Colonial Origins of Maoist Insurgency in India

Shivaji Mukherjee

Kroc Institute Visiting Research Fellow

What are the long-term effects of colonial institutions on insurgency? Mukherjee's study shows the historical origins of insurgency by addressing the puzzle of why the persistent Maoist insurgency, considered to be India’s biggest internal security threat, affects some districts along the central eastern corridor of India but not others. Combining archival and interview data from fieldwork in Maoist zones with analysis of an original district-level quantitative data set, Mukherjee demonstrates that different types of British colonial indirect rule set up the structural conditions of ethnic inequality and state weakness that facilitate the emergence of Maoist control. This study re-conceptualizes colonial indirect rule and also presents new data on rebel control and precolonial rebellions.