Modern State in India

Exact connotation of modern state arose in modern Europe-IT MEANS A POLITICALLY ORGANISED SOCIAL GROUP HAVING LEGITIMACY OVER VIOLENCE.

Pre-modern State in India

Clearly Indian society is marked by sufficient differentiation of political authority which existed in Indian civilizational history prior to European invasion

Doctrine of karma provided specific political fortunes of india atties

Caste also established a system of differentiation status and political authority

But in india under caste system state was not site of universality and sovereignty by becoming symbol of society as a whole,In the self maintaining moral order state was subordinated

Main function of state was to polic possible infringements of caste social order

The political architecture of premodern india exist b/w different levels-

Village-where people spent most of their lives

Subregion-dominated by local landowners

Regional Kingdoms-operated through dynasties but shortlived

Great Empires-rose and fell with strange regularity,There were trade activities prior to advent of British India

What is called political in our time is distributed across levels and layers of social formation in a very unfamiliar manner

State in Colonial modernity

The colonial state remained a thin stratum of institutions; its circle of activity remained narrow, confined to the maintenance of colonial order and extractive economic functions.

It created a limited public sphere

The Modern nation State

Extreme political instability after independence put a coercive apparatus to Indian state-Pakistan problem,unification,communist insurgency,

There were a close connection b/w policies of economic development and the structures of state apparatus-The modern Indian state inherited two distinct legacies-

1.a colonial state system of internal control,administrative ethos,laws and rules,persistent repressiveness against lower strata of society.

2.a successor to triumphant national movement

After independence the functioning of modern Indian state changed its mode of functioning

During Nehru period,functioning of institutional structure were drawn from western educated elite who did not face any democratic pressure at times

State but left the agricultural scenario intact

But heavy industrialization got primacy

Rapid industrialization rejuvenated rapid growth of a middle class in India-Managers,engineers,businessmen, etcS

The constitutional rhetoric of Indian state placed three distinct emphasis-sovereignty,democracy,and socialism

Despite idea of democracy came from West,the democratic politics in India was bound to make political world of India less western and more indigenous

But the tangible institutions of Indian state seemed relatively helpless against intangible forces of cultural understanding of ordinary people

But there were distinct lines of decline of modern Indian State.

Democratic state in india was principally a covenant b/w the western educated upper class elite who inherited power of Indian state from British and the common man

But after six decades the pardox of Indian democracy is that the elites who took helm of Indian state seemed less commited but the teeming millions more commited for india state expecting some benefit.