Nationalizing Space: Cosmetic Federalism and the Politics of Development in Northeast India

Until recently Arunachal Pradesh on India's Northeast frontier was relatively insulated from the processes associated with development. State institutions were barely present during the colonial era. In 1962, however, India and China fought a border war in this area: this war, along with signs of unrest among indigenous peoples in the neighbourhood, exposed India's vulnerabilities in the region. Since then, nationalizing this frontier space by extending the institutions of the state all the way into the international border region has become the thrust of Indian policy. The region's governmental infrastructure was fundamentally redesigned to put in place what can only be described as a cosmetic federal regional order with a number of small states dependent on the central government's largess and subject to monitoring by India's Home Ministry. The new regional order has put Arunachal firmly on a developmentalist track, which has enabled India to meet its national security goals, but at a significant cost to the region.     

Netpeace and the Cosmopolitan Condition: Multifaith Movements and the Politics of Understanding

Abstract

The ultramodern era has been characterized paradoxically as one of great fear and great hope. Reactions to the tragic events of September 11, 2001 provide evidence of this ambivalence whereby a politics of fear and exclusion permeated Western societies, accompanied by a growing interest in collaborative cosmopolitan solutions addressing the most pressing global risks of our times. Culturally, religiously and linguistically diverse (CRALD) community experiences in the state of Victoria, Australia well illustrate this dichotomy. Drawing on this case study, I argue that the rise of multifaith and multi-actor peacebuilding networks in ultramodernity provide evidence that cosmopolitan solutions can effectively counter global risks, in this case particularly terrorism, and advance common security among diverse faith communities and across diverse sectors. In so doing I develop a new netpeace framework arguing that the politics of fear is best countered by a politics of understanding.     

Peers,Politics and the Price of Pepper: Skinner v. the East India Company

The case of Thomas Skinner v. the East India Company brought parliament to a standstill in 1668 in a confrontation between the Houses over their respective privileges that lasted nearly two years. There is no doubt that the case was exploited for political advantage by presbyterians anxious to block the passage of a new conventicles act, but that is far from being the whole story.  This article examines for the first time the details of the case and reliability of Skinner's claims against the East India Company.  It reveals that Thomas Skinner was somewhat of an obsessive fantasist who, far from being a presbyterian sympathiser, was close to the household of James, duke of York. At one stage his daughter was even reputed to be the mother of the ‘pretended’ prince of Wales. It concludes that Skinner was himself an unscrupulous opportunist, eager to exploit political and commercial uncertainty for private gain.     

Monarchical Display and the Politics of Empire: Princes of Wales and India 1870-1920s

This article analyses the evolving use of the institution ofthe British Monarchy as an instrument of imperial politics andpropaganda in the Indian empire. Through an analysis of a seriesof royal tours by Princes of Wales, ranging from the littleknown visits of Prince Alfred and Prince Albert Victor to thecelebrated tours of the future Edward VII, George V and EdwardVIII, it outlines the methods deployed by the Government tomake the monarchy appeal not just to an Indian audience, therebyhelping enhance the Raj's legitimacy and counter the risingtide of nationalist critique, but equally significantly, tothe British public to symbolize imperial power and assuage doubtsconcerning the future of the empire. Such a strategy depended,crucially, upon the persons of the Princes themselves and thearticle accordingly gives attention to the personality and politicalproclivities of these Princes and their perceptions of theirrole as guardians of the British imperial heritage. It is arguedthat this emblematic exploitation of royal prestige was of limitedeffectiveness and royal manipulation could not function in acontested paradigm, especially after the impact of the FirstWorld War and the advent of Gandhi. While the monarchical presencecould work to consolidate loyalty and power where it alreadyexisted, it was less successful in creating it when contested.     

Gendered-Caste Violations and the Cultural Politics of Voice in Rural Orissa,India

Despite the legal ban on untouchability over four decades ago, caste discrimination and atrocities perpetrated against ‘untouchable’ women (or Dalits) continue to be a part of the social landscape in India. Based on a decade-long partnership between a Canadian NGO, a partner Dalit/Adivasi local organization and 75 partner villages in South Orissa, this article provides a localized snapshot of the contemporary nature of caste atrocities committed against Dalit women in the Mohana administrative block. It briefly elaborates on Dalit explanations for such assaults and suggests that when it comes to addressing gendered-caste victimization, there are limits to open democratic advocacy which need to be acknowledged by activists and critical scholarship engaged with the cultural politics of ‘voice’.     

The Burning of Sampati Kuer: Sati and the Politics of Imperialism,Nationalism and Revivalism in 1920s India

Sati, the immolation of a Hindu widow on her husband's funeral pyre, is a rare, but highly controversial practice. It has inspired a surfeit of scholarly studies in the last twenty years, most of which concentrate on one of two main historical sati ‘episodes’: that of early‐colonial Bengal, culminating with the British prohibition of 1829, and that of late twentieth‐century Rajasthan, epitomised by the immolation of Roop Kanwar in 1987. Comparatively little detailed historical analysis exists on sati cases between these two events, however, a lacuna this paper seeks to address by exploring British and Indian discourses on sati as they existed in late‐colonial India. The paper argues that sati remained a site of ideological and actual confrontation in the early twentieth century, with important implications for ongoing debates about Hindu religion, identity and nation. It focuses on the intersection between various colonial debates and contemporaneous Indian social and political concerns during the controversy surrounding the immolation of Sampati Kuer in Barh, Bihar, in 1927, emphasising resonances with postcolonial interpretations of sati and the dissonance of early nineteenth‐century tropes when reproduced in the Patna High Court in 1928. Thus, while Kumkum Sangari and Sudesh Vaid have suggested that ‘ad hoc’ attempts to piece together a ‘modern’ narrative of widow immolation began in the 1950s, this paper will suggest that various contemporary discursive formations on sati can be observed in late‐colonial India, when discussions of sati became entwined with Indian nationalism and Hindu identity politics and evoked the first organised female response to sati from an emergent women's movement that saw it as an ideological, as well as physical, violation of women.     

Politics of Reading: Cultural Politics of Homelessness

Reading opens up important avenues for political action. Reading is political in the sense that social groups produce and resist, advance and censor readings of key cultural texts, according to their power to do so and their interests in doing so. This paper examines the politics of reading in relation to cultural politics of homeless-ness. It does so by considering readers and readings of Johnny Go Home (1975), a British television documentary drama about homeless young people, and a cultural text that was open to different readings and political uses. Like many other representations of homeless people, Johnny Go Home revolved around a small number of stereotypes. However, these stereotypes were interpreted and used differently by different readers, according to their power to read and their interests in doing so. Broadly distinct interpretive communities, identified as liberal and conservative, used their respective readings of the programme to advance different solutions to contemporary homelessness. These readings were put to significant legislative use,for they were mobilised in the formal and informal political discourse that culminated in Britain's first direct legislation on behalf of homeless people. More generally, the various readings of Johnny Go Home underline the political significance of the consumption, as well as the production, of representations.