State, Violence, and Legitimacy in India

Review

‘This unusual book asks an unusual question—how and why do people find state violence acceptable and even desirable, even when that violence is turned against them? Khanikar finds her answers in the lived experiences of ordinary people which embody a curious mix of repulsion, resignation, a need to incorporate state power to their own ends, and a craving for respectability. This fascinating book will challenge all those interested in questions of state power, policing and democracy to rethink their concepts and strategies.’

—Nandini Sundar, professor of sociology, Delhi School of Economics, New Delhi, India

‘This is a rigorous ethnographic account of violence which is authorized by the state and gives it legitimacy. Focusing on people’s memories of state violence, and violence imbricated in law and order functions of the state, the author crafts a vivid account of the everyday state and the diverse imaginations of the political community.’

—Anupama Roy, professor of political science, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India

‘The book relies on rich ethnographic research to ask diffi cult questions about the place of state violence in a constitutional democracy. The locations that it chooses—a ‘peripheral’ village in Assam and the heartland that is the capital of Delhi—allows for a remarkable study in the contrasts and collusion between the extraordinary armed violence of armed militancy and the Indian army and the more everyday violence of the Delhi police. Such a study has not been attempted before and is therefore a singularly important contribution towards understanding the inextricability of state violence and constitutional democracy in contemporary times.’

—Sanghamitra Misra, assistant professor, Department of History, University of Delhi, New Delhi, India

‘What is the threshold of state violence that leads to a loss of its legitimacy? Santana Khanikar’s wonderful book reminds us of the urgency to study state violence, policing practices, and legitimacy of political authority as central problems in political theory, and contemporary scholarship on India. Khanikar brilliantly dissects the distinction between police violence in routine contexts and army violence in conflict areas pointing to the centrality of violence in everyday lives of people across India. Through powerful ethnographic work, and insightful textual analysis, Khanikar both details the foundational violence and chillingly explains how political authority gets legitimized in conditions of normalized violence.’

—Jinee Lokaneeta, associate professor, Drew University, USA