Non-State Actors and India’s Security Response

Internal security involves far more than the armed forces. Beyond the military sit non-state actors, such as political factions, communal bodies and regional clans, that can spread unrest. The answer includes police, civil society and ordinary citizens.

1Chapter 1: Actors and Machinery

Must Know

Who the non-state actors are

• Non-state actors can spread unrest without any foreign state backing them.
• Political factions, communal bodies and regional clans fall in this group.
• Their power comes from inside Indian society, not from an outside government.
• A cross-border militant group draws on another country’s arms and safe havens.
• A non-state actor draws on local grievance, local networks and local money.
• Extremism is often called the single greatest internal-security threat.
• It can grow entirely within India’s borders and take different forms in each region.
• Exams always test the source of power: internal grievance and organisation, not an external government.

The state’s machinery

• Police are the primary ground-level structure for internal security.
• Police are constitutionally a state subject.
• So the Centre’s role is to supplement, not replace, state police.
• The Modernisation of Police Forces scheme has run since 1969-70.
• It funds weapons, mobility and equipment states cannot afford alone.
• The current phase, 2021-22 to 2025-26, has a central outlay of ₹26,275 crore across 15 sub-schemes.
• Dedicated operations target Naxalism in affected states, since it needs different terrain knowledge than urban policing.
• Technology upgrades run through schemes like CCTNS and satellite communication networks.
• The response is layered on purpose: police on the ground, funded modernisation, and central forces only when a crisis outgrows the state.

2Chapter 2: Civil Society and Citizens

Good to Know

Civil society: partner and subject

• Youth groups, NGOs and activists often reach communities that government agencies struggle to reach.
• The India Sanitation Coalition, launched in 2015 under FICCI, brings over 150 organisations, government bodies, corporates and NGOs onto one platform.
• It shows how a multi-stakeholder partnership works.
• Civil society is sometimes a partner against extremism, and sometimes itself under scrutiny.
• Networks built for development can occasionally be misused as fronts.
• That is why India tightened foreign-funding rules for NGOs.
• The policy challenge is telling the two apart without shutting down legitimate work.

The citizen’s role

• Citizens help the state by reporting suspicious activity early.
• In 2019, the Ministry of Home Affairs launched the single emergency number 112 under its Emergency Response Support System.
• It merged the separate police, fire and women’s-safety helplines (100, 101 and 1090) into one number.
• Communities also help by staying vigilant and reporting anything unusual.
• A police force spread thin across a large population cannot match that alone.

3Chapter 3: A Broadening Security Net

Great to Know

From soldiers to a web

• Security was once seen almost entirely as a military matter: soldiers guarding borders.
• That picture no longer holds.
• Political factions, clans and communal bodies now sit beside armed insurgencies in the threat picture.
• Each needs its own kind of response.
• The answer weaves together police, civil society and citizens.
• Even sanitation now runs on public-private coalitions, like the India Sanitation Coalition.
• As civil society’s role grows, so does the need to watch for misuse.
• The question of who is involved, and who gets watched, is still a live policy theme.
• See Internal Security Threats, Countering Extremism, Development, Inequality and the Roots of Extremism and Police Reforms in India.

4Chapter 4: Past Papers

Exam Point of View

UPSC 2022: civil society and public-private coalitions

• The question asked about bodies like the India Sanitation Coalition.
• It is a public-private coalition, not a government-funded or WHO-funded body.
• Such coalitions are partnerships between government, industry and civil society.
• (Source: UPSC CSP 2022, Q74. See also the India Sanitation Coalition question.)

Who are the actors?

• Exams ask which groups count as non-state actors in internal security.
• The answer: political factions, communal bodies and regional clans.
• Key skill: separate internal non-state actors from state-backed external threats.

5Chapter 5: Current Affairs

Current Affairs

FCRA rules tightened, June 2026

• On 22 June 2026, the Home Ministry gazetted the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Rules, 2026.
• NGOs must now register for specific activities and states, rather than under one broad licence.
• There is a one-year transition window for existing registrations.
• On 30 June 2026, the government launched the FCRA 2.0 portal.
• It digitises registration, renewal and annual-return filing for all foreign-funded organisations.
• This is the “partner or subject” tension in action.
• Rights groups have opposed the rules as narrowing civil society’s space.
• The government says they close oversight gaps. (Source: PIB, FCRA fact sheet.)

Quick Q&A

• Police is a? State subject.
• Modernisation scheme since? 1969-70.
• Dial 112 launched? 2019.
• ISC launched? 2015, under FICCI.
• FCRA 2.0 portal? 30 June 2026.