Underground Regimes: Rules-Based Order by Armed Groups in Northeast India

• In Event: Political Order in Rebel Governance

Abstract

The paper explores the puzzling occurrence of rules-based order by armed groups in four civil wars in Northeast India. It asks two questions. First, how do armed groups exercise order without exclusive control over territory; a pre-requisite condition in the literature? Second, why do some armed groups enforce rules-based order through consent and others through coercion? It argues that ‘Underground Orders’ are enabled through embeddedness, that is, strong ties between an armed group and a community’s primary civil society organization (CSO). Embeddedness allows armed groups to circumvent repeat-interactions with community members and thus overcome the threat of state surveillance. Institutional arrangements with CSOs also resolve collective action problems inherent in soliciting support individually. To explain variation in orders, it argues that when a single armed group splinters into rival factions, competition expands into extraction of resources. The ensuing “turf wars” produce multiple demands for taxes, thus erasing the community’s consent. Evidence is based on paired comparisons of four cases of armed group-community dyads that span eight decades. Data is drawn from over 250 interviews of community members, leaders of eight armed groups. It makes three contributions to the field of rebel governance. It is the first study to show that rules-based order is possible in conditions of fragmented territorial control. Second, contrary to the literature’s tight association between rules and consent, it develops consent-based and coercion-based orders as conceptually distinct ideal types. Third, it shows factional wars and guerrilla wars as separate concepts with differing effects on civilian victimization. Put together, Underground Orders expands our understanding of political order and everyday life in civil wars characterized by fragmented de facto sovereignty.

Author

• Kaustav Chakrabarti, Ashoka University