State, Violence, and Legitimacy in India

Santana Khanikar teaches political geography at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi. She has a PhD in Political Science from the University of Delhi, and had worked previously at University of Delhi and the Centre for Women's Development Studies, Delhi. She grew up in a small town in Assam witnessing both insurgent and state and state-sponsored violence from close quarters, where presence of armed forces was a routine part of daily life, Independence Day or Republic Day celebrations were marred by ULFA calls of bandh every year, and school children were on roads participating in movements led by AASU regularly. The areas of her research interest are practices of violence of the state, territoriality and identity, politics in northeast India, and feminist studies. She has published research articles in journals Studies in Indian Politics, and Pratimaan. She can be contacted at khanikarsantana@gmail.com

List of Figures
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations

Introduction: Probing state-legitimacy in the context of violence

Part I
1. Everyday Policing and Legality
2. Torture, Notions of 'Justice', and Petty Sovereigns
3. Spaces of Abjection and a 'Civic-Disciplining' Model of Policing
4. (Mis)Use, Agency, and Acceptance: Interactions with Police Violence

Part II
5. Of Blessings and Banes: People, ULFA, and the State in Lakhipathar
6. ULFA in Lakhipathar: Perspectives and Perceptions
7. Bearing Witness: Memories, War, and Life in Lakhipathar
8. The Making of an Authority: The State versus the Non-state

Conclusion: Produced Belongings, Imagined Geographies

Glossary
Bibliography
Index
About the Author