Modern South Asian Studies Seminar: Parallel Governance and the Indo-Naga Ceasefire: Evidence from Ukhrul

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Conveners: Matthew McCartney, Mallica Kumbera Landrus and Rosalind O'Hanlon

Speaker: Rajesh Venugopal (London School of Economics)

This paper (joint work with Shalaka Thakur) examines the parallel governance system that has emerged under the protracted ceasefire between the Indian government and the separatist National Socialist Council of Nagaland/Nagalim (Isak-Muivah) or NSCN(IM). Drawing on fieldwork in Ukhrul district in Manipur, we explain how parallel military and civilian structures co-exist, and the nature of their interaction. In doing so, we evaluate the consequences of this system of shared sovereignty in terms of India’s approach to separatist insurgency management, and to the broader literature on political order after violent conflict.

 

Rajesh Venugopal is Assistant Professor at the London School of Economics (LSE)'s Department of International Development.  He researches on ethnic conflict, development theory, and nationalism, mostly with respect to Sri Lanka and India. His recent writings have been on natural disasters in Kashmir, mass hysteria in Sri Lanka, the Indo-Naga cease-fire, the concept of neoliberalism, and the social construction of failure in development. His recently completed book on the Sri Lankan ethnic conflict is due for release in 2018 by Cambridge University Press.

Further Information

All welcome. No prior booking required. For further information please contact Maxime Dargaud-Fons on asian@sant.ox.ac.uk or 01865-274559. Co-funded by the Ashmolean Museum, the Asian Studies Centre of St Antony's College, the Contemporary South Asian Studies Programme at the School of Interdisciplinary Area Studies, the Faculty of History and the Faculty of Oriental Studies.