Grassroots Democracy and Governance in India: Understanding Power, Sociality and Trust

189 Pages·2022·2.555 MB·English

by  Amiya Kumar Das

Amiya Kumar Das
Grassroots
Democracy and
Governance in
India
Understanding Power, Sociality and
Trust
Grassroots Democracy and Governance in India
Amiya Kumar Das
Grassroots Democracy
and Governance in India
Understanding Power, Sociality and Trust
Amiya Kumar Das
Department of Sociology
Tezpur University
Tezpur, Assam, India
ISBN 978-981-19-5109-1 ISBN 978-981-19-5110-7 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-5110-7
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of
the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation,
broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information
storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication
does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant
protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book
are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or
the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any
errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional
claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721,
Singapore
Acknowledgements
This book would not have been possible without the support and efforts of many
individuals. I would like to offer my gratitude to Prof. Chandan Kumar Sharma for
guiding me throughout this study. He devoted his time with an extra effort to go
through my arguments in every possible way. I thank him for his time, patience and
immense generosity and encouragement during the study.
For their feedback on my study, inspiring words and encouragement, I
sincerely thank Profs. M. N. Karna, C. S. Bhat, V. Xaxa, B. K. Danta, Avijit
Pathak, Joydeep Baruah, Bhupen Sarmah, Ashok Kumar Kaul, Shashi Bhusan Singh,
Kedilezo Kikhi, Sadan Jha and Rabin Deka. I express my gratitude to Prof. M. K.
Choudhuri, the former Vice-Chancellor of Tezpur University, for providing neces-
sary support to conduct this study. I must thank Jagritee, Piyashi, Kuntala, Prarthana,
Dola, Antora and all others who helped me in their own special ways in completing
this study. I thank my students Partha, Prafulla and Ransaigra for their support who
are now teaching in different universities. I have benefited from the discussions and
comments from my friends Bodhi, Camila, Anna, Abel, Devnath, Yugank and Salah.
I would like to offer my appreciation to Profs. Akio Tanabe, David Swartz, Jan
Nederveen Pieterse, Patrick Heller, Peter Evans, Nitsan Chorev and Andrew Schrank
for helping me in developing some of the arguments and providing various refer-
ence materials for this work. I have immensely benefited from my research scholars
Mridusmita and Ahana in terms of their suggestions on the preliminary drafts. I am
also thankful to them for helping me in this endeavour.
I thank my friends and colleagues Sarmistha, Pami, Shim, Sumesh, Nirmali
and Subhadeepta from the Department of Sociology, Tezpur University, for their
support. I am much grateful to my friend Tathagatan who always enriches my under-
standing with his critical comments and suggestions. I acknowledge my thankfulness
to my friend Soumen, Ananya, Veda, Kamal, Suru Babu, Arun, Prabin Kabi, Sanjay
Da, Chintu Bhanja, Anupam, Uzma, Otojit, Jaffar, Baby, Pranta, Basanti, and Jyoti
for their inspiration and motivation. I also thank Babu (Jugal Deka) for helping me
in designing the maps of the villages. I owe my gratitude to Prof. Neshat Quaiser
and Dr. Rabindra Ray, who have always been the source of inspiration to me.
v
vi Acknowledgements
I am indebted to all those people who patiently and kindly responded to my
questions in their homes, workplaces or on the roadsides during the field study.
I would also like to thank various government officials and Panchayat members
in Sonitpur district for providing various significant information and documents
related to my study. I thank ICSSR-NERC for funding two minor research projects
on election studies in the Sonitpur district.
I acknowledge my gratitude to various libraries which I visited in connection with
my research, especially the Central Library, DU, Jawaharlal Nehru University and
Ratan Tata Library at Delhi School of Economics, Delhi. The online resources of
Tezpur University were also a very useful source of relevant literatures.
Finally, my family needs to be acknowledged for helping me with their emotional
support through various difficult phases during this work. I have received uncon-
ditional and great support from Sheetal and Atanu. I am grateful to Arun Bhai,
Akshaya, Atu, Anita Dei and other family members for their encouragement and
support. I would also like to express my gratitude towards Ms. Satvinder and Mr.
Ramesh Kumaran for their continuous support and patience during the process of
publication.
Contents
1 Sociology of Governance and the Grassroots Democracy ........... 1
1.1 Introduction .............................................. 1
1.2 Sociology of Governance: Power or Regulation ................ 2
1.3 Sociologically Locating the Study of Governance .............. 4
1.4 The Porous State and the Society: Between the Centralized
Consent and the Localized Perceptions ....................... 8
1.5 The Social Field and the Study .............................. 10
1.6 Locating the Area ......................................... 12
1.7 Napam ................................................... 14
2 Locating the State, Power and Governance in the Social Sphere ..... 21
2.1 Governance: Etymology and Concept ........................ 22
2.2 Forms of Governance ...................................... 26
2.3 Formal and Informal Governance ............................ 30
2.4 Governance and Social Structure ............................ 32
2.5 Governance and Embeddedness ............................. 34
2.6 Power, Sociality and Trust .................................. 35
2.7 Understanding Sociality .................................... 37
2.8 State and Society: A Porous Link ............................ 39
2.9 Governmentality and Governance ............................ 40
2.10 Structure, Agency and Governance ........................... 41
2.11 Knowledge, Governance and Failure ......................... 42
2.12 From Government to Governance ............................ 45
2.13 Governance Without Government ............................ 46
2.14 Culture Governance ....................................... 47
2.15 Discourses on Good Governance, Development and Civil
Society .................................................. 48
vii
viii Contents
3 Seeing Like a Citizen: People’s Everyday Engagement
with the State and Governance .................................. 53
3.1 Society, State and Governance ............................... 56
3.1.1 Precolonial Period ................................. 56
3.1.2 The Colonial Period ................................ 56
3.1.3 The Present-Day Assam and Governance .............. 59
3.1.4 Social Life of the Village ........................... 62
3.1.5 Village-Level Governance and Development ........... 63
3.1.6 Education ......................................... 64
3.1.7 Problems Affecting Education ....................... 67
3.1.8 Maintenance of Primary Education by Panchayat ....... 68
3.1.9 Health: Facility, Perception and Participation .......... 69
3.1.10 Availability of Medicine ............................ 72
3.1.11 Suggesting the Better Governance .................... 72
3.1.12 Employment ...................................... 76
3.1.13 Answer to Unemployment .......................... 79
3.1.14 Dispute Settlement ................................. 79
3.1.15 Need of the Village ................................ 80
3.1.16 Rural Development Programmes ..................... 80
3.1.17 Experiencing the Government Office ................. 81
3.1.18 Suggestions for Improvement in Governance ........... 82
3.1.19 Clientelism, Brokers and Local Politics ............... 83
3.1.20 Clientelism in the Political Arena .................... 84
3.1.21 Dalals: A Janus-Faced Character ..................... 86
4 Documenting the Body: Entitlements and Paper Citizenship ....... 89
4.1 Papers and Bureaucracy .................................... 89
4.2 Reified State in Modern Governance ......................... 90
4.3 Documents and Social Body ................................ 91
4.4 Documents, Paper and Citizenship ........................... 93
4.5 Colonial State and Paper Bureaucracy ........................ 95
4.6 Documents and Citizenship in Assam ........................ 99
4.7 ‘D’ Voter and the Issue of Citizenship ........................ 100
5 Rituals of the State: Enchanting Elections and Enacting
Citizenships ................................................... 105
5.1 Social Aspects of Elections ................................. 105
5.2 Electioneering in Assam .................................... 107
5.3 Ethnographic Observation of Election Campaigns .............. 108
5.3.1 The Parliamentary Elections ......................... 108
5.3.2 The Assembly Elections ............................ 113
5.3.3 The Panchayat Elections ............................ 119
Contents ix
5.4 When Ajmal Was Like a Tajmahal ........................... 120
5.5 Ethnography of the Polling Booth: On the Day of Polling ....... 124
5.5.1 Parliamentary Election ............................. 124
5.5.2 Assembly Election ................................. 127
5.5.3 Panchayat Election ................................. 128
5.6 Towards a Sociology of Electoral Politics/Elections ............ 131
5.7 Ritual, Performance and the Polls ............................ 131
5.8 Peoples Play and Dance of Democracy ....................... 132
5.9 Are Panchayat Elections More Important? .................... 132
5.10 Voting for Whom? ......................................... 133
6 Corporatization of the State in the Neoliberal Era ................. 135
6.1 Neoliberal Governmentality: Blurred Distinction Between
State and Market .......................................... 135
6.2 Neoliberal Governmentality ................................. 139
6.3 Neoliberalism in India: An Uncomfortable Trajectory ........... 142
6.4 Neoliberal Governmentality in the Context of India ............. 147
6.5 In the Name of Good Governance ............................ 148
7 State, Political Clientelism and Governance in India:
Concluding Observations ....................................... 155
7.1 Local Factors Influencing People’s Choice in Electoral
Politics .................................................. 158
7.1.1 Community Sentiment .............................. 159
7.1.2 Village Sentiment .................................. 159
7.2 Gender ................................................... 160
7.2.1 Class ............................................. 160
7.2.2 Qualities of the Contestants ......................... 160
7.2.3 Role of Media ..................................... 161
7.3 In Between Political Society and Moral Society: Political
Clientelism ............................................... 162
Bibliography ...................................................... 169
About the Author
Amiya Kumar Das is an associate professor at the Department of Sociology and
coordinator of the Centre for Public Policy and Governance at Tezpur University,
Assam. His research interests include Governance and Development, Sociology
of Health, and Illness. Some of his recent publications include Investigating
Developmentalism: Notions of Development in the Social Sphere (co-edited, 2019),
Neighbourhoods in Urban India: In Between Home and the City (co-edited, 2021),
Indigeneity, Citizenship and the State: Perspectives from India’s Northeast (co-
edited, 2021). He is also interested in sustainable farming and is a collaborator in
the Feeding City Lab project at the University of Toronto.
xi