India's Peacebuilding between Rights and Needs. Transformation of Local Conflict Spheres in Bihar, North-East India and Jammu and Kashmir?

This paper analyses India's internal peacebuilding approach in Bihar, north-east India and Jammu and Kashmir regarding its similarity with the liberal peace and its effectiveness in terms of conflict transformation. By focusing on the human rights and needs components of Indian peacebuilding, we investigate whether state interventions have managed to transform the local conflict spheres in their political, economic, societal and gender/family dimensions. Drawing on fieldwork carried out between 2011 and 2013, the paper remains sceptical about both the novelty and effectiveness of the Indian peacebuilding approach.