The Indian State’s expanding sovereign power has everything to do with the incline of digital governance
The infrastructure of surveillance and data mining in India — like DigiYatra’s promise of seamless travel and Aarogya Setu’s medical-tracking — have caused legal conundrums on privacy and transparency. How do we make sense of the changing nature of India’s sovereignty while also striving to advance general welfare of the political community?
Swarati Sabhapandit
Published on: 27 June 2025, 02:16 pm
EVER SINCE THE NOTION OF POLITICAL COMMUNITY has entered the lexicon of human civilisation, scholars from different walks of time and space have interpreted this phenomenon. The idea of a 'political community' can take various forms, depending on how power is structured between the rulers and the ruled. For us, the most familiar version of the political community is the State.
The emergence of the State as an acceptable form of political community was reached through a basic understanding concerned with the establishment and regulation of governing authority and the preservation of the rights of the population. The arrangement to preserve a sovereign authority over a defined territory and people was justified as a means to promote peace and sociability. Thus, sovereign power, which was deemed to be exclusively exercised by the State, became the locus around which the modern governmental ordering was regulated.
While the notion of sovereign power has been interpreted in multitudes, a few foundational credentials remain powerful tropes of modern political thought. French jurist Jean Bodin's counsel on political laws of governmental development continues to hold relevance today. Writing in 1576, Bodin argues that every viable state must possessa single, supreme centre of authority (sovereignty) containing all governmental powers. However, he also contends that in order to sustain the state, it is essential to maintain a separation between legislature and executive, arguing that the more limited the power of sovereignty is, the more assured it is. Bodin's investigation of the political community marks an important shift in orientation from Roman law, where he shifted the focus from the rulers to the political constitution of the people or nation.
The arrangement to preserve a sovereign authority over a defined territory and people was justified as a means to promote peace and sociability.
Almost 200 years later, Jean-Jacques Rousseau's writings on the nature of state-building gave a concrete shape to the contemporary understanding of the State, sovereignty, and political freedom. For Rousseau, a stable political community is marked by a social contract in which humans exchange their natural freedom for 'higher' political freedom. Thus, the political equality and equal liberty granted to the people within the political community reconcile freedom and government. The contemporary notion of popular sovereignty could be derived precisely from these arrangements. Bodin and Rousseau's interventions serve as crucial precepts to understand the reconfiguration of sovereignty that contemporary democracies are witnessing today.
Over the past two-odd decades, governance has undergone a major shift with the rise of the digital revolution. Our relationship with the State is now increasingly mediated and controlled through digital technologies. The United Nations defines digital governance or e-governance as the process by which governments, the private sector, and civil society develop and apply shared principles, norms, rules, decision-making procedures, and programs to shape the evolution and use of the digital environment. It essentially involves the establishment of a framework that guides the equal and responsible use of digital technologies, which benefits all the stakeholders (emphasis added).
As democracies increasingly lean towards e-governance, it is crucial to take stock of the aspired goal and the lived experience these polities encounter. Let's take the example of India, the world's largest democracy, a country going through a substantial 'digital revolution' in governance.
