicago, organized by Vinson Sutlive in honour of George and Laura Appell, entitled ‘Human rights and cultural preservation in the interest of peace’. I am grateful to the RAI for inviting me to represent it at the AAA meeting, to Jean La Fontaine for her comments on an earlier draft, and to a number of extremely helpful anonymous referees. 1 Another historical example may be the pagan Vikings who appeared on the Spanish and Moroccan coasts in the ninth century and were called Mājūs, that is Magians or Zoroastrians, not because they were thought to be Persians but because as a people recognized by law they did not have to be fought, and were eligible for a truce for the purposes of trade (Brunschvig 1986, Brett and Fentress 1996). However, this is disputed (Melvinger 1986). 2 From the National Democratic Alliance's Resolution on the Issue of Religion and Politics in the Sudan, passed at a conference in Asmara, capital of the state of Eritrea, in June 1993 (Wondu and Lesch 2000: 234). I am grateful to Alex de Waal for drawing this to my attention. 3 Since this article was written, a polemical correspondence has been published in the Times Literary Supplement, beginning with the criticism that certain current evocations of the ambience of toleration in medieval Moorish Spain (al-Andalus) are excessively romanticized (see: ‘Tolerance, Islam and al- Andalus’, 23 July and 30 July 2004, in response to a review of a book by William Dalrymple). This leads inevitably to an argument as to what constitutes real toleration and as to the respective achievements and failings of Christian and Islamic civilization in this regard – a highly emotive topic today. I have tried in this article to explore the differences in the two historical traditions without making the unscholarly assumption that one of the two is superior, and conclude that discussion of the topic would benefit from an understanding of the more hierarchic character of Islamic toleration.

Labor Policy and the Second Generation of Economic Reform in India

During its time in office, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government 1 continued the process of economic reform initiated by the Congress government in 1991 and sustained by the United Fron...

India's new government

Following the surprise general election defeat of the National Democratic Alliance at the hands of a Congress-led coalition, the new Indian government, headed by Manmohan Singh as prime minister, decided to postpone the first set of talks on nuclear confidence building measures with Islamabad, which had been scheduled for 25–26 May. This was largely – and understandably – a result of the extended and confused political transition. That said, the arrival of the new government is expected to result in changes – in style, and, to some extent in substance – to Indian foreign and security policy.

Alienation and Belonging - Women's Citizenship and Emancipation: Visions for Sudan's Post-Islamist Future

This essay examines Sudanese Islamist debates about the position of women within an Islamic framework, oppositional groups' stances on the nature of a post-Islamist Sudan and women's role in the nation. The author critiques oppositional groups for a lack of vision for a post-Islamist gender egalitarian Sudan and feminism for its lack of clarity about the concept of women's emancipation. The author argues that all groups in Sudan have not extended a visionary approach to women, but have been limited to expressions about "women's rights." Using the concepts of "emancipation," "gender egalitarianism," "citizenship," "alienation," "belonging," and "subject," the author deconstructs segments of crucial political documents such as Islamic decrees, the new Sudanese Constitution (1998), the "Asmara Declaration" of the National Democratic Alliance, and various statements by political parties in exile. Using excerpts from women's narratives, the author attempts to illuminate Sudanese women's self-identification, belonging, and citizenship.

Testimonies in Exile: Sudanese Gender Politics

Testimonies in Exile:Sudanese Gender Politics Sondra Hale Introduction Using political documents and women's testimonies from interviews collected over many years, I have been analyzing the debates and dynamics among Sudanese women in diaspora. This paper is a sampling of the differences among women activists and an attempt to subvert the totalizing of "women's movement" politics. Since the emergence of Sudanese women's studies as a field, and even before, Sudanese and Sudanists have considered the expression "the Sudanese women's movement" a code for the Sudanese Women's Union (WU), a wing of the Sudanese Communist Party (SCP). Most writing on the subject, including my own, has been skewed toward northern Sudan and has also conflated most women's activism under the WU or its descendants or appropriators, such as the Union of Sudanese Women under the Sudan Socialist Union (SSU) of the Nimieri regime.1 Such totalizing of women's activism is being subverted by the more nuanced research being done by a new generation of Sudanese women scholars and others. At the risk of continuing to overgeneralize, I would like to categorize women's activism in Sudan into at least three broad types of movements/mobilizations or associations. One is represented by the secular left and consists of the WU, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), the Sudan Alliance Forces (SAF), and the Sudanese Women's Rights Organization, one of the splinter groups that broke away from the WU. A second type comprises the cultural nationalists/religionists,including, among others, the women's wings of the Umma Party, the [End Page 83] Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), the Islamist women of the National Islamic Front (NIF), and scattered Christian groups. A third type is represented by grassroots activists, including some nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) working both inside Sudan and in exile. In many ways, and despite the adversity that many groups in exile and women in southern Sudan and other marginalized areas (such as the Nuba area in the west) are facing, this has also been the most exciting time for debates about women's liberation in Sudan. We are seeing southern women challenge northern women for their racism and conservatism; younger women challenge the old leadership for their outdated ideas; secular and religious women's organizations each observing the organizing strategies of the other; women protesting war and militarism as a solution or even as good politics; and a number of women theorists and activists resisting the notion that politics consists only of political parties and the state. A new trend in the contemporary dynamic of Sudanese women's politics is the proliferation of liberal and leftist parties and fronts, a consequence of the many parties and politicians thrown into exile by the entrenched power of the Islamists as well as the splits that often characterize groups in diaspora. An example of a New Left organization was the Sudan Alliance Forces (SAF), once a dynamic new political formation committed to military action in the struggle against the Islamists. The affiliated women's group, Sudan Women's Alliance (SWA), is very active and diverse in terms of northerners and southerners. A number of SWA women emerged as leaders in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA, an umbrella group for opposition parties), including Nada Mustafa Ali, a scholar and activist whose visibility in the NDA rivals that of Women's Union member Fatima Ahmed Ibrahim. Many of these new groups, however, are not so easily dichotomized as "secular" or "religious," as their goals and strategies may be mixed, and religious members may have a secular standpoint in terms of separation of religion and state. The overall result of this diversity and secularization is that Sudanese women now have more options for political expression. Another consequence of the diversity is the attempts at broader coalitions that have emerged. The main strategy of coalition-building has been to invite many groups to a forum or convention. Examples are the [End Page 84] Sudanese Women's Forum, which convened in Cairo in 1998, and the Sudan National Women's Convention, held in Kampala, Uganda, in March 2002. Azza Anis, a progressive northerner now in exile, argues that the recent proliferation of...

India's Growing Missile Ambitions: Assessing the Technical and Strategic Dimensions

On August 17, 1999, the Indian government released its Report of the National Security Advisory Board on Indian Nuclear for wider public dissemination and debate. The prime minister clarified at the time that this Draft Nuclear Doctrine (DND) was to be debated by the Parliament that would convene following the general elections in October. While the elections returned the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance to power, no final decision on adopting the doctrine, in toto or with revisions, has yet been taken by the new government. Regardless, the document has expectedly evoked strong but mixed response from the domestic and external strategic community. It is hoped that this debate will illuminate the constitutive elements of the DND and inform the domestic policy community of the crucial implications of the proposed doctrine.

The Sudan National Democratic Alliance (NDA): The Quest for Peace, Unity and Democracy

The Sudan National Democratic Alliance (NDA): The Quest for Peace, Unity and Democracy

The Sudan National Democratic Alliance (NDA): The Quest for Peace, Unity and Democracy

Sudan is a typical case of many postcolonial nation-states in Africa characterized by multiethnic, multicultural and multi-religious societies. It is an example of a pluralistic society formed by people who have differences in their sense of belonging and national identity. As in other African countries, the Sudanese situation is caused to a large extent by inequalities in power sharing and access to wealth and unequal development opportunities. In Sudan, the outcome has been a constant crisis of governance, civil war, ethnic genocide, famine and other man-made disasters which have crippled the country since independence. Differing visions for the future of the country have been contested. At one extreme is the vision of separation (formation of two states), at the other, the preservation of the status quo by any means, including violent ones (the military solution), which in a way means the continuation of inequalities within a united country. Proposals such as decentralization of the power of the state through a federal system, autonomy for the South and other disenfranchised regions of the country, or the right of self-determination, have at times been propagated by one political group or another.

Thorny Issues and Perilous Coalitions

When people [at the National Democratic Alliance conference in Asmara in 1995] started talking about democratic laws, the issue of women was raised. Of course [a member of a sectarian party] jumped up and said “so women’s [issues] have come here as well? Just like that from the start? So what do women have to do with that issue? Why do you want to mess up the story?” A party representative actually said that! (Interview with a former member of the NDA Executive Office and delegate to theAsmara 1995 Conference).