Westphalian Rashtra

Realities that go beyond the statist framework is the topic of Navnita Chadha Behera’s article Alternative to the Westphalian rashtra. Examining the intellectual tools required to fashion an understanding of international relations suitable to post-colonial, post-independence Southasia, Behera condemns the ‘epistemic violence’ of Eurocentric political realism. It is this positivist enterprise, says Behera, that scientifically delegitimises Southasia’s traditional pasts, traditional pasts that could and should serve as a source of knowledge creation.