India and the Challenge of Terrorism in the Hinterland

Terrorism in the Indian hinterland is the result of a complex set of inter-related factors. The development of a jihad culture in Pakistan during the course of the Afghan conflict in the 1980s led to the subsequent Pakistani decision to employ jihad against India as a strategy. The mobilisation of the Hindu Right in India and ensuing communal violence led to the radicalisation of Muslim youth and the resort to terrorism by both Indian Islamists and Muslim criminal networks with help from Pakistan. Terrorist attacks by Pakistani jihadists and Indian Islamists, in turn, radicalised elements within the Hindu Right and set the stage for their turn towards terrorism in the last few years.