Internal Security in India

Abstract

Abstract Maintenance of order and curbing violence—the core constituents of internal security—are fundamental responsibilities of any government. Developing countries find this task especially challenging since they face a multitude of internal security threats, either caused by misgovernance or internal political turmoil, or provoked from outside. Since independence, the Indian state has grappled with a variety of internal security challenges including insurgencies, terrorist attacks, caste and communal violence, riots, and electoral violence. Their toll has claimed more lives than all of India’s five external wars put together. However, after a sharp upswing in the 1980s and 1990s, a number of violence-related indicators have declined over the past two decades. This drop in violence, its causes and implications, have largely gone unnoticed. Three broad questions animate the discussions in Internal Security in India. What has been the record of the Indian state in controlling violence and preserving order? How have the approaches and capacity of the state evolved to attain these twin objectives? And what have been the implications of the state’s approach toward internal security for civil liberties and the quality of democracy?