Why in News?
- The killing of a civilian seeking food aid in Gaza has drawn attention to the concept of necropolitics, which examines how power structures decide who lives and who dies.
Understanding the Concept
- Coined by philosopher Achille Mbembe, necropolitics expands Michel Foucault’s notion of biopolitics. Instead of examining how states manage life, it focuses on how they govern death.
- Necropolitics highlights situations in which certain populations are exposed to violence, abandonment or structural neglect because of political decisions.
Implications
- Erosion of rule of law: When authorities decide which lives matter, legal protections become unevenly applied.
- Normalisation of injustice: Poverty, caste discrimination, racism and displacement can become everyday realities without adequate redress.
- Dehumanisation: People are reduced to statistics; suffering is dismissed or accepted as inevitable.
Relevance for Governance and Society
- Indian society: Necropolitics provides a lens to understand social exclusion based on caste, gender, class or ethnicity.
- Public policy: The concept intersects with debates on human rights, state accountability and the ethical use of surveillance.
- Civil services: Awareness of these ideas helps administrators uphold constitutional morality while framing policies for vulnerable populations.
Conclusion
Necropolitics reminds us that governance is not just about providing services but also about ensuring that all lives are valued equally. Recognising and addressing structural violence is essential for a just society.