Anthropology of War: Origin, Meaning and Evolution across the South Asian landscape in the Pre-industrial and Industrial era

Abstract

The socio-cultural evolution of the notion of „war‟ has conceptual problems. War has been described as a
purposeful group action against another group that seeks to gain material success (abhyudaya) or spiritual progress
(nihśreyasa) for one or both. Beginning with conflict over reproductive success among chimpanzees, resource extraction
among primitive groups etc., recent ethnic conflicts have been associated with instability of the nation-states. However,
war is not just a group action. It depicts conditions of and between societies that are inextricably linked to culture. The
present paper seeks to explore the models used for studying war in the past and their limitations while examining
whether non-state warfare and contemporary warfare deserve separate approaches. For the analysis of the evolution of
war, this paper will look into the evidences of war from „pre-state‟ times and modern period in the South Asian context
from secondary sources considering the demographics and resource environment of each phase. It also attempts to
question the Hobbesian view of „universality‟ of war and answer the question as to how far this phenomenon is relevant
to the modern world.