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

416 Pages·2021·12.178 MB·English

by  Shivaji Mukherjee

COLONIAL
INSTITUTIONS
AND
CIVIL WAR
Indirect Rule and Maoist Insurgency in India
SHIVA JI MUKHER JEE

ColonialInstitutionsandCivilWar
WhatexplainsthepeculiarspatialvariationofMaoistinsurgencyinIndia?
Mukherjee develops a novel typology of colonial indirect rule and land
tenureinIndia,showinghowtheycanleadtolandinequality,weakstate,
andMaoistinsurgency.Usingamulti-methodresearchdesignthatcom-
bines qualitative analysis of archival data on Chhattisgarh and Andhra
Pradesh states with sub-district datasets, Mukherjee demonstrates path
dependence of land/ethnic inequality leading to Maoist insurgency. This
isnestedwithinaquantitativeanalysisofadistrict-leveldatasetofIndia
whichusesaninstrumentalvariableanalysistoaddresspotentialselection
biasincolonialchoiceofprincelystates.Theauthoralsoanalyzesvarious
Maoistdocuments,andinterviewswithkeyhumanrightsactivists,police
officers,andbureaucrats,providingrichcontextualunderstandingofthe
motivationsofagents.Furthermore,hedemonstratesthegeneralizability
of his theory to cases of colonial frontier indirect rule causing ethnic
secessionistinsurgencyinBurma,andtheTalibaninsurgencyinPakistan.
shivaji mukherjee is Assistant Professor in Political Science at
the University of Toronto, Mississauga. He has published articles in
journals including Civil Wars, Journal of Conflict Resolution, World
Development,andAsianSecurity.
CambridgeStudiesinContentiousPolitics
GeneralEditor
DougMcAdam StanfordUniversityandCenterforAdvancedStudyintheBehavioral
Sciences
Editors
MarkBeissinger,PrincetonUniversity
Donatelladella,PortaScuolaNormaleSuperiore
JackA.Goldstone,GeorgeMasonUniversity
MichaelHanagan,VassarCollege
HollyJ.McCammon,VanderbiltUniversity
DavidS.Meyer,UniversityofCalifornia,Irvine
SarahSoule,StanfordUniversity
SuzanneStaggenborg,UniversityofPittsburgh
SidneyTarrow,CornellUniversity
CharlesTilly(d.2008),ColumbiaUniversity
ElisabethJ.Wood,YaleUniversity
DeborahYashar,PrincetonUniversity
Colonial Institutions and Civil War
Indirect Rule and Maoist Insurgency in India
SHIVAJI MUKHERJEE
UniversityofToronto
UniversityPrintingHouse,Cambridgecb28bs,UnitedKingdom
OneLibertyPlaza,20thFloor,NewYork,ny10006,USA
477WilliamstownRoad,PortMelbourne,vic3207,Australia
314–321,3rdFloor,Plot3,SplendorForum,JasolaDistrictCentre,
NewDelhi–110025,India
79AnsonRoad,#06–04/06,Singapore079906
CambridgeUniversityPressispartoftheUniversityofCambridge.
ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof
education,learning,andresearchatthehighestinternationallevelsofexcellence.
www.cambridge.org
Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781108844994
doi:10.1017/9781108954266
©ShivajiMukherjee2021
Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception
andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements,
noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten
permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress.
Firstpublished2021
AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary.
isbn978-1-108-84499-4Hardback
CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracyof
URLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication
anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchwebsitesis,orwillremain,
accurateorappropriate.
Contents
ListofFigures pagevii
ListofTables ix
Acknowledgments xi
part i theory
1 ColonialInstitutionsandCivilWar 3
2 LegaciesofColonialIndirectRule:WeakState,Ethnic
Inequality,andInsurgency 26
3 VarietiesofIndirectRuleandCausalPathwaystoMaoist
InsurgencyinIndia 56
part ii qualitative and quantitative testing
4 QualitativeAnalysisofMaoistStrategyandRebelAgency 87
5 QuantitativeTestingofEffectsofBritishIndirectRuleonMaoist
Insurgency 113
6 ColonialChoiceorRandomContingency?Addressing
SelectionBiasinBritishIndirectRule 136
7 MaoistInsurgencyinChhattisgarh:TheRajaofBastar
andTribalRebellion 184
8 MaoistInsurgencyinAndhraPradesh:TheNizam’s
ShadowonTelangana 246
part iii generalizability
9 ExplainingPartialSuccessofMaoistsinKeralaandKarnataka 301
v
vi Contents
10 FrontiersofEmpire:IndirectRuleandInsurgencyinBurma
andPakistan 324
11 Conclusion:PolicyImplicationsandFutureoftheMaoistConflict 349
Bibliography 363
Index 381
Figures
1.1 MapofMaoistinsurgencyinIndia,2011–2012 page8
1.2 Colonialinstitutionsasomittedvariablestoexplaincivilwar 14
2.1 SpatialvariationofMaoistmobilization,2005 28
2.2 Mechanismsfromcolonialindirectruletopostcolonial
ideologicalinsurgency 49
3.1 MapofBritishIndia,1765and1837 60
3.2 MapofBritishIndia,1857and1909 63
3.3 DifferentcausalpathwaysfromcolonialindirectruletoMaoist
insurgencyinIndia 74
3.4 Indirectruleandpreviousleftistorganizationalmobilization 84
4.1 EvolutionchartoftheCPI-Maoist 93
4.2 All-Indiaandstate-levelpatternsofMaoistviolence(deaths) 94
4.3 LevelofMaoistviolence(deaths)inthemainstatesaffected
byMaoistinsurgencyrelativetototalviolenceinIndia 95
4.4 StrategyandTactics,themaintacticaldocument
oftheCPI-Maoist 105
4.5 LetterwrittenbyCPI-ML(People’sWar) 107
4.6 “WeHumblyBowourHeads”:Documentinwhich
theMCCandPWGdoself-criticismforfightingeach
otherbeforetheirunificationin2004 108
5.1 Dependentvariable:Scanoflistofdistrictsfrom
SREdocumentunderMaoistcontrol 118
5.2 Dependentvariable:Maoistcontrol(MHAdata)
fordifferentyears 121
6.1 Typesofprincelystatesandpre-colonialkingdomsinIndia 165
7.1 MapoflandtenureandZamindarisinBastar 193
7.2 MapofprincelystatesandBritishdirectrulein
CentralProvinces 201
7.3 MapofroadandrailwaysinCentralProvinces,1920–1921 202
vii
viii ListofFigures
7.4 Mapofroads,railways,andelectricity-generatingstations
inMadhyaPradesh(erstwhileCentralProvinces),1951 203
7.5 Single-borerailwaylinenearKirandulinDantewadadistrict 211
7.6 AnnualfatalitiesfromMaoistinsurgencyinChhattisgarh:
1990–2008 218
7.7 AMaoistfightergivesaninjectiontoasickvillagerwhom
hemetwhileonpatrol 223
7.8 “Comrades”–Womencadresmakeupalargepart
oftheMaoistforce 223
8.1 MapofprincelystateofHyderabad 251
8.2 MapofMadrasPresidency(northernsection) 252
8.3 MapofAndhraPradeshformedoutofTelanganadistricts
ofHyderabadprincelystateinnorthandTelugu-speaking
districtsofMadrasPresidencyinsouth 253
8.4 Mapofdiwaniandnon-diwaniareasofHyderabadstate 261
8.5 AnnualfatalitiesfromMaoistviolenceinAndhraPradesh,
1968–2018 276
9.1 PrincelystatesofMysore,Travancore,andCochin,
surroundedbyBritishdirectruledMadrasPresidencyareas 306
9.2 MapofKarnatakaformedoutofvariousprincelystates
andBritishdirectruleareasfollowingthelinguistic
reorganizationofIndianstatesin1956 309
9.3 ComparingcurrentdistrictsofKarnatakawith
colonial-eraprincelystatesandBritishdirectrule 310
9.4 Karnatakadistrict–levelpoverty,2012 316
10.1A BritishcolonialdirectandindirectruleinBurma 333
10.1B AreasofethnicinsurgencyinBurma 334
10.2A IndirectrulethroughFederallyAdministeredTribalAreas
(FATA)inNorth-WestFrontierProvince(NWFP)inPakistan 343
10.2B TalibaninsurgencyinNWFPandFATAinPakistan 344
11.1 ViolencelevelsandincidentsinMaoistinsurgencyfrom
SATPdata 355
11.2 ViolencelevelsandincidentsinMaoistinsurgency
fromgovernmentdata 356