Let us take up the pulls and the pressures, which arise from within and challenge the concept of a sovereign state. In many post-colonial societies, a situation has emerged where neither the state nor the nation exists. The case of what has come to be identified as ‘failed states’ is in point. Consider the societies and states, at various times, in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Burundi, Iraq (after Saddam’s fall), Rwanda, Somalia, etc., and in some post-communist countries. In most of these cases, conflict and civil war situation exists as to not only the legitimacy of the central authority but also the population and its territory. There is neither state nor nation and both are playing hide-and-seek. Due to inter-ethnic and inter-tribal/clan conflict, formation of integrated political community or national consciousness has not happened. Further, lack of central authority and a disintegrated state apparatus has put many of them in the category of failed states and their sovereignty in doubt.
A second category of challenge comes from sub-national and secessionist forces that challenge the central authority of the existing state and legitimacy of its sovereignty. In this sense, the traditional concept of sovereignty as centrally located, faces internal pressures in the form of demand for more autonomy or a separate nation by various ethnically and culturally organized minorities. This has put even the logic of nation-based state into question. When an ethnic/cultural group demands for a separate nation-state, the very logic and principle of a nation-state is not in question as per the principle of right to self-determination but it brings to doubt the logic of national-state or state-nation, which we have discussed in chapter on the State.
India is a prime example of various sub-national movements challenging its sovereign authority. Various ethnic and sub-national groups also appear in other states like the Tamils in Srilanka, the Basque separatists in Spain, or for that matter, the Lega Norde (Northern League) in Italy.
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