Introduction
A few months ago I read Savage Order by Dr. Rachel Kleinfeld. The book tries to answer some questions related to violence around the world: why are some nations more violent than others, how did they get there, and what can we do to reduce violence. Dr. Kleinfeld presents multiple case studies from across the world - Colombia, Italy, Georgia, India - and ties these seemingly disparate situations with a single thread. She talks about how these countries found themselves in violent conflicts and how they climbed out of it. The following blog is a part of a series elaborating a few concepts from this book and others, with some insights from the Indian subcontinent.
The Concept of a Weak State
A weak state is a country that is unable to provide security and essential services to its citizens. Here we are more concerned with the security aspect of the term. Such states are characterized by weak government institutions - executive, military, judiciary, police - which can no longer provide intended services to the citizens.
A weak state cannot guarantee the safety of its citizens - it lacks strong military and police capabilities to protect itself or its citizens. Examples of weak states abound in history, and in contemporary geopolitics:
- Mughal empire in India in the late 18th and early 19th centuries - After the death of Aurangzeb in 1707 the Mughal empire began to collapse bit-by-bit. Internal conflicts and external invasions gradually made the empire inconsequential, till in 1857 the British East India Company exiled the last king, putting an end to a dynasty that had ruled India for over 3 centuries.
- Current-day Pakistan - Since its inception in 1947 Pakistan has seen multiple military coups and unsuccessful coup attempts, spending almost 50% of this time under a military regime. The country has been plagued with violence and terrorism and ranks consistently low on multiple social and economic indicators.
Why Are States Weak?
States could become weak due to internal conflicts, war, or gradual corruption by the ruling class.
Sometimes armed conflicts or war could deplete a state’s resources, rendering it too weak to govern effectively. A few nations emerged from WWII as weaker than before the war.
Another possible scenario is when a state is born weak - a great number of nations achieved independence after WWII and began the task of nation-building by creating and strengthening their governing institutions. In some cases, as with Pakistan, the institutions were not strong enough to hold the country intact. Today Pakistan has a few tribal areas where the writ of the government doesn’t work.
Privilege Violence
Dr. Kleinfeld talks about states in which the ruling class deliberately keeps the state weak, so they could control the state and benefit from it personally.
Privilege violence begins with an economic and political elite who run the state for their benefit. They manipulate budgets and taxes so that government resources are spent extravagantly on their neighborhoods, tribes, or racial groups, and they often benefit from the corruption…
– Rachel Kleinfeld in A Savage Order
We often see examples of privilege violence in developing and underdeveloped nations in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, where politicians use the taxpayers' money to advance their own interests.
- In the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, Mulayam Singh Yadav has gifted his ancestral village (with a population of 7200) an airport, multiple universities, and a cultural festival, costing the state hundreds of crores. In the neighboring state of Bihar, Lalu Yadav - another ex-Chief Minister - is embroiled in multiple corruption scams, with the most popular being the Fodder Scam worth $540M. Both these politicians have turned their states into personal fiefdoms, governing their states by proxy, and installing their family members in their stead.
- Pakistan presents a different scenario with a similar result. As a country that has been under military rule for almost 50% of the time since it came into existence in 1947, Pakistan suffers from privilege violence both by its political and military rulers. The military, which projects itself as the savior of Pakistan and its Islamic ideology, has been accused of bias towards the Punjabi groups and benefiting through systematic corruption.
… corruption and nepotism are endemic in Pakistan. The civil and military officers enjoy vast amounts of prerequisites and privileges and are not above corruption.
– Hussain Haqqani in Pakistan - Between Mosque and Military
In 2016, Pakistani armed forces reported owning businesses worth over $20B. As of 2020, Pakistan ranks 7th in Global Terrorism Index.
Systematic corruption, nepotism, and favoritism gradually erode the public’s trust in the government institutions.
How Does Privilege Violence Affect Societies?
Privilege violence initiates from the political and economic elites and gradually spreads to the masses.
While the elites deliberately weaken and corrupt the state’s security institutions, they still need to protect themselves from, or compete with, other elites. For this, they hire private militias and violent groups to maintain their power. At the same time, the citizens realize that the weak state cannot provide adequate protection and turn to criminals or vigilantes for justice.
The weak state military and police system, unable to keep the criminals, private militias, and vigilantes in check, become more brutal. Faces with a brutal and inept state on one side, and criminals on the other, the masses regard both as a threat to their security. In some cases, violence perpetrated by the state and the criminals become so widespread that it is normalized by the masses - force becomes an accepted way to solve problems. Dr. Kleinfeld describes this phase as the decivilization of society.
What materializes is a process in which ordinary people become impulsive, quicker to anger, more ready to see violence as normal. As countries decivilize, people polarize into warring camps, dehumanize those who were once fellow citizens, and excuse previously unthinkable brutality… Once society has normalized violence, a government can no longer restore security on its own.
– Rachel Kleinfeld in A Savage Order
Decivilization Example: Caste Based Violence in Bihar, India
An example of a society being decivilized could be seen in Bihar, between the 1970s and early 2000s, which experiences caste-based conflicts between the private militias of the landlords and upper castes (Ranvir Sena being the most prominent among them) and the violent leftist groups (MCC and others). Ranvir Sena was created by the state elites to protect themselves and advance their interests, while MCC claimed to represent the lower castes. These groups carried violent attacks and mass killings, sometimes so brutal that at times entire villages were destroyed (1997 Lakshmanpur Massacre, 58 dead; 2000 Mianpur massacre, 35 dead). Human Rights Watch published a piece about the state’s response to outfits in Bihar, elaborating a series of corrupt state governments either unable to stop the violence or benefitting from it.
People not personally affected by these violent killings gradually normalized it - even today in certain parts of Bihar, and the neighboring state of Uttar Pradesh, people feel a sense of pride in mentioning that they know a criminal (a Bahubali) or detail the exploits of their favorite gang member.
Caste-based violence started decreasing in Bihar in early-2000 when Nitish Kumar defeated Laloo Prasad Yadav - the guy who had ruled Bihar since 1990 and had created a deep caste-based politician-criminal nexus in the state.
Similar incidents about the society being decivilized have been witnessed in Colombia, during the drug cartel wars between the 1970s and 1990s; the US after the civil war; and in Italy during the Mafia wars.
Learning From The Past
In the case of India, the recent increase in violent incidents across the country is concerning. There have been incidents where Muslims are being targeted by a violent mob, a misinformation campaign being circulated about the Rohingya refugees arriving from Myanmar, and a few others. These incidents point to a society slowly getting decivilized - people normalizing violent attacks, the government losing its monopoly on violence, and in some cases benefiting from it. It is important to recognize the patterns and act before society normalizes violence - a state which is hard to roll-back.