Open AccessPolicy-Making and Connections to Violence: A Case Study of India
Author(s) -
Marie Olson Lounsbery,
Frederic S. Pearson
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
peace and conflict studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.116
H-Index - 6
ISSN - 1082-7307
DOI - 10.46743/1082-7307/2003.1037
Subject(s) - disadvantaged , identity (music) , state (computer science) , government (linguistics) , political science , politics , political economy , criminology , development economics , gender studies , sociology , law , economics , linguistics , philosophy , physics , algorithm , acoustics , computer science
This paper explores the role of identity-based, or discriminatory, policy in facilitating the outbreak of ethnopolitical violence in India. A discriminatory policy is the merging of communal group identity with the state apparatus. It is argued that as the Indian government enacts policies beneficial or discriminatory to particular identity groups within the country, other groups feel threatened. Groups who feel disadvantaged by the policy may begin to fear for their own security and political interests motivating them to rebel. When focusing on Indian policy and ethnopolitical violence during the period 1945 to 2000, the authors find that, although there are many cases of seemingly spontaneous episodes of violence, when identitybased policies do occur, they are often followed by violence and/or protest.