Rethinking and Theorizing the Indian State in the Context of New Economic Map

TLDR: In this paper, the authors argue that the rationale for the existence of Indian state has undergone a fundamental displacement since the adoption of the New Economic Policy (NEP) henceforth, and this displacement is in alignment with the rearticulation of the Indian economic cartograph into the mutually constitutive triad of neo-liberalism, global capitalism and inclusive development that form the Order of Things.

Abstract: In this chapter, we argue that the rationale for the existence of the Indian state has undergone a fundamental displacement since the adoption of the New Economic Policy (NEP henceforth). This displacement is in alignment with the re-articulation of the Indian economic cartograph into the mutually constitutive triad of neo-liberalism, global capitalism and inclusive development that form the Order of Things (a la Foucault) at present. India’s economic transition now must take this historical conjecture as its point of reference and departure. In this regard, the theory of the Indian state must contend with (i) why and how it helped create this triad, (ii) what this triad entailed for its own existence, and (iii) how the state encounters and negotiates with new-fangled contradictions emanating from the triad and thereby transforms itself or gets transformed in the process. State as a transformative entity must thus be understood in relation to the new Order of Things in whose creation it plays a central role and which in turn affects it. There is one important thread that runs through the changes that has materialized with respect to Indian state in the last two decades: the rationale for the existence of Indian state has changed which implies in turn a different philosophy of governance.