Politics of the Poor: Negotiating Democracy in Contemporary India

Cover
Politics of the Poor
Title
Copyright
Contents
List of Tables, Maps, Figures and Charts
Acknowledgements
Glossary
Acronyms
INTRODUCTION: Against False Binaries
	The problem
	The research question
	The arguments
	The study setting
	The plan of the book
	Endnotes
1. The Perspectives of the Study: Towards an Agonistics of Democracy
	I
		Perspectives of poverty: Residualist or relational
		Poverty as oppression
		Politics: Contests over power, meanings and identities
		An agonistics of democracy
	II
		Poor people’s politics: Early skeptics
		The problem revisited: Negotiating the universal/particular conundrum
		Political spaces for negotiations: Opportunity structures and social relations
	III
		An ethnography of everyday negotiations
		Endnotes
2. Political Spaces: Institutional Opportunity Structures
	I
		A paradigmatic postcolonial democracy
		India’s unequal democracy: Perspectives on formal dimensions
		India’s unequal democracy: Perspectives on participatory dimensions
		India’s unequal democracy: Perspectives on social dimensions
	II
		Eastern India: Economic geography and social history
	III
		Bihar and West Bengal: A cursory political introduction
			The inheritance of caste
			The aftermath of Independence
			Continuities and change in agrarian structure
			The socialist challenge in Bihar
			The communist challenge in West Bengal
			Kisans, socialists and ‘caste’ politics: Bihar
			Poverty in Bihar
			Bhadraloks, communists and class politics: West Bengal
			Poverty in West Bengal
		Conclusion: Opportunity structures and the making of political space
		Endnotes
3. Political Spaces: Social Relations of Power
	Social class: Labour and caste
		Labour
		Caste
	Rahimpur: An incorporative political place
		Social relations of production: An entrenched–poor coalition against the precarious
		Social relations of distribution: A polity shaped by entrenched classes
		The making of an incorporative political place
	Sargana Ward 1: A populist political place
		Social relations of production: A precarious-poor coalition against the entrenched
		Social relations of distribution: A polity shaped by precarious classes
		The making of a populist political place
	Ditya: A differentiated political place
		Social relations of production: The precarious classes against the labouring poor
		Social relations of distribution: A polity controlled by precarious classes
		The making of a differentiated political place
	Roshanar Ward 5: A paternalistic political place
		Social relations of production: An entrenched-precarious coalition against the poor
		Social relations of distribution: A polity controlled by entrenched classes
		The making of a paternalistic political place
	Conclusion: Social relations of power and the making of political space
	Endnotes
4. From Clientelism to Citizenship?: The Politics of Supplications
	I
		Clientelism and citizenship
		The institutional provenance: Targeted social provisioning
		Governmental strategies: Identifying ‘below-poverty-line’ populations
	II
		Assertive supplications in an incorporative political place: Rahimpur
		Assertive supplications in a populist political place: Sargana Ward 1
		Meek supplications in a differentiated political community: Ditya
		Meek supplications in a paternalistic political place: Roshanar Ward 5
	III
		Supplications as politics
		Beyond semi-clientelism and citizenship: The spaces of political society?
		Agonistic supplications
		Conclusion
		Endnotes
5. From Moral Vocabularies to Languages of Stateness?: The Politics of Demands
	Engaging the everyday state: Languages of stateness and moral economies
	Self-targeted social assistance
	The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA): Neoliberal workfare or social democracy
	II
		Routine demands in an incorporative political place: Rahimpur
		Assertive demands in a populist political place: Sargana Ward 1
		Assertive demands in a differentiated political place: Ditya
		Quietude in a paternalistic political place
	III
		Demands as politics
		Beyond subaltern moralities and juridical guarantees: Declarations of dependence on the everyday state?
		Agonistic demands
		Conclusion
		Endnotes
6. From Backwardness to Improvement?: The Politics of Disputation
	I
		Improvement and its discontents
		The social life of improvement: The case of electrification
	II
		Trustee assumptions
		Disputing trustee assumptions
		The powerful against the weak
		Reason against justice
		Requesting improvement
	III
		Disputation as politics
		Post-development? Beyond encountering, depoliticizing and resisting improvement
		Agonistic disputations
		Conclusion
		Endnotes
7. From Tradition to Modernity? The Politics of Imagination
	I
		The disjunctions of modernity and democracy
		Modernity and the social imagination
	II
		Disquiet in the temple
		Tussles over the pablik
		The place of the law
		Popular protest
		‘95 per cent against 5 per cent’
	III
		Imagination as politics
		Beyond tradition and modernity: Civil society, political society, moral society?
		Agonistic imaginations
		Conclusion
		Endnotes
CONCLUSION: The Politics of the Poor: Agonistic Negotiations with Democracy
	Agonistics
	Heterogeneities
	Political spaces for poor people’s negotiations
	Epilogue
	Endnotes
Annexure 1: The Dramatis Personae, 2009–10
Annexure 2: The Census Survey
	The survey data
		Recruitment and training of investigators
		Survey coverage
		Data quality
		Data entry
		Scoring of surveyed households
		Household categories
Annexure 3: The Multidimensional Poverty Index
Annexure 4: Schedule for BPL Census 2002
Annexure 5: Schedule for BPL Census 2002 West Bengal
Annexure 6: BPL Cutoff List for West Bengal
Bibliography
Index