Secessionism and Political Order in India: Theory and Comparison

This essay proposes a typology of political orders that emerge in the wake of secessionist insurgencies and counterinsurgencies. In addition, it offers a theory of why different political orders result in different circumstances, based on the interaction of structural and ideological factors at work in such insurgent wars. By examining four secessionist insurgencies in India vz. Kashmir, Punjab, Assam and Nagaland, the essay argues that definitive political order resulted in Punjab, and not the other three states, because the structural factors favouring the insurgency had become detrimental, and the ideological pull of the secessionist vision had become diluted--an outcome that hasn't resulted in the other three states.