New publication in leading South Asian Studies Journal
- Author: Dr Duncan McDuie-Ra
- Posted: 28th July 2009
Contemporary South Asia is the leading journal in South Asian Studies and they approached me to be guest editor for the project in February 2008. Early on the September 2009 issue was chosen so the deadline was always looming. I sent out calls for papers through various networks for contributions from South Asia scholars from all over the world. These submissions went through an initial cull then I organised for the remaining papers to be peer-reviewed. Those that made it through peer-reviews then had to be revised with a lot of back and forward for over six months. I think in that time I read each of the papers at least ten times. Quite a few times on my laptop in forest department guesthouses with sporadic electricity while doing fieldwork in the Himalayas. The final set of papers were then reviewed and approved by the regular editor of the journal with more changes for each author. Finally, in June this year the issue went into production. It was a long process as I also had a paper being reviewed for the issue and wrote a long essay for the introduction. Now that it is about to be released I am thrilled. The response from scholars has been great, but the response from people in the Northeast to the prospect of the special issue has been even more enthusiastic. 50 years of militarisation and abuses by the armed forces in the region is such a crucial human rights issue that receives such little international attention, so the project took on an extra importance that kept it going and me going. It is also great that such a major journal agreed to dedicate a whole issue to this material. I am very pleased!
The theme of the journal is the impacts of 50 Years of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act in Northeast India. Northeast India is one of South Asia’s most contested spaces. It shares borders with five countries and is only connected to the rest of India by a narrow tract of land. Contestation has taken multiple forms, from armed opposition to the Indian state to violence against migrants, from movements for separate federal states and autonomous units to struggles to control black market trade, from protests against extractive industries to demands for more funds from the central government. In this context the Armed Forces Special Powers Act has been in place for over five decades and has had a major impact on all aspects of human society in the region. The Act grants the armed forces impunity for their actions in the region and prevents any case being made against human rights abuses by the armed forces and paramilitary. It also makes protest against the Act and very difficult. Despite widespread condemnation from within India and from global human rights organisations and the United Nations, the Act remains in place. For the authors featured in this issue the Act is far more than a legal framework providing impunity for members of the armed forces engaged in the Northeast. The act enforces a 'state of exception' which allows democracy to be permanently suspended and the peoples of the region to be under permanent surveillance. The papers in the special issue deal with this in different ways and from different disciplinary backgrounds.
