India completes 71 years of independence on 15 August. Has the modern Indian state, especially in protecting its citizens, been effective? As a democratically governed sovereign Republic, what is the state of the Indian State? asks Rajesh Tandon.
On the eve of completion of 71 years of independence, what is the state of the independent, modern Indian State of today?
States acquired sovereignty in modern times through the European Treaty of Westphalia in1648. It was an arrangement of ‘non-interference’, with the assumption that each State would look after its citizens properly. As a protector and guardian of its inhabitants, the State performs its primary functions of maintaining law and order. As a democratically governed sovereign Republic, the Indian State has much greater responsibility towards protection of its citizens.
Has the Indian State been able to do so effectively?
Recent events suggest otherwise.
The Indian police system is an instrument of the Indian State to maintain law and order, and to safeguard citizens from any harm and criminals. However, Indian citizens are ‘afraid’ of the police, and mostly shy away from police protection. Media reports regularly show harassment of women and innocent citizens by police. Custodial violence in police stations is often reported. Even inmates in Indian prisons face violence from fellow criminals.
In order to look after the welfare of abandoned young girls, the Indian State supports some welfare homes. Girls in such homes face sexual abuse and violence. Two recent incidents from Muzaffarpur (in Bihar) and Deoria (in UP) of sexual abuse and rape young girls living as inmates have been ‘heard’ in public.
Why is the Indian State, even after 71 years of independence from British colonial rule, unable to perform this very basic function of a modern State—protection of its citizens?
The scaffolding of modern Indian State institutions is standing on somewhat ‘sandy’ soil in India. Indian society, 71 years ago, and perhaps even today, is a fractured, parochial, stratified, hierarchical social order. Not all its inhabitants are treated as ‘citizens’ in the sense of a modern sovereign State. Without addressing this basic character of Indian society, hoisted institutions of modern State continue to be afflicted by similar traits of the society they are trying to govern.
Institutions meant for protection of its citizens then exploit them, as seen from the examples given earlier. It is the culture of such institutions, and those women and men who are appointed (and elected) to make them function, that needs transformation. Only then, can the Westphalian State be justified as sovereign, at the expense of sovereignty of citizens.
This is the fundamental governance challenge the Indian State faces from within today.
Photograph of Ashokan Pillar (
Tiếng Việt: Trụ đá Ashoka tại Sarnath by
Ptolemy Thiên Phúc) licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International
