States of Influence

This book is a pioneering work on India’s regional parties and foreign policy to work across states rather than one at a time. It covers nine states and fifteen parties since 1991, from the Teesta and the land boundary with Bangladesh to the Kartarpur corridor and the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty. Throughout, it looks past what the parties demand, to what they are given. Regional party influence turns out to follow a rule. These parties get real concessions on issues that can be split into parts and that the Centre cannot deliver without a state’s land, police or administration. On territory and hard security, they get nothing, however many seats they hold. The book explains the difference with a model of issue divisibility and implementation dependence and shows that the line between the two is drawn in Delhi: a treaty can be technical for sixty years and a security matter the following week. Written for scholars of political science, international relations and South Asian studies, the book will also interest policymakers, business leaders and civil society actors working on India and its neighbourhood.