ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the numeration of riots, strikes, and demonstrations leads to such a significant loss of meaning that the use of these broad categories is unlikely to lead to the development of meaningful empirical knowledge. The challenge is to find an alternative methodology that will facilitate the creation of such knowledge. A logical alternative is an interpretive approach. It also focuses on the conceptualization used in the quantitative index of domestic protest in India developed by Arthur S. Banks and placed in the Cross-National Time-Series Data Archive (CNTS). The CNTS contains a vast array of data sets covering most countries of the world over a period of many years developed from a variety of sources. Banks's measures may cover major forms of protest in the United States, but they ignore many of the forms protests take in Indian cultures. Likewise, the legal environment within which protests take place is treated as irrelevant to Banks's counts of frequencies.
