Necropolitics

08.08.2025

Necropolitics

Contextual Focus:
 A recent incident in Gaza, where a civilian was killed while seeking humanitarian aid, has brought global focus back to the concept of necropolitics — a theory that scrutinizes how political power governs life and death.

What is Necropolitics?

Definition:
 Necropolitics, a term introduced by political theorist Achille Mbembe, explores the extent to which sovereign power can decide who is allowed to live and who is consigned to death, either directly or through neglect. It builds upon Michel Foucault’s concept of biopolitics, shifting attention from the regulation of life to the management of death.

Core Idea:
 Unlike biopolitics, which is concerned with improving and managing life through institutions, necropolitics deals with systems that normalize death, abandonment, and suffering — often targeting the most vulnerable.

Key Consequences of Necropolitical Governance

• Undermines Legal Protections:
   Legal rights and constitutional guarantees are selectively implemented, turning justice into a matter of bureaucratic convenience rather than moral duty.
   
• Institutionalises Inequality:
   Daily experiences of caste-based discrimination, racial injustice, poverty, and forced displacement become forms of slow, structural violence.
   
• Devalues Human Lives:
   Victims of such systems are often reduced to statistics, with public apathy and state silence deepening their invisibility.
   

Conclusion

Necropolitics is not merely about death — it is about whose lives are deemed expendable in political and administrative decision-making. In the Indian context, it offers a sharp analytical tool to examine systemic injustices and the failure of state institutions to uphold constitutional morality. Addressing such power dynamics is crucial to ensuring a just, inclusive, and humane governance framework.