Mumbai 1993, Coimbatore 1998, Jammu & Kashmir Assembly complex 2001, Parliament 2001, Akshardham 2002, Jammu army camp 2003, Mumbai car bombs 2003, Assam bomb 2004, Ram Janmabhoomi 2005, Delhi blasts 2005, Varanasi 2006, Mumbai train bombs 2006, Malegaon 2006, Hyderabad Masjid 2007 and now Hyderabad again on August 25. This is a list of major terrorist incidents Indian citizens have been subjected to in the last 14 years. To say India is second only to Iraq in terms of civilian lives lost is to state the obvious.

There is some cross-country literature on the link between political freedom and terrorism. In autocratic and dictatorial countries, political freedoms are low, but terrorist acts are also difficult. And in advanced democracies where political freedoms are high, terrorist acts are rare as the political process provides a vent. Terrorist incidents are highest in intermediate democracies. India ought to be in the advanced zone, but seems to be in the intermediate category.

We can go around in circles trying to define terrorism. There are clichéd expressions like one person’s terrorist is another’s freedom-fighter. But there is clearly a difference between a cause perceived as legitimate and the terrorist act that is not only violent, but also targets non-combatants or civilians. There is also a difference between terrorism that has collective support, implicit or explicit, and that which is purely individual.

The former is easier to understand, because both supply of and demand for terrorists is driven by a sense of economic, political, ethnic or religious deprivation, real or imagined. Assam, J&K, Manipur, Mizoram, Punjab, Nagaland, Tripura and the Naxalite belt (across central and eastern India) belong to this category. While easier to understand, the policy response is more difficult. But what is happening in Mumbai, Hyderabad or Bangalore is different. Not only is it individual, there is no clear link to deprivation. This is more difficult to understand, but policy response ought to be simpler.

... contd.