ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book traces ideational influences on the Indian state's response to insurgency. It considers two such indigenous influences: Kautilya and Mahatma Gandhi, and argues that a balance between the two ideational parameters is latent in India's counter-insurgency process. The book reviews the functioning of India's national security institutions and outlines the challenges. It argues that the British debate on minimum use of force in counter-insurgency and its Malayan experience has informed India's own counter-insurgency experience. The Indian counter-insurgency experience is a unique phenomenon. The chapter explains the state's engagement with armed internal dissent, given the fact that many of the armed leaders later on joined the political process. Aware of the power asymmetries between Indian state forces and the rebel armies, the aim of the counter-insurgency operations has been to manage the conflict to a level that would create conditions for peace-making and peace-building.
