A01=Jeffrey Witsoe
asia
Author_Jeffrey Witsoe
bihar
caste
Category=JPHV
change
class
classism
colonial
colonialism
democratic
developing
developmental
eastern
economic
economy
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eq_isMigrated=1
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eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
finance
governance
government
groups
historical
history
identity
india
lower
modernity
patronage
political
politics
postcolonial
progress
society
southeast
state
superpower
system
territory
theoretical
theories
upper
wealth
Product details
- ISBN 9780226063478
- Weight: 397g
- Dimensions: 16 x 23mm
- Publication Date: 05 Nov 2013
- Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Hidden behind the much-touted success story of India's emergence as an economic superpower is another, far more complex narrative of the nation's recent history, one in which economic development is frequently countered by profoundly unsettling, and often violent, political movements. In Democracy against Development, Jeffrey Witsoe investigates this counternarrative, uncovering an antagonistic relationship between recent democratic mobilization and development-oriented governance in India. Witsoe looks at the history of colonialism in India and its role in both shaping modern caste identities and linking locally powerful caste groups to state institutions, which has effectively created a postcolonial patronage state. He then looks at the rise of lower-caste politics in one of India's poorest and most populous states, Bihar, showing how this increase in democratic participation has radically threatened the patronage state by systematically weakening its institutions and disrupting its development projects.
By depicting democracy and development as they truly are in India - in tension - Witsoe reveals crucial new empirical and theoretical insights about the long-term trajectory of democratization in the larger postcolonial world.
Jeffrey Witsoe is assistant professor of anthropology at Union College in Schenectady, NY.
