This essay asks what the history of modern empire and of state formation within it can teach us about the formation and functioning of the state in decolonised, independent nations like India. It also considers the converse of this question - can an analysis of the centrality of a particular kind of state formation to the making of empire help us understand some of the deeply undemocratic imperatives and neocolonial ambitions of the postcolonial nation state today? It argues that crucial modes of governance, particularly the relation between the militarised state and its subject populations that characterised colonial empires, extend to the present moment. In addition, it examines the situation of Jammu and Kashmir to show how the government of independent India has renewed both colonial legislation and colonial attitudes to deal with challenges to its authority, particularly from populations at its peripheries who wish to choose their own form of national political formation.
