Colonial Institutions and Civil War Indirect Rule and Maoist Insurgency in India Cambridge Studies in Contentious Politics Series

What explains the peculiar spatial variation of Maoist insurgency in India? Mukherjee develops a novel typology of colonial indirect rule and land tenure in India, showing how they can lead to land inequality, weak state and Maoist insurgency. Using a multi-method research design that combines qualitative analysis of archival data on Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh states, Mukherjee demonstrates path dependence of land/ethnic inequality leading to Maoist insurgency. This is nested within a quantitative analysis of a district level dataset which uses an instrumental variable analysis to address potential selection bias in colonial choice of princely states. The author also analyses various Maoist documents, and interviews with key human rights activists, police officers, and bureaucrats, providing rich contextual understanding of the motivations of agents. Furthermore, he demonstrates the generalizability of his theory to cases of colonial frontier indirect rule causing ?ethnic secessionist insurgency in Burma, and the Taliban insurgency in Pakistan.

Part I. Theory: 1. Colonial Institutions and Civil War; 2. Legacies of Colonial Indirect Rule: Weak State, Ethnic Inequality and Insurgency; 3. Varieties of Indirect Rule and Causal Pathways to Maoist Insurgency in India; Part II. Qualitative and Quantitative Testing: 4. Qualitative Analysis of Maoist Strategy and Rebel Agency; 5. Quantitative Testing of Effects of British Indirect Rule on Maoist Insurgency; 6. Colonial Choice or Random Contingency? Addressing Selection Bias in British Indirect Rule; 7. Maoist Insurgency in Chhattisgarh: The Raja of Bastar and Tribal Rebellion; 8. Maoist Insurgency in Andhra Pradesh: The Nizam's Shadow on Telangana; Part III. Generalizability: 9. Explaining Partial Success of Maoists in Kerala and Karnataka; 10. Frontiers of Empire: Indirect Rule and Insurgency in Burma and Pakistan; 11. Conclusion: Policy Implications and Future of the Maoist Conflict.

Shivaji Mukherjee is Assistant Professor in Political Science at the University of Toronto, Mississauga. He has published articles in journals including Civil Wars, Journal of Conflict Resolution, World Development and Asian Security.