Missing ‘Ethnographic Turn’ in Indian International Relations

Abstract

This article provides a critical analysis of approaches of international relations (IR) in India in general and studies of post-Soviet countries in particular. It is argued here that methodologically the Indian IR has been dominated by the discourse analysis. The critical questions of everyday forms of social life and its impact upon transformation of state and institutions are at the margins of the disciplinary analysis. This phenomenon can be related to an absence of the 'ethnographic turn' in the Indian IR scholarship. Even Soviet/Russian studies, despite history of very strong India-Soviet/Russia bilateral relations, are quite narrow in their scope and lack field-based ethnographic studies. This article further argues that promoting usage of ethnographic method can be a useful methodological addition in making IR study and research in India more broad, critical, relevant and grounded.

Teaching International Relations in Indian Universities: Issues and Challenges

“…Linking contemporary concerns with innovative conceptual categories or methods is still missing from such endeavours. Globally, when IR scholarship is diversifying itself while engaging with a variety of methods, including ethnography, anthropology and political psychology, India’s post-modern methodological ‘ethnographic turn in Indian IR’ is yet to come (Suthar, 2016).…”