Deep state, shallow state, non-state: The rise of conspiracy theories

From bhikshus of Ashokan 3rd century BC and medieval Sufis to Oxfam, Omidyar and Soros now, non-state actors have any real power only when they work in conjunction with a real state

It’s early days in 2025 yet, but the “deep state” looks like the frontrunner for winning the “word of the year” honours. Anything goes wrong and we blame this sinister entity — the deep state.

 

Except that it isn’t so mythical. It is as much a part of our lives and system of governance as shallow state and non-state. We shall explore these definitions and how these intermesh as we go along. However, the deep state, often just called DS, has now become the engine of conspiracy theories across democracies.

 

The first thing we need to look at is the