I call India a "colonial state" in many of my talks and in my new book. Why? A colonial state assumes its role is to fix society rather than to represent it. It continually creates draconian laws to do this. "Dowry Act/SC-ST Act/Hindu Marriage act" etc. These acts actively harm society but can never be repealed by the colonial state. Why is that? Because the atrocities arise from the gaze of the colonial state. That gaze leads to colonial shame and the urgency of fixing "backward" society. Because the acts arise from the gaze, they actually don't fix anything. In fact, they damage society and make things worse. For example, the "Dowry Act" appears not to have fixed dowry at all since every year more cases are filed under this act. The SC/ST act has not fixed atrocities on SC/ST, because, measured by the act, these are increasing. Thus the acts become their own justification; society remains perennially backwards in that gaze and the only fix is more and more draconian interventions till it is totally destroyed.