Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses the relationship between counterinsurgency and statemaking int he margins of modern India.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines the politics of statemaking in the margins of modern India. Based on fieldwork in the erstwhile Maoist zones of rural eastern India called the Jungle Mahals, I explore how the state in India employs development as a counterinsurgency measure to wean people away from the Maoist rebels. Rural women, in particular, came to be targeted through the new counterinsurgency policy emanating from Delhi. Through women, the state sought to reach every household in its quest of re-establishing its authority and legitimacy in these conflict zones. I discuss the intertwining of gender, counterinsurgency, and state formation in the present moment, and how what we call the 'state' emerges at this intersection. I situate statemaking in the Jungle Mahals within a longer history of state-society relations in this frontier region. Combining ethnographic and historical methods, this paper will look at the role of insurgency and counterinsurgency in the emergence of the state in the margins of modern India at different junctures in the colonial and postcolonial eras.