Revision summary
Terrorism in India’s experience is networked, asymmetric, and often sanctuary-backed. Causes include ideology, alienation, and state sponsorship; poverty is soil, not destiny. The obnoxious nexus is narco, hawala, fake currency, arms, and sometimes political protection. Measures are intelligence, NIA/PMLA/FATF, border and cyber control, counter-radicalisation, and diplomacy against safe havens. Jobs and rights reduce recruits; they do not replace the need to stop the active cell.
Model answer
Copper italics in this answer — like this — are the key facts. Each one is unpacked in the Facts & figures rail.
Introduction
Terrorism is the organised use of fear against civilians for a political, religious, or criminal aim. Its intensity in India’s neighbourhood has been high because ideology, territory, and crime share the same wallet. Eradication is a strong word. Reduction to a residual police problem is the practical goal, through law, money, and politics that do not feed the next recruiter.
Body
Complexity and intensity
- Terrorism is asymmetric: a small cell can shock a large democracy (Parliament 2001, 26/11, Pulwama).
- It is networked: local modules, diaspora money, online instruction, and sometimes a state sanctuary.
- Intensity in South Asia has included fidayeen, VBIEDs, and now drones and encrypted command, which raise the cost of policing.
- Multiple theatres overlap: J&K, Left-Wing Extremism (a different ideology, similar terror against civilians and the State), north-east remnants, and urban modules.
- The target set includes soft civilians, security forces, and symbols (temples, trains, hotels) to maximise publicity.
Causes
- Political: unresolved self-determination narratives, alienation, and governance failure that a handler can script.
- Ideological and religious extremist teaching, including imported takfiri streams and, in other cases, ethno-national militancy.
- Youth unemployment and humiliation as recruitment soil, not as a full cause — most poor people never bomb a market.
- State sponsorship and safe havens that turn a local grievance into a trained unit.
- Copy-cat media reward: the more the blast leads the news, the more the method spreads.
Linkages and obnoxious nexus
- Terror–crime: kidnapping, extortion, and bank robbery (classic LWE and insurgent finance).
- Terror–narco: Golden Crescent heroin and Afghan-era routes funding modules; drugs also hollow the society that must resist.
- Terror–hawala and fake currency: moving value without a clean bank trail.
- Terror–arms bazaars and leftover small arms after regional wars.
- Terror–cyber: recruitment, recon, and sometimes disruption.
- Obnoxious nexus with politics: when a party, a police unit, or a foreign desk uses a militant as an asset, the State fights itself.
Measures to reduce and, as far as possible, eradicate
- Intelligence-led policing, not only post-blast special laws: human sources, financial intelligence, and tech intercept with oversight.
- NIA, UAPA, PMLA, and UN 1267 listing to freeze people and money; courts that conclude trials so law is not only detention.
- Dry the nexus: FATF-standard KYC, narcotics control (NCB), and coastal/border interdiction.
- Counter-radicalisation in prisons, campuses, and online, with credible community voices — not only takedowns.
- Protect soft targets without turning cities into permanent fortresses: hotels, rail, and religious sites after 26/11 lessons.
- Diplomacy and, where needed, calibrated force against sanctuaries; no impunity for state sponsors.
- Address genuine grievances (jobs, rights, local government) so the political file is not empty. This is not a substitute for disrupting the bomb-maker.
- International: UN conventions, Interpol, and data-sharing; a common definition is still contested, but extradition of named accused is concrete.
- Strategic communication that denies theatre without hiding facts.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD C[Grievance ideology sanctuary] --> T[Terror modules] X[Narco hawala arms cyber] --> T T --> V[Civilian fear] M[Intel NIA PMLA FATF] --> R[Disrupt money and cells] P[Governance without impunity] --> R
Conclusion
Terrorism is intense because it mixes ideology, sanctuary, and a crime economy. India’s tools are intelligence, NIA and financial law, border and cyber work, and a politics that neither bargains with the gun nor ignores the grievance. Eradication is the aim; relentless reduction is the method.
Quick related
Students also ask
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For effective border area management, discuss the steps required to be taken to deny local support to militants and also suggest ways to manage favourable perception among locals.
Next question on this syllabus topic (2020 · Q10). View answer →
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Can terrorism be fully eradicated?
A modern society can drive it to a residual criminal level. Zero forever is a slogan. The operational aim is no sanctuaries and no successful modules.
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Is talking to militants always appeasement?
Talking to a political constituency is not the same as licensing a fidayeen. The State can talk and still prosecute the bomb.
Same topic · past papers
UPSC has asked this before
These previous-year questions sit on the same topic. Open one to practise the earlier ask.
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2016 · Q15 · GS III · 12 marks
The frequency of urban floods due to high intensity rainfall is increasing over the years. Discussing the reasons for urban floods, highlight the mechanisms for preparedness to reduce the risk during such events. -
2020 · Q14 · GS III · 15 marks
Suggest measures to improve water storage and irrigation system to make its judicious use under depleting scenario. -
2017 · Q2 · GS III · 10 marks
Account for the failure of manufacturing sector in achieving the goal of labour-intensive exports rather than capital-intensive exports. Suggest measures for more labour-intensive rather than capital-intensive exports. -
2017 · Q13 · GS III · 15 marks
What are the salient features of 'inclusive growth'? Has India been experiencing such a growth process? Analyze and suggest measures for inclusive growth. -
2016 · Q6 · GS III · 12 marks
Comment on the challenges for inclusive growth which include careless and useless manpower in the Indian context. Suggest measures to be taken for facing these challenges.
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Border Security and Organised Crime
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Q9 · UPSC Mains 2025 · GS III · 10 marks · Solution
Terrorism is a global scourge. How has it manifested in India? Elaborate with contemporary examples. What are the counter measures adopted by the State? Explain.
Border Security and Organised Crime
Terrorism is political violence meant to frighten civilians and coerce a state. India has faced it in Kashmir, in city bombings such as 26/11, in small hinterland modules, and online. Some Northeast and Khalistani violence uses the same methods. Counters include UAPA and the NIA, intelligence fusion, NSG, border and coastal security, and terror-finance rules. Politics and deradicalisation lag force; rights costs of broad laws remain a live issue.
Q19 · UPSC Mains 2024 · GS III · 15 marks · Solution
India has a long and troubled border with China and Pakistan, fraught with contentious issues. Examine the conflicting issues and security challenges along the border. Also give out the development being undertaken in these areas under the Border Area Development Programme (BADP) and Border Infrastructure andManagement (BIM) Scheme.
Border Security and Organised Crime
With Pakistan the live issues are the LoC, PoK, Sir Creek, Siachen, infiltration and drone-aided terror or narcotics. With China the issues are an undelimited LAC, Aksai Chin, Arunachal, patrol face-offs and a roads-and-villages race after Galwan 2020. A two-front stress is the strategic envelope. BADP funds border-block development so hamlets do not empty. BIM funds fencing, lighting, BOPs, roads and surveillance; it must not reduce the border resident to a cleared field of fire.