Re-examining India’s Counterterrorism Approach: Adopting a Long View

This article looks at the status quo of Indian counterterrorism policy—which largely favours ‘physical’ or ‘hard’ measures—and proposes that the government adopt a more holistic strategy. Termed ‘Countering Violent Extremism’, this would involve measures geared towards long-term prevention, with greater attention paid to the reasons for which people commit terrorism and to the impact of counterterrorism on communities. As such, the article focuses on ‘counterradicalisation’ (society-wide prevention), ‘deradicalisation’ (a nuanced response to convicted terrorists) and uses Islamism as a case study, with the proviso that many ‘countering violent extremism measures’ can also be applied successfully to other types of violent extremism.